As a young girl growing up in Israel, there were always certain things that tested Marisa Gobuty’s resiliency – like when security guards were posted on the hotel floor where her youth basketball team slept. Or when she’d have to turn her ‘Israel’ jersey inside out before going outdoors. Or when the team bus would be checked and rechecked before the girls could board.

‘In Israel, there’s an atmosphere that you have to just live your life,’ she says.

Which is why there was not so much shock on Dec. 28, when her parents called her to say Israel had attacked Gaza, only some feelings of helplessness and a quick shuffle to her computer, where she sent out countless emails to friends and acquaintances from home. Many were preparing for military deployment; some had Facebook statuses which already read ‘in Gaza.’

There was also the realization that if Gobuty was not a sophomore guard for the Syracuse women’s basketball team, she’d be over there fighting, too.

If basketball can get kids out of ghettos and slums, it can also get them out of the line of fire. So today Gobuty’s trigger finger is only aimed at a rim; her focus is on hoops, not Hamas.

It was a scholarship to Syracuse that permitted her deferment – or, rather, postponement, for she will still likely have to serve in the Israeli military once she graduates. (In Israel, every citizen is required by law to serve for two years.) The thing is, though, that Gobuty said even now she would gladly trade uniforms: Her love for her country and her support for Israel hasn’t been tempered by 5,000 miles, or the current crisis.

‘It’s something that means a lot to me and I’m very passionate about,’ Gobuty said. ‘It’s home, and if everybody else has to pay their dues, so do I.’

Instead, she’s here as a vocal supporter, an armchair witness and a college sophomore with a Blackberry never far from reach. She drifts to CNN.com or the Jerusalem Post Web site constantly, longing for updates, waiting for emailed responses from friends who haven’t answered. Since the day fighting broke out, the conflict hasn’t strayed far from her thoughts.

It’s a battle with split emotions, of course, because one hour she’s in the Carrier Dome shooting basketballs in practice, the next she’s in Schine Student Center sitting at a support table for Hillel. She was at last night’s game vs. Seton Hall and played 11 minutes, but perhaps her mind drifted off to the other side of the world, or the other side of town, where the Jewish Community Center was holding a rally at the same time.

She insists it hasn’t been a distraction – a heavy heart hasn’t weighed down her follow-through – and that basketball has in fact been somewhat therapeutic.

‘It puts everything into perspective more,’ Gobuty said. ‘It really makes me understand I have a great opportunity, and at the end of the day, I get to be on this court and play basketball every night and my friends are dealing with things that are a lot more serious – life or death situations.’

Israel is her home, Gobuty says, a statement that should not be taken lightly, considering she was born in Canada, lived in California, attended high school in Florida, and now goes to SU. But her family moved to Herzliya, Israel, when she was nine. She didn’t know Hebrew. She didn’t know anybody. She did know she wanted to go into the army. And play for the national basketball team.

In a few years she was the starting point guard for the Under-16 Israeli national team, Bnei Herzliya, with security guards detailing every trip and precautions taken before every step.

A week ago, an Israeli men’s basketball team, Bnei Hasharon, was forced to cancel a game in Turkey as a mass of protesters swarmed the court, prompting riot police to intervene.

‘That team plays five minutes from my house,’ Gobuty said.

So now she knows Hebrew, she knows countless Israelis, and she knows a little something about adversity, and a packed XL Center – where Syracuse will be playing when it travels to Connecticut on Saturday – won’t do much to make her sweat. Does crowd noise make the anxiousness go away?

Not when gunfire is the persistent ringing in her head. Not when the e-mail inbox still waits for responses from dear friends. Gobuty knows if she can’t help Israel physically, she can support it emotionally. She’s not afraid to wear her Star of David on her sleeve.

‘I’m out there, I’m pro-Israel, I’m Jewish, and I’m not shy about it,’ Gobuty said. ‘Sometimes it concerns me a little bit. But I think, after living in Israel, that’s not something that I really think about. …After everything they’ve been through, you don’t stop living your life. I think that’s the attitude I’ve developed.’

She has ‘Syracuse’ across her chest now, but there’s never been a doubt what team her heart belongs to. This summer she plans to play for the Israeli national team again: She’ll wear a uniform on a court, not a battlefield, with ‘Israel’ facing right side out.

Zach Schonbrun is the sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday. He can be reached at zsschonb@syr.edu.

Published on January 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm