In Israel, life is certainly never simple.

As you count to 15, think about the responsibilities you have in your life, to children, your spouse, friends, family and even to your pets. Imagine hearing the rocking blare of a siren knowing you have only 15 short seconds to take life-saving cover. All of your loved ones, their future, your business — all of your responsibilities flashing before your eyes while you have to find the strength of self-preservation to seek immediate shelter.

Where is your wife? Your husband? Your children? Your frail parents? Imagine tucking your children into bed with the constant worry whether they will have time to reach a safe place when the rockets land again, or rushing through your bath or shower so you have time to secure your family before the unthinkable happens with only 15 seconds of notice.

Imagine all of the things we take for granted that could affect your ability to save yourself or your loved ones. What if your iPod is too loud to hear the siren or if you are not feeling well and take sleep medication and are too drowsy to get to a safe place? What if you are driving on a road and need to constantly be mindful of being 15 seconds from a bomb shelter as you look toward the skies in fear of the rain of rocket fire that threatens at every moment?

Imagine the mother sitting at home while her children are at school— praying her 6-year-old child on the playground doesn’t stray an extra 10 feet away from a shelter that can mean life while living in the face of death. Or imagine the stress and fear of a school teacher who not only has the responsibility to teach her students but also to protect 25 young children and herself as she rushes them to safety.

While you think about these paralyzing scenarios, those 15-second increments have become a 24-hour job for Israeli citizens. Children are growing up in constant fear of going to the bathroom, of going to school, of sleeping in a room without their parents, of playing outside.

What kind of world is this?

Sadly, it’s a world that more than 250,000 Israeli citizens occupy. In 2008 alone there were more than 3,200 Hamas-launched rockets that landed in Israel, rockets that have continued to reach farther and farther into Israeli territory, now reaching one of Israel’s largest port cities, Ashkelon.

Now you know what 15 seconds feels like in the lives of many Israelis. Don’t just think about it once; think about it 10 times a day or more.

Try to imagine life for the citizens of Sderot then ask the question: If this happened in the U.S., what would my government do to protect me? Since the latest Israeli offensive into Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, Israel has been attacked with anti-Semitic rhetoric from around the world for what, in essence, is its right — to protect its citizens. I guarantee that a U.S. response to such barbarous and unprovoked attacks would be no different, if not even stronger and more swift than Israel’s.

I understand the opposition. Many will ask, “What about the mother in Gaza who is trying to protect her family from Israeli planes and the Palestinian child afraid to go to school?” But this question reaches deep into the main irony of the situation: If an Israeli mother did not have to live her life in 15 second increments to protect her children, then neither would the mother in Gaza.

In the end, both Israeli and Palestinian mothers have a lot in common.

For both, they live their lives in small increments of frozen time trying to protect their loved ones who, in the end, are both plagued by the same problem — Hamas.

Joshua A. Kaplan

2008 MSU alumnus and Legacy Heritage Fellow in the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies