CLEVELAND — Watching the situation closely in the Middle East are those in Northeast Ohio with close ties to the region, like Rami Feinstein.
"These are terrorists, this is our 9/11,” said Feinstein, who moved to Akron last year from Israel with his family to serve as the Israeli Emissary for Jewish Akron. His family who is still back home is safe; he cannot say that for all of his friends.
"Everybody in Israel knows somebody that has been either murdered or kidnapped or in the hospital," he said.
Like everyone, he says he's disgusted by what he's seen unfold since Saturday, and he says no matter where you fit in the political spectrum, all Americans should be as well.
“If you're are a liberal, if you are for human rights, if you are a human being caring about other human beings you should be supporting Israel right now. No hesitation, no 'but,' no 'it's complicated,' supporting Israel — there is one side,” he said.
Steve Sosebee of Kent, though, says there's more to that other side. He is the President and Founder of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, which for more than 30 years has provided humanitarian medical relief to children in the Middle East.
“We have two American doctors currently in the Gaza Strip who are trying to get out,” said Sosebee. “They were there on humanitarian missions, a pediatrician and a prosthetic orthotic specialist. Both of them are safe currently as much as one can be safe in Gaza. We're trying to coordinate their passage out through Egypt, and hopefully we'll be able to do that soon.”
They are there helping children, and that's where his concerns lie.
“Gaza's 50% children. Half the population of Gaza, 2.1 million people, they are caught in the middle of this," Sosebee said. "They are not politicians, they are not adults to make decisions. They were born into this area and they are the ones who are suffering.”
Sosebee hopes this can be resolved politically, but Feinstein doesn't see how that's possible.
“If you understand what really, really happened here this thing cannot end peacefully tomorrow. Israel has to retaliate, Israel has to defend itself, Israel has to make sure that this does not happen again," he said.
