Auckland accountant Mitch Kora felt compelled to head to Israel shortly after October 7. She spent a month there volunteering, and following that trip she shared her story with the One Community Chronicle. 

Now, she’s returning to Israel for another visit, and while there she’ll be contributing an article to the One Community Chronicle each week for the next six weeks on what she is seeing and discovering on her trip.

You went to Israel to volunteer shortly after October 7, what impact did that experience have on you? Can you share some observations from your first trip?

Nothing prepared me for Israel. I arrived knowing only the solemn vow of “never again” – words we say on behalf of the Jewish people, for those who passed and for the future. But I was not prepared for the collective love Israelis have for everyone, visitors and one another.  

Arabic signs appear everywhere alongside Hebrew, a reminder of the region’s layered complexity. Although I knew the Jewish people had been in the region for around 3500 years, and this would mean there would be major similarities between the two, especially in language, it still surprised me. 

I think sometimes common sense is missed. Hebrew and Aramatic are both close cousins from within the Semitic family of languages, and to me that really puts the colonialist narrative to bed.

The presence of the IDF soldiers was not what I imagined. Just everyday people – some pushing prams, others in mini skirts – with massive rifles slung over their shoulders and often, an almost apologetic look in their eyes. They understand the juxtaposition of daily life vs the jarring necessity. 

In New Zealand there is an abundance of media coverage about Israel’s use of weaponry, including US trading agreements and subsequent shipments of arms, and it seems everyone has an opinion.

However, after the experience of seeing Israel in real-time and now almost two years on, I remain surprised that no one talks about Israel’s air defense systems: Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow 2 & 3. Developed by Rafael, these technological miracles were built purely for defense. They can distinguish between threatening and non-threatening aerial objects with astonishing precision and without them, Israel would be obliterated. 

According to the FDD, over 19,000 unguided rockets have been fired at Israel since October 7, And 12,000 rockets were aimed directly at Israelis from 2008 to Oct 6 2023. That’s more than 31,000 rockets in 17 years. Yet again there is radio silence on this outside of Israel.

The real question isn’t why Israel has an Iron Dome, but why do other countries in the region not?  It seems to me the lack of destruction in Israel is often used as justification for vilifying Israel on social media.

While in Israel I volunteered at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. There, among the animals, I listened to hundreds of stories everyday. They were from displaced families from the north and south totaling over 300,000, families who were holed up in tiny hotel rooms with no timeframe or promise of when they could return home. Many women had been left to mind large families alone, with their husbands on the frontline. There were tears, but no one complained or presented as a victim.

What has prompted you to return to Israel? And what will your trip involve this time?  

It feels impossible to stay away. Walking down the street at night I felt enveloped in an all-encompassing warmth, like the night sky had come down to protect me. It’s unexplainable. The only answer for me is that G-d is truly protecting Israel, and it was from there that I started to ask the question, why? 

That prompted me to read the Torah, and I’m now a proud student of Rav Shlomo Zivan and his wife Devorah. They have invited me for Chag which will include building a Sukkah, attending the many shuls where Rav Zivan gives derasha/shiurs and being able to learn in person. In between that and catching up with the friends and organisations I have kept in contact with, I’ll also be working on this series of stories for One Community Chronicle.

Are there any further comments that you would like to make?    

I can’t help but think about New Zealand and how Māori and European families have, for the most part, integrated. The contrast with the Middle East is stark. Religion will always draw lines, but what saddened me walking through Israel, talking to everyone and anyone, was this: the broader hostility toward Jews seems far more widespread than the other way around. 

It was a stark contrast to a fleeting thought I had on the plane ride over that perhaps Israel was full of racists. Well, that was not what I found. Israeli Arabs make up around 30% of the population. They’re doctors, lawyers, judges and throughout parliament. They are not required to serve in the IDF because Israel understands it would mean “fighting their brothers” – and yet many still do. It’s complex. 

What isn’t complex is that Israel is surrounded on all sides: Hezbollah in the North, Hamas in the South West and Houthis directly South – all designated terror organisations, proxies from the long arm of Iran, positoned.

There’s an almost naive lack of understanding in the west, especially those protesting against Israel, armed with a few hours of Google and a keffiyeh. Inundated with material from a clever social media war waged against Israel, who is losing miserably in that space, the empathetic West don’t just believe, they know everyone is just like them. 

But they are not by any stretch of the imagination. We have, in the words of Douglas Murray, “become fat and lazy in our presumptions and expectations”. Sadly, these naive or careless views are at best irresponsible and at worst dangerous and the truth about Israel will be retrospective, just like the Holocaust.