Imagine, for a moment, you live on a kibbutz in Israel along the border with Gaza within eyesight of the fence separating your home and family, including your three young children, from Gaza.

Imagine you awake one morning and look out your kitchen window and see thousands of people on the Gaza side of the fence shouting, screaming, throwing rocks and working fervently to cut through, pull down and destroy the fence that separates you from this mob.

Imagine you look at these people and remember the rockets fired from Gaza at your home and family.

You remember the underground tunnels running from Gaza to within a few hundred yards of your home

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You remember the Charter of Hamas, the organization ruling Gaza, calling outright for the eradication of Israel and the murder of Jews.

You remember the use of tunnels by Hamas to capture and imprison Gilad Shalit.

You remember the recent knife attacks by Palestinian terrorists.

You remember the lynching and mutilation of 2 Israeli soldiers in Ramallah by a Palestinian mob.

You see the burning kites and balloons flown by Gaza residents toward your home.

You see the burning tires and thick black smoke on the Gaza side of the fence.

You see the swastika flags being flown by Gaza residents on the border.

These scenes are not hypothetical but real life occurrences that are happening now – in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Kibbutz Kfar Aza and other Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

I have been in these communities.  I have looked out from these communities toward Gaza and viewed the border fence.  I have descended into a Hamas tunnel.  I have heard the sirens warning of incoming rockets and know the panic to find shelter quickly.

For me, these are real images that cause me to shudder to think what would happen if the Gaza mob broke through the fence and stormed the Israeli homes and communities.

If I was in one of these communities today, I would expect my government to do what is necessary to keep me, my family, my neighbors and my community safe and secure. And that is exactly what Israel is doing and must do.  

If the Gazans want to protest, go ahead but do so without violence and destruction.  If the Gazans want a better life (for which they are entitled), protest Hamas for buying rockets and other weapons and for building a massive matrix of concrete-lined terror tunnels instead of using the same monies to improve the lifestyle and provide jobs for Gazans.

Yet, certain segments of the U.S. media and certain U.S. groups portray the events along the Gaza border as peaceful, non-violent protests, which is a lie.

Groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, J Street, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Mondoweiss and others openly decry the defensive actions of the Israeli army, with calls for international castigation of Israel for taking the most minimalist responses to the Gaza horde actively attempting to penetrate the fence.

It is beyond my comprehension as to the position of these U.S. groups. Do these groups really believe the Gazans are protesting peacefully and intend no harm?  If so, why are the Gazans attempting to breach the fence?  Are they looking for work in Israel?  Are they looking to break bread with Israelis?  Are they looking to make new friends?  Or, are they looking to terrorize and destroy?  The obvious answer is terrorize and destroy.

In St. Louis last year, I encountered Jewish Voice for Peace, which posted on their Facebook page a piece calling me out by name for defending “the racist structure and human rights abuses of the state of Israel…” and actively working “to criminalize the BDS movement as part of a national campaign of repression…”

I have encountered in Dallas the founder of SJP who, among other statements, fervently supports BDS and proclaimed that the Palestinians are descendants of the Canaanites and the Jews are mere passer-bys in Israel.

I attended a symposium in Dallas of the Council of American Islamic Relations, which preached that Zionists were taking over the U.S. government and Israel Defense Forces soldiers were throwing Palestinian babies out the windows of Palestinian homes in Hebron.

In a reference to the violence on the Gaza border, J Street recently endorsed the statement “short of a threat to human life, we call on the [IDF] to immediately stop using deadly force against unarmed protestors.”  

I wonder what organizations like J Street, ensconced in their U.S. homes and offices, would recommend to the IDF – take no action until the horde breaches the fence, and then what should be done to stop the angry, violent mob from racing across the open farmland toward the Israeli communities.  

The “peaceful protesters” have tried wars, suicide vests, rockets, knives, guns, tunnels, and more.  All have failed to defeat the Israelis.  So now they are using the commodity most available to them – human shields composed of children and women.  This too will fail, but unfortunately not before more lives are lost.  There is a solution for Gazans and the people of Israel to live peaceably next to each other if the Palestinians would only take it.

Charles D. Pulman is an attorney in Dallas who is founder and president of “Why Israel Matters, Inc.,” a nonprofit devoted to educating the public on the accomplishments and innovations that have originated in Israel.