Transcript of American-Israeli solider returns to U.S after fighting in Israel

When I was overseas in Israel, I met Shai Bernstein. He's a father and a husband who is living in New York. When he heard about the terror attack in Israel at his family's Shabbat services at a synagogue, Shai, who was a dual citizen and had already served his time in the israeli military, told me back in October that he felt the immediate need to leave New York and fight for his home and his heritage. Shai returned back from serving in Israel, and tonight he joins top story here in studio shy. We thank you for being here. I guess my first question where I want to start is we saw the world witness that terror attack in Israel that was so horrific. Since then, almost 100 days of war. Gaza has been devastated, so many lives lost. You fought in this war. How strange is it to be back?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me, Tom. It's good to see you. I think for me, being born in New York and moving my family to Israel when I was a baby growing up in Israel but still loving Dave Matthews band and watching the NFL, even though the giants aren't doing great, it's always that dual citizenship aspect. And I think coming back here, I feel at home in many ways, and at Israel, I feel at home, of course, in many ways. The dissonance is, of course, very difficult because we're at war and it's still going on. And when I left my wife and kids, it was very clear to me that there was no other choice and that I had to go. And even throughout the whole time there, it was extremely unfortunate. We lost friends and soldiers, a lot of my friends wounded. We unfortunately experienced quite a few incidents, was an rpg that hit my team, and out of six, three were injured. It's crazy to think about it, especially when all this happened in an Unra school. Right? So you're walking in a school and you're searching because we have intel that there's a Hamas stronghold over there.

So you're inside of Gaza and you're searching a school.

Correct. Inside Gaza. And sure enough, we find the Hamas stronghold and we find mortar shells and bombs and missiles and Kalachnikov automatic rifles and maps and laptops and a lot of intel that we were able to retrieve to learn more about where they put booby traps and information about the hostages and so on. And an hour after that rpg hit, and it's a miracle that I'm standing here with you, to be honest, very easily. I could have been one of those pictures and you could have said, gosh, I met him in October and I was just behind the wall. One of my friends got hit. And after we came to aid them and working with the doctors to get them evacuated, an hour later, we lost another soldier was hit by a sniper. And it's horrific to see all this happening in an Unga school. And we have footage of everything. Right? You see it. There's, like a playground, very similar to what my kids have in their school.

When you say viewers at home know from the United nations.

Correct? From the United nations, yes. And we've seen this in many other Unwa schools and un facilities that had the same thing. And unfortunately, we know this from Hamas. Right? We had almost every hospital had tunnels. We specifically went to one hospital and found there a tunnel. We had intel that hostages were kept there, and by the time we got there, they weren't there anymore. But I got to say, that was a very difficult day. I remember looking at a hospital. My wife's a doctor, just seeing medications, seeing a Minnie Mouse poster on the wall. You could see it's like a kids clinic, and you have the munitions and you have this shaft of the. And, you know, the hospital is supposed to help people get better, and they're using know for terrorist activities inside of Gaza.

The fighting in Gaza, the places where, you know, your exchange of gunfire. Did you see civilians? Were there civilians still out there? Were there Hamas fighters, terrorists using the civilians as shields? What did you witness with your own eyes?

So, in this specific case in our area, there weren't any civilians.

It's northern Gaza.

Northern Gaza. Bitchanon. Correct. And what I have seen in my active duty, I served between 2003 and 2007, and there I saw multiple times them using civilians as human shields. And what we did see now multiple times was not only using in hospitals, but also all the rest of the homes. Every other house has an rpg, Hamas flags using mosques. I lost a friend of mine about 200 yards away from me from a different unit. He was in a mosque that was booby trapped. The guy's medical school. He has five kids.

What was Gaza like? What it looked like to you, to your eyes?

Well, I think I have an interesting perspective about Gaza because I served before, during, and after the disengagement from Gaza, as people may know. Right. In 2005, Israel pulled out all israeli civilians in an attempt to make peace and bring peace in the region. Unfortunately, Hamas, it's like urban planning for terrorism. They built a whole area that is just completely used for terrorism. The tunnels are longer than the New York City subway. You think about all the resources, and by the way aid that keeps coming in and that has been coming in all these years, and Hamas just takes everything.

As you may know, South Africa has filed with the UN genocide charges against Israel. We have covered both sides of this war. Obviously, the terrorist attack. And this is something you and I have had long conversations about, and the response from Israel in Gaza as well. Gaza is completely destroyed. We've seen the images. It's a hellscape. Has Israel gone too far? Or do you think Israel's response can be justified? And I ask, and I understand all of the innocent Israelis that did not start this, that were killed in this terrorist attack, but a lot of palestinian civilians have died as well. You fought in this war, and I know you have a much different perspective because you were there fighting, defending your homeland. What do you say to countries like South Africa and to others who have been critical of Israel's response?

Right. So, first of all, a small correction. Not all of Gaza is destroyed. What we see in the news is the destruction. No doubt, Israel has been bombing heavily, rightfully so, and for a simple reason.

Pretty much every section of the north, the south, has been bombed.

Okay. Yeah. So the idea of. I feel there's one fundamental fact that many of us miss out on, and that is that Israel targets terrorists and Hamas targets civilians, full stop. And it's twofold civilians, because it's not only the more than 1200 israeli civilians that were murdered and murtured and raped, it's the palestinian civilians. And the fact that they keep using hospitals and using schools and using these civilians, not allowing them to evacuate Israel notifies them that we're going to attack and they evacuate. Who does that in a war? Israel does. Knowing that Hamas now is going to hide. Right. And what keeps on happening? This is where they use the civilians as human shields. And what I would also say is to South Africa and to other countries and people who feel that they need to criticize Israel. Let's just imagine for a minute, Coachella music concert in three months, and, God forbid, jeeps with terrorists coming in and shooting all over the place, kids who are having fun, people who are dancing in the music festival and raping women and burning children, amputating and then kidnapping more than 240 of them. Right. Till this day, we're almost 100 days in, and there are over, I think it's 136 hostages.

And so my question is, what would South Africa do? What would the american government do? What would any european country do?

How do you think this slows down, maybe comes to an end? Do you think we're going to see that.

I think that now we're shifting into a different stage of Gaza where it will be more surgical. But at the end of the day, Israel in a constant state of war. We have Khizwala up north that from October 7 has been firing. And I think people are quite privileged and don't understand that Israel is fighting for its life. And yes, Israel is a relatively strong country, but since when is that the metrics for good and evil? And Israel isn't perfect. Okay. Neither is America or Canada or South Africa. But something very clear that I feel like a lot of know misunderstand is that Israel always targets terrorists and Hamas targets civilians. And that's a very big difference.

I do want to ask you, if you were called to go back, will you go back? Do you think you're going to go back?

So the answer is yes, I would go. Of course, I have to speak to my wife and my work. My wife's the real hero, by the way. But if they need me, I'll have to go back. Yeah. Okay. Shai Bernstein, we thank you so much.

For joining top story and sharing as much as you did.

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