Back to Realities as They Were

As I said, I started this blog not so much because of the American Consulate "mess up" as I wanted to have a place where I could write about Israel and today's realities in a straight manner. I love to write, I live to write. But I also understand that means matching the tone, the style, the contents, to the purpose of the document.


In my "other" life, I am a technical writer. We learn (and teach) that before you can write a document or tackle any project, you have to know certain facts. Two of these "primary" facts are: who is your audience and what are you writing.

I have a blog, A Soldier's Mother. The purpose of that blog is to show what it is like to be a soldier's mother. It sounded so simple when I started it and only later realized that it was a journey my son and I were taking. For him, it is a journey towards maturity; for me, it is a journey of accepting that our children's lives are often beyond our control and sometimes all we can do is watch it from the distance, worry and pray, and most of all have faith in God and in what we have instilled in them.

I started This is Israel to give others a glimpse at the country I love so much. Israel does so many amazing things with so little recognition and so the blog helps "document" many of these events. It is meant to give those who do not live here, a better and far more accurate image of my country than you will ever get in the media. It isn't "sexy" that Israel attempts to send humanitarian aid to Gaza while under fire from rockets launched by Hamas (in Gaza).

A Secure Place is where I feel free to write what I think - and so today, I think "anger." My country was hit by 14 rockets and 26 mortars over our weekend. In Israel, Friday night to Saturday night is our down time. It's the Jewish sabbath when many of us close our minds, our televisions, our computers, our malls. We withdraw into our families, our communities. It is especially hard when we know that our brothers and sisters in Sderot and those communities close to Gaza cannot enjoy this peaceful time with their families. We face hours where we can walk in the sunshine after a week working indoors. We stand outside and speak with friends and neighbors without worrying about the clock and deadlines. Today in Sderot, it is likely that the people didn't stand outside calmly, that when they walked outdoors, they did so with determination to be close to a place where they could take shelter if they needed it.

You have to understand what a kassem missile is - it is, by its design, a terrorist weapon. You can't aim it - you simply point it in some direction and shoot it. The weapon tells much about the people who fire it - they don't care who they hit, what damage they do. Their glory is in the terror it causes as much as in the outcome of what it hits. Their victory is calculated first and foremost in the 15 seconds that thousands of people have to scramble to what they hope will be safety. Even before the rocket slams into the ground, the building, the house, the school, those who fired it already have a victory of sorts.

The rocket is launched and, if we are lucky, Israel's advanced warning system kicks in and announces an incoming rocket, expected to hit...somewhere in the area...in about 15 seconds. You hear the warning - Code Red - and you run for your life. You have 15 seconds. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, it is likely that those 15 seconds have passed. How far can you run in the time it takes you to read a mere three sentences because as you approach these words, time is up. Are you in a safe place?

There is no secure place in Sderot today, no secure place for tens of thousands of Israelis who wanted to enjoy a peaceful day off from work. That was the reality several months ago; that is the reality once again.

Three years ago, our government chose to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and destroy 30 years of work, more than a dozen communities, home to 9000 people, and jobs for more 20,000 Palestinians who entered these communities and worked in the beautiful towns that the Israelis had built there, in the green houses that produced some of the best organic vegetables sold in Israel and abroad, the sweet zoo where Shauli the camel lived, the pizza place, the cemetery where loved ones were buried, the parks, the synagogues.

When the government's plan was announced, many protested against such a unilateral action. What sense did it make to destroy the lives of our citizens when the Palestinian leadership showed no interest in peace? This was ignored. What logic was there in uprooting people who had lived in these places for 30 years in return for nothing? This too was ignored.

Do you realize, so many said to the government, that if you evacuate these communities, expel these people, destroy what they have built, these places will become launching grounds for more rockets and missiles? Sderot and Ashkelon will burn; tens of thousands of Israelis will be further endangered? This too was ignored.

I argued then with a friend who was so happy to see Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan implemented. After we do this, he told me, God help them if they try to shower us with rockets.

Why, what's the difference I asked him?

Because then we will have the right to go in and flatten Gaza, if they dare, he answered. Our government won't have the nerve, I answered then.

It's been three years. This week, we passed the 10,000 mark! More than 10,000 rockets have been fired at Israel. My friend recently told me that he was wrong. The plan had been wrong; the way we treated those we evacuated, those whose houses and communities we had destroyed.

The plan was wrong - but the outcome was exactly as expected. Today, 14 rockets and 26 mortars were fired at Israel. Today, our citizens did not live in a secure place and tomorrow when they awaken and think of sending their children to school....tomorrow too, they will think about the 15 seconds that may change their lives forever.