tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313278712024-03-15T17:44:37.729+02:00Letters from IsraelPrincesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.comBlogger403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-87770425588358638192024-03-14T15:18:00.003+02:002024-03-14T15:20:09.244+02:00Superhero lullaby This is the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/707368639/videos/370557475884346" target="_blank">song</a> we have on repeat in our home at the moment. I'm sure many of you have already seen it. Due to the war our town has decided to cancel the annual Purim parade. Instead our younger children's school is having its own mini-Purim event and their class have decided that they want to perform this song as a thank you to all the school staff and families (including the headmaster himself) who dropped everything on October 7 and went off to reserve army duty to quite literally defend their homes and families. <br /><br />For our young kids this song is their lived reality. These "superheroes" are their teachers, their friends' parents and siblings, school staff and neighbours. <br /><br />Their school has taken in Israeli children from the north and the Gaza border who've been made refugees in their own country. They've heard first hand from these children about what it's like to live on the border with Lebanon in recent months under Hizballah bombardment, what it was like to be a child in Sderot or a nearby moshav on October 7 hiding with family in a shelter, praying the roaming Hamas gunmen wouldn't find them. <br /><br />And they understand the response of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Israelis who left their regular lives as bus drivers, teachers, restaurant owners and lawyers, threw on a uniform and went off to defend all of us. They ask to watch this video over and over again because it is a great reassuring comfort to them, to know that we have a "people's army" of the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and neighbours and teachers who have gone out to protect them, people who are doers and helpers, people who are doing all they can to keep them and all the children of Israel safe. <br /><br />I know there are those who say "see, all Israelis are soldiers, you all deserve to die!" (yes, that is a quote from a "friend" who was at university with me) If you don't believe we have the right as a people to defend ourselves then I guess that might be the way you view this song. <br /><br />If on the other hand you believe that Israelis and Jews have the right to self-defense against murderous terrorists who make no pretense of their desire to annihilate us and wipe our country off the map, then this song is one of reassurance. In some countries they sing lullabies and tell children stories about imaginary monsters and things that go bump in the night. Our children know that there are real monsters right on our borders and that sometimes the thing that goes bump in the night is real too. This song and the real life heroes it is about is the comforting lullaby for all Israel's children that there are flesh and blood superheroes out there every day protecting them. Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-54368650311783944912024-03-06T16:43:00.001+02:002024-03-06T16:51:00.209+02:00Alive!!!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY2YLBA0Z0f5RWx5LB1y6Nn2GddKy3OgJlBspXKQJ8FZH46Y-4pJNv6CGE1WHBk_-SRdP0-Da7mYAneaj5fDsVqRgp8KAFA3wLBDDMuOHgU9CJkby03OX7hmTT1Z68Idh71g7I8OO9Y22BMV1rE46L5uixpUUpvGmeRnDrQOcmdt7v_zQmp2yTrw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="220" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY2YLBA0Z0f5RWx5LB1y6Nn2GddKy3OgJlBspXKQJ8FZH46Y-4pJNv6CGE1WHBk_-SRdP0-Da7mYAneaj5fDsVqRgp8KAFA3wLBDDMuOHgU9CJkby03OX7hmTT1Z68Idh71g7I8OO9Y22BMV1rE46L5uixpUUpvGmeRnDrQOcmdt7v_zQmp2yTrw" width="238" /></a></div><br /><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
If any Israeli <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhCiVirqWw" target="_blank">song</a> is due for revival in our difficult times, it’s this one.</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-8c787bfb-7fff-cc65-4f45-14c222e96a5b"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This is Ofra Haza performing "Hai" (Alive) and winning Israel's nomination for the 1983 Eurovision song contest held that year in Munich, Germany. </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">She went on to be first runner-up at that year's Eurovision competition, and the song has ever since been an Israeli and Jewish anthem of hope, survival and resilience. </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Eurovision competition was held that year in Munich, Germany, a location fraught with painful associations for Jews and Israelis, from its central role in Nazi era Germany to the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli athletes by the Palestinian Black September terror organisation when the city hosted the Olympic games. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In 1983 First Lebanon War was raging, as after years of constant rocket attacks and terror assaults launched into northern Israel by Yasser Arafat's PLO in southern Lebanon, Israel tried to restore security to the residents of northern Israel, whose children were growing up spending as much time in communal bomb shelters as their own homes. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Meanwhile, the Cold War was also still in play. In the Soviet Union, growing numbers of Jews risked everything to live as cultural and religious Jews, fighting for the right to learn and speak Hebrew, the right to observe their Jewish faith, and most of all the right to emigrate to the Jewish homeland in Israel.</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Many of these brave Jewish activists in the totalitarian Soviet Union were at the time sitting in prisons in Soviet cities and the infamous Siberian prison camps. Others had been fired from their jobs and labeled "parasites" for not working, a designation that often led to arrest. Soviet Jewry's struggle was alluded to in Ofra Haza's fierce celebration of Jewish life and survival, especially the line: "my sons seeking to return home".</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Here are the deeply symbolic lyrics Ofra Haza sang (my translation):</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Hear, my brothers,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I'm still alive!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And my two eyes are still raised towards the light</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’ve many thorns</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yet many flowers</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And ahead of me too many years to count</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I ask,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And I pray:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's good that we have not yet lost our hope</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A hymn passes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Through generations</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Like a spring that flows eternal</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Alive, alive, alive</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yes I'm still alive</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That's the song my grandfather</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sang yesterday to my father</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And today I’m still </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I'm still alive, alive, alive</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The nation of Israel is alive </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That's the song my grandfather</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sang yesterday to my father</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And today I’m still</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My days are busy (alive, alive)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As are my nights (alive, alive)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And in my skies the pillar of fire still rises</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I'll always sing: alive, alive!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And I'll reach out: alive, alive!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To my friends from over the seas </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I ask...</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Alive, alive...</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Listen my brothers,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I'm still alive!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And my two eyes are still raised towards the light </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So welcome</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To all my guests</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And to my sons seeking to return home</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I ask...</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Alive, alive...</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Alive! I'm still alive, alive, alive!!!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">שמעו אחי,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני עוד חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">רבים חוחי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אך גם פרחי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ולפני שנים רבות מספור.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני שואל</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ומתפלל</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">טוב שלא אבדה עוד התקווה.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">עובר מזמור</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">מדור לדור,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">כמעיין מאז ועד עולם</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני שואל...</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">חי, חי, חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">כן, אני עוד חי.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">זה השיר שסבא</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">שר אתמול לאבא</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">והיום אני.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני עוד חי, חי, חי,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">עם ישראל חי.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">זה השיר שסבא</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">שר אתמול לאבא</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">והיום אני.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">הומים ימי חי חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ולילותי חי חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ובשמי עמוד האש עוד קם.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אשיר בלי די, חי חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אפרוש ידי חי חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">לידידי אשר מעבר ים.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני שואל...</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">חי, חי, חי...</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">שמעו אחי,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אני עוד חי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ושתי עיני עוד נישאות לאור.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">אז כה לחי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">לכל אורחי</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">ולבני המבקשים לחזור.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WaC55Oy0Y4">אני שואל...</a>
</span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-85834133035873866102024-03-03T23:35:00.001+02:002024-03-14T23:38:11.100+02:00Let my people come home! <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw5Ou9mAMV8d6JlzI9xFDYluZ237G9ojKeY8MDp5fuST2dKBnspDGGbj7rE-7n_lLKu9xtTFYbQz5Zueb3bfBPoVAdlZyBYuide1vtOoU8bD9r1z6pllkpoxheBkP3ivG9oUljFWIgRO2gsH88Dlc5BeavtTiLofsSoDWkAu5ZrGKn0TbXwXGYWA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="721" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw5Ou9mAMV8d6JlzI9xFDYluZ237G9ojKeY8MDp5fuST2dKBnspDGGbj7rE-7n_lLKu9xtTFYbQz5Zueb3bfBPoVAdlZyBYuide1vtOoU8bD9r1z6pllkpoxheBkP3ivG9oUljFWIgRO2gsH88Dlc5BeavtTiLofsSoDWkAu5ZrGKn0TbXwXGYWA" width="180" /></a></div><br />Watching all the back and forth diplomacy as though the 134 hostages are just balls in a ping pong game for Hamas and Qatar, and yes, the UN and the US and the EU and our supposed "allies" to play with. Tools to beat Israel with. Weapons of diplomacy to force Israel to choose in a sick trolley problem.<br /><br />Even if we don't personally know these 134 Israel hostages they are our people, our family. And we want them home now safe and well.<br /><br />And the message shouldn't be "bring them home", like if only Israel wanted it enough it could happen. Their freedom is a choice of the bad guys who invaded our country and kidnapped our people and are holding them hostage. The message has to be "Let my people go!!" - Hamas and co who kidnapped them have to release them, let them go, no terms. <br /><br />Hamas are criminals who kidnapped children, women and men, young and old, and carried them off to Gaza like chattel, paraded them in Gaza as booty, as spoils of war, as "things", just because they were Israeli. They poured over the Israeli border and stole vehicles and livestock - and people, living and dead.<br /><br />It is on Hamas to let the hostages go, and that is the message Hamas should be hearing from Qatar and Egypt and the US, the UN, the EU, the British and every nation in the world which considers itself a decent member of the family of nations. Not that our hostages are pawns to be toyed with. Not that Israel has to give and take. Not that Israel should be forced to choose between letting Hamas regroup to mount another October 7 or getting the hostages released. Let my people go. Now. </span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-57701745091918434542024-02-20T16:49:00.000+02:002024-03-07T16:50:07.727+02:00Give me shelter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKYvZOk1XJ8RvJpbfkZygJenVdtZN-PTdEZLiCCAEUAgbVfeZe8aUfkGxkwf0yQB8_OPS0z3nZ-1A44uZSLVn21kTY-fT_yYVRKlRdGtIGLfrbnQmzN9wNfHQk8VY0aYmn9KEqj8P_bTYFxWxRG0AOh9hDYU3XI1qU_47RE-pa5QLTrXsmZSGiQ/s2048/418724613_356558790572523_1191078103307919197_n%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKYvZOk1XJ8RvJpbfkZygJenVdtZN-PTdEZLiCCAEUAgbVfeZe8aUfkGxkwf0yQB8_OPS0z3nZ-1A44uZSLVn21kTY-fT_yYVRKlRdGtIGLfrbnQmzN9wNfHQk8VY0aYmn9KEqj8P_bTYFxWxRG0AOh9hDYU3XI1qU_47RE-pa5QLTrXsmZSGiQ/s320/418724613_356558790572523_1191078103307919197_n%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbt-iU93-4cUOrHJbia0CY34MpnV3rFX-guZ_-VIGF8q9RaqotntNvEsCD6GI94yQJvSEnui-jryfEoZvwg27vuEEczmSVzffZ4xotDZlSkMg3IYTZzGcqBNr2hjA0WeSmLvcreC_SkDwREC8rif-juRW-SULKyi3yBaQ69UvlLZQlq4SbITDKA/s2048/419360821_1560723131367943_4992419330560171132_n%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbt-iU93-4cUOrHJbia0CY34MpnV3rFX-guZ_-VIGF8q9RaqotntNvEsCD6GI94yQJvSEnui-jryfEoZvwg27vuEEczmSVzffZ4xotDZlSkMg3IYTZzGcqBNr2hjA0WeSmLvcreC_SkDwREC8rif-juRW-SULKyi3yBaQ69UvlLZQlq4SbITDKA/s320/419360821_1560723131367943_4992419330560171132_n%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br />On the face of it many Israelis have returned to some kind of regular routine despite the war situation, but we are a nation in trauma, PTSD nation in a way that many outsiders don't understand or don't even see. <br /><br />The Hamas attack on October 7th twisted so many things which should be safe in to things which are now dangerous. <br /><br />Like the way that the public shelters you see in many places in Israel, especially near the Gaza border, which should be symbols of safety, set up all over to protect from the threat of Gaza rockets, were turned in to death traps by Hamas on October 7th. <br /><br />As part of the Hamas invasion on that terrible Shabbat they fired massive numbers of rockets from Gaza in to Israel and people logically ran for cover to these public shelters, especially the hundreds and hundreds of people caught out in the open at the Nova dance festival.<br /><br />And then the terrorists came and threw grenades in to the shelters full of civilians sheltering from the rockets. And fired RPGs in to shelters full of civilians seeking safety from the rockets. And fired kalashnikovs and M16s in to the shelters full of civilians seeking sanctuary. From places of safety these open public shelters became death traps where Hamas murdered and maimed hundreds of people. <br /><br />Today for millions of Israelis these public shelters, many painted in cheerful colours or decorated with murals, are a symbol of the October 7th massacres. <br /><br />Drive down to the Gaza border area in the weeks and months after that horrific day and you'll still see these shelters lining the roadsides where Hamas terrorists rampaged. Many of the happy bright murals adorning the stark concrete are pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel. <br /><br />By the open entrances notices have been hung up indicating that this shelter has been cleared by Zaka, the volunteer organisation that ensures the respectful burial of the dead and any body parts or tissue left behind after a terror attack (or other disaster). Cryptic marking indicate whether and how many dead were found at this site. <br /><br />These open public rocket shelters are a constant reminder of what Hamas did to us, the cynical way they turned would should have been a sanctuary in to a death trap. <br /><br />Each time we walk by a shelter like this. Every time we pass one on the road. The sight of one outside a hospital or by a bus stop. <br /><br />They are a constant reminder of the evil atrocities Hamas perpetrated against our people that terrible day. <br /><br />Most of the time the shelters I see like this are (in local terms) are nowhere near the scenes of carnage in the Gaza border areas. In the first couple of months of the war many areas of central Israel were under daily rocket bombardment too. Open public shelters like these were set up near bus stops and public areas in towns like </span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br />A friend recently wrote about how during a visit to a local zoo with her grandchildren it started to rain. The children excitedly ran to what looked like an artificial cave but turned out to be a disguised rocket shelter. She couldn't bring herself to go in. Better to get drenched in the rain than revisit the nightmare of the public shelters of October 7th. <br /><br />Since that day there are many Israelis too traumatised by the shelter massacres to even take cover in one of these from rockets. A friend who's relatives were at the Nova festival tells me that she'd rather take her chances lying on the ground out in the open but able to run if need be than enclosed in the concrete of what was once a sanctuary but now a symbol of Hamas mass murder. </span></div>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-7666647265840914522024-02-10T15:52:00.080+02:002024-03-07T16:52:26.297+02:00שלח את עמי Let my people go<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzVCRlWBeXUq3oWnmln8a9vTbZhom9v2QPzk3NpGXFBK-3K3tPychrf4JX29SDpUbTwjJ2oCV5yFUz7-tlKV6Vy1DGOTTXrpTymqVPjY9B3EJRhvHR1FM9cT4e4XmWUauXeV2Tm1CAEoDAiTleyOc1zH57FENitg9MlwN0NJ6EWbB4nP1jK98ztQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="180" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzVCRlWBeXUq3oWnmln8a9vTbZhom9v2QPzk3NpGXFBK-3K3tPychrf4JX29SDpUbTwjJ2oCV5yFUz7-tlKV6Vy1DGOTTXrpTymqVPjY9B3EJRhvHR1FM9cT4e4XmWUauXeV2Tm1CAEoDAiTleyOc1zH57FENitg9MlwN0NJ6EWbB4nP1jK98ztQ" width="135" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I will never forget the day Prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky was freed. Our entire small primary school gathered in the big hall, crowding around a small television on a rickety trolley watching this moving event live as this great man of short stature walked to freedom.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />We all grew up with the struggle for Soviet Jewry an integral part of our lives. Our parents, family, rabbis and teachers travelled to the USSR to smuggle Jewish religious texts, vital medicines and clandestine tapes with recordings of Hebrew lessons. We wrote letters to Soviet Jewish children our ages and hoped that they would make it past the Soviet censors. <br /><br />On Shabbat and festivals, especially at the Pesah seder, our tables always had an empty chair or more, waiting for our brother and sisters trapped behind the Iron Curtain. We had special prayers for their freedom, that one day they would be able to join us. <br /><br />That day in February on the little tv screen we were watching the realisation of our dreams and our prayers, one of the greatest heroes of our generation walking to freedom, a walking embodiment of our hope that one day all the Jews stuck in the Soviet Union would also go free and fill the chairs waiting for them at our Shabbat tables. <br /><br />That day is engraved on my memory, a formative experience in my childhood. A real life struggle of Jews held captive by an evil tyrannical regime. With every yellow chair I see, every hostage poster, remind me of those hopes and prayers: LET MY PEOPLE GO! May we merit to welcome them home to freedom very very soon. </span><br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTgyA_v-3SLv_oBkU_sfIi_SjEA59woouSzdWHdotjEJIYbZIk3fopEHMV4M_RYxCl18abTn1KuAjRg6eaenLk-x4HPr9FXJ2dOSZcPNQObeTvv2F-mi-REiJ3S9daceErbLPHWlWBY1_afuukLmRF_gL_J4dfaM4Y-hitLtUfPbk9beEBL208w/s2048/406735096_254868920676977_6004600962864182147_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTgyA_v-3SLv_oBkU_sfIi_SjEA59woouSzdWHdotjEJIYbZIk3fopEHMV4M_RYxCl18abTn1KuAjRg6eaenLk-x4HPr9FXJ2dOSZcPNQObeTvv2F-mi-REiJ3S9daceErbLPHWlWBY1_afuukLmRF_gL_J4dfaM4Y-hitLtUfPbk9beEBL208w/s320/406735096_254868920676977_6004600962864182147_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOe9ioWsAEPrApB1As7P_fyjfH9pvjvB4o1IlZ3IrrhXBHR338v1jDLBUlq1P7xr_AmQScDFiNRtqCEMWojvM-OFlimDNSeQbBJQ8nxn-sOQ6i3IAH9Y2R3JyOe8MTSM_JRbSCcQD71U83x6p43FniMjbrsL9Z4F19xFdhuRzl_yx_lHBGgpY2A/s2048/403398492_215264424873431_2203142511374852400_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhOe9ioWsAEPrApB1As7P_fyjfH9pvjvB4o1IlZ3IrrhXBHR338v1jDLBUlq1P7xr_AmQScDFiNRtqCEMWojvM-OFlimDNSeQbBJQ8nxn-sOQ6i3IAH9Y2R3JyOe8MTSM_JRbSCcQD71U83x6p43FniMjbrsL9Z4F19xFdhuRzl_yx_lHBGgpY2A/s320/403398492_215264424873431_2203142511374852400_n.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br />תמיד אזכור את יום השחרור של אביך. אספו את כל בית הספר והצטופפנו באולם הגדול סביב לטלוויזיה הקטנה וכולנו ציפינו בלייב ברגע המרגש הזה. גדלנו לתוך המאבק למען יהודי ברית המועצות, עם הורים ומורים שהיו נוסעים לשם כדי להבריח ספרי קודש, תרופות חיוניות וקלטות ללימוד עברית, ובשבת ובליל הסדר תמיד היה כסא רק, מחכה לאחינו יהודי ברית המועצות והיו תפילות מיוחדות שיום אחד הם יצאו לחופשי ויצטרפו אלינו. והנה על הטלוויזיה רואים את אחד הגיבורים של דורנו יוצא לחופשי, התגשם חלום ותפילה, תקווה מהלכת שיום אחד כולם יצאו לחופשי למלא את הכסאות המחכים להם ליד שולחן החג. זה חרוט אצלי בזכרון לעד וכל כסא צהוב וכל פוסטר של חטוף מזכירים לי את אותה התקווה ותפילה: שלח את עמי!<p></p>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-14100351604331323842024-02-08T17:06:00.007+02:002024-02-08T17:06:49.902+02:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSAGtIq-RgwF7_fDU-qVTxWoahlu6PgZI9hZYEgG5LL7llYRIR_AXQb5pvAGyaQwhvsPs1IgnqYl4JjSG2bmrn-iUljsJErqqTCE9rxuWaKXgsy-puOT_6sd7N24IJHNKRV2SCp8pQzPXEOVjacnGWHOiLhc071YFspE7KCnDXcuZXkJZC_sSlow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="960" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjSAGtIq-RgwF7_fDU-qVTxWoahlu6PgZI9hZYEgG5LL7llYRIR_AXQb5pvAGyaQwhvsPs1IgnqYl4JjSG2bmrn-iUljsJErqqTCE9rxuWaKXgsy-puOT_6sd7N24IJHNKRV2SCp8pQzPXEOVjacnGWHOiLhc071YFspE7KCnDXcuZXkJZC_sSlow" width="320" /></a></div><br /> I was volunteering in a picturesque citrus orchard yesterday picking clementines with some friends, our attempt to help our country during wartime. Suddenly a mobile phone rang out. One of the women sat down on a plastic crate under the shade of a tree heavy with fruit and cheerfully answered her daughter's call. I stepped away to give her privacy but even from a distance I could see body language that told of bad news. Tragically we have all become too used to that in recent months. It was the news about the passing of Hanan Drori, a friend of her son-in-law. <br /><br />Three Israeli soldiers from the small town of Psagot who fell during the war: Amihai Witzan z"l and Moshe Yedidya Raziel z"l, were killed defending kibbutz Kerem Shalom during the Hamas invasion on October 7th, saving the kibbutz residents from being massacred like so many of their neighbours. <br /><br />Hanan Drori z"l died this week after he was seriously injured in northern Gaza during December. His wounds were infected with a virulent fungus, and despite attempting innovative new treatments doctors were unable to save him. <br /><br />Amihai was Yedidya's counselor in the Bnei Akiva youth group. Yedidya was Hanan's counselor. All three were counselors at the local Bnei Akiva group in Psagot. Three generations of brave Zionist leaders who fell in defence of Israel. May we be worthy of their sacrifice.Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-51463451334748965312024-02-05T18:37:00.000+02:002024-02-05T18:37:31.071+02:00<p>A few friends from overseas have said to me recently, why doesn't Israel just capitulate, free all the Hamas terrorists (and yes, they are terrrorists, people with gallons of Israeli blood on their hands from bombings, stabbings, shootings and more) and end that war in Gaza, enough already, it's just a tool for Netanyahu and his right wing government to stay in power. <br /><br />The thing is it isn't. If you're overseas maybe you've already forgotten October 7th and moved on. Here in Israel we haven't. <br /><br />This really isn't a left right issue, a religious secular issue, a liberal versus conservative issue or a moderate versus extreme issue. This is a mainstream across the board issue of a nation still deep in trauma from the massacre of October 7th. For us it isn't February, it is the 120th October and counting. We have not moved on. Our people are still hostages in the tunnels of Gaza. Thousands of Israelis from towns and villages in the Gaza border are still refugees in their own country. Hamas is still sitting pretty in Qatar acting as though it has the upper hand and gleefully reminding us that it's already working on the next October 7th style attacks. <br /><br />This is not about "revenge" on Hamas for October 7th. This is about making sure Hamas is dismantled so that it can never do it again. This is about Israel's survival and protecting Israeli lives. <br /><br />This war is a long way from being won and to see not just Israel's enemies but her supposed "friends" and "allies" trying to force a ceasefire before the goal of eliminating the Hamas war machine and infrastructure has been achieved is a sign that either they don't understand what is at stake for Israel or that they simply don't care, prepared to sacrifice yet more Israeli lives and possibly Israel itself for their own illusion of quiet. <br /><br />So the hostge deal and with it Hamas' outrageous demands are being pushed harder and harder on Israel. Release convicted blood thirsty Hamas terrorists serving multiple life sentences from Israel's jails, impose a ceasefire in Gaza, withdraw Israeli forces. <br /><br />There are a great many Israelis, including liberal, progressive Israelis, including families of hostages, including a great many soldiers and reservists, who are very worried about releasing Hamas terrorists in exchange for hostages, who are furious at the prospect of a deal which means a ceasefire, granting Hamas the reward they wanted for the atrocities of October 7th - the release of their murderous terrorists and their brutal regime intact to commit a rerun. <br /><br />I've been to shiva after shiva after shiva after shiva, where tearful parents and spouses entreat whomever will listen: let the IDF finish the job, don't give Hamas a victory, don't give them a reward for what the did on October 7th, don't let our family's sacrifice have been in vain, don't leave Gaza without destroying Hamas, without getting the murderers who planned and carried out October 7th, don't give Hamas the reward of releasing more murderers (including the Nukhba squads who carried out October 7th) to murder more Israelis.</p><div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":sw"><div aria-controls=":vv" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="גוף ההודעה" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":vv" class="Am aiL Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":ss" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: rtl; min-height: 298px;" tabindex="1"><div dir="ltr">Sinwar and a whole ton of Hamas nasties who've killed loads of Israelis were released during the Gilad Shalit deal and we are still paying a hugely bloody price for that, including October 7th. It was the same with the fallout from the Jibril deal (also thanks to a Likud govt), later in the aftermath of Rabin's attempt to solve the issue by exiling freed Hamas people to Lebanon (where they learned the fine art of suicide bombing). <br /><br />This is part of Hamas' psychological war against Israel. Do you pay any price to release the hostages knowing that in doing so you will be releasing unrepentant mass murderes who will kill again, meaning that you are paying for the release of the hostages with the blood of the Israelis who will be murdered by the released terrorists? Because over and over again we have seen what Hamas and similar prisoners will do when they are released. <br /><br />I don't know of anyone in Israel who does not want the hostages released safe and well. I know many who are opposed to this deal with Hamas. Not because they don't want the hostages home. Because they worry how many Israelis will be murdered and mutilated and yes, taken hostage, by the Hamas prisoners who will be released in such a deal. The Hamas list of demands includes some of the bloodiest and most murderous terrorists, responsible for multiple murders of Israeli civilians in recent decades. <br /><br />My heart breaks for the hostages, but how many Israelis will be murdered or kidnapped if they are released in exchange for hundreds or thousands of terrorists in Israeli jails? Who will pay the price of the terror attacks and intifadas that will unleash? <br /><br />The mitzva of pidyon shvuyim (redeeming captives/hostages) is a very important mitzva but the rabbis were very clear that when the price becomes so high that the community can't keep paying it, when the redeeming of hostages means that more and more will be taken hostage for ever greater ransom demands, then not only is one permitted not to pay the ransom, one is forbidden from doing so, because the price of freeing the current hostages will be that many more will be taken because the hostage takers will see that they can get whatever they want this way. We are facing just such a situation now. It is horrific, it is heartbreaking, it is an evil dilemma that I wouldn't wish on any government.</div></div></div>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-48452194562719433792024-01-26T16:35:00.000+02:002024-01-26T16:35:45.690+02:00Red South <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9m-pXRwv1vZlUdc0kMrRxW9k-IQrU7oHbVnQn-Slc3cOk6GHoRmmiavZGV46tgb4xvdlbdRPJjYpSINf-E86qxugVm8aTu5Z29tUApJ3-_yai9_FlLoXaBMv57_vvh93k861LCqIUdRntYDHiohi610aM-LYgRC9QEfS6uT_GP42aSO0Y3FK3Bg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi9m-pXRwv1vZlUdc0kMrRxW9k-IQrU7oHbVnQn-Slc3cOk6GHoRmmiavZGV46tgb4xvdlbdRPJjYpSINf-E86qxugVm8aTu5Z29tUApJ3-_yai9_FlLoXaBMv57_vvh93k861LCqIUdRntYDHiohi610aM-LYgRC9QEfS6uT_GP42aSO0Y3FK3Bg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is the Shokeda Forest in southern Israel during peak wildflower season in late January 2015. <br /><br />In a regular year this would be the season we'd head down to the Otef (Gaza border) region of Israel with our children to visit the beautiful profusion of red crown anemone flowers that bloom in vast meadows and Mediterranea woodland this time of year. <br /><br />Over the years this developed in to a festival celebrating the region's nature, agriculture and arts known as "Darom Adom" (red south), attracting thousands of visitors over a few winter weekends. We would always pick a midweek afternoon to take the children after school so that we could enjoy the flowers at a quieter time before the crowds came and on the way home we'd catch a light dinner in Netivot or Sderot or stop by the stunning Ora orchards in Kfar Maimon. <br /><br />When I heard the news on October 7 one of the first thoughts that went through my mind was "Darom Adom" and how now all I could think of was a very different "red south", one of blood, ashes and destruction rather than red and black anemone flowers. <br /><br />The flowers are blooming again in the October killing fields where Hamas terrorists butchered hundreds of Israelis in cold blood during their surprise invasion of Israel on that nightmarish Shabbat Simhat Torah. <br /><br />The winter rains are healing the land, wildflowers and trees covering up the wounded ground, growing around the burnt out homes and barns, the damaged trees. <br /><br />This winter though there are no day trippers in the Otef the only visitors to see the flowers are the soldiers and security forces stationed in the area, the few local residents who've returned to work their farms and other essential industries, the throngs of volunteers helping local agriculture and solidarity missions from around the world coming to bear witness to the atrocities of October 7th. <br /><br />This years' anemones are living memorials to the 1200 Iives so brutally cut down that day and to the many others wounded in body and soul, raped, mutilated and burned and the hundreds kidnapped to Gaza to months of horrific captivity, may the 136 still held hostage be set free to come home safely and soon. Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-51958139063751672762024-01-26T15:30:00.000+02:002024-01-27T19:35:33.840+02:00Darom Adom <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-eGi4mSaRFMrvGeIhYczaKg6ySG8I0_bjlyosYfSUkVq1hWlcBegCXC_68XlsgDeUTWm6dod-snQhJuzFhernJov1ilFOwEXHnf08cNwZfKszDPEvB142Y-8ZlN7qd_y9Il6EN242zxeURmZvmVYxyGR9NxjNwZewSb12iwUPk4o2DTzuukj2Uw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1296" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-eGi4mSaRFMrvGeIhYczaKg6ySG8I0_bjlyosYfSUkVq1hWlcBegCXC_68XlsgDeUTWm6dod-snQhJuzFhernJov1ilFOwEXHnf08cNwZfKszDPEvB142Y-8ZlN7qd_y9Il6EN242zxeURmZvmVYxyGR9NxjNwZewSb12iwUPk4o2DTzuukj2Uw" width="320" /></a></div><br />In a normal year this is the season when profusions of wild red crown anemones bloom in the meadows and woodland of Israel's Gaza border region.Some of the most stunning places to see them are Shokeda, Beeri and Reim. Places with very different associations since the Hamas invasion of Israel and massacre, rape, torture and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7th.<br /><br />Darom Adom - Red South used to be about these magnificent native wildflowers. Today seeing this photo I took near Beeri a few years ago all I can think of is a very different Red South, one of blood and burnt out buildings and cars, horrific atrocities against Israeli and foreign expat babies, children, elderly, women and men.<br /><br />This year I look at this photo and think of the heartbreaking memorial at Reim to the hundreds massacred at the music festival, silent signposts with photos of the victims standing upright in the open field like the winter anemones now blooming in the region.<br /><br />Maybe the anemones are reminding us that fields of bloom can once again become full of life. Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-508842085856758092023-12-28T00:31:00.003+02:002023-12-28T00:31:55.553+02:00<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I was looking up some farm volunteering requests for a friend in northern Israel when an update caught my eye. </span></span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Many thousands of Israelis have had to evacuate their homes in towns and villages close to the Lebanese border. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Many of these are farming communities and while most of the population have been displaced, a handful have stayed on to care for orchards and livestock which can't simply be moved to a safer region. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>Despite the dangers from regular fire from Hizballah gunmen in southern Lebanon brave volunteers come from all over Israel to support the struggling farmers. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A few days ago a dash cam on the car of a volunteer couple from central Israel captured a fleeting glimpse of a large Iranian made anti-tank missile zooming in front of their vehicle in the northern moshav of Dovev.
</span></div></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Similar missiles have destroyed vehicles in the moshav, as well as causing severe damage to one of the egg laying chicken sheds, a key industry in Dovev currently relying on volunteers to function. <br /><br />In some of these cross border attacks Israeli civilians have been wounded. Last month Israeli electric company workers repairing infrastructure damaged by Hizballah fire were injured by yet another anti-tank missile, one later died of his wounds. In the western Galilee a farmer was killed by another anti-tank missile while tending his orchards. <br /><br />Despite the attacks though these are farms vital for Israel's food security. I've seen regular calls for help collecting eggs and caring for livestock on Dovev and people responding by asking which day or time they can come - egg collecting is ideally an early morning activity. <br /><br />Today though there was a sad caveat to the call for volunteers. Due to the escalation in Hizballah attacks, including 30 rockets fired today alone in the Rosh Hanikra area of north-west Israel, the army has issued new guidelines for agricultural work in farms near the Lebanon border. <br /><br />From now on they are only to work after dark, from 6pm onwards. The anti-tank missiles fired at the chicken farm in Dovev over the last week seem to have clearly been targeting the farm workers and facilities. <br /><br />Photo from the Yediot Ahronot newspaper shows the chicken shed in Dovev damaged by a Hizballah anti-tank missile and photo below from Israel's Kan 11 news channel showing the fleeting dash cam image of an Iranian made anti-tank missile hurtling in to Israel.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYI5Zh5VycpMHU9et-zTIRuLtd4pa5XUs6_fz5o1aFO7wFLbhfioh_UxQkZBiYt_3S904HBwRtoenOkUhqLieAhkCfKnpdEw1mdRtfpHJBl1fTHw5lUduEQVYElmAQ78hWhpqrmQKGuH4R3Kmm8isUyIKMCi0mWkQwX1M82gvC2MRFLG45FSe55A/s690/415193402_10161022581451138_2927559707467642927_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="690" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYI5Zh5VycpMHU9et-zTIRuLtd4pa5XUs6_fz5o1aFO7wFLbhfioh_UxQkZBiYt_3S904HBwRtoenOkUhqLieAhkCfKnpdEw1mdRtfpHJBl1fTHw5lUduEQVYElmAQ78hWhpqrmQKGuH4R3Kmm8isUyIKMCi0mWkQwX1M82gvC2MRFLG45FSe55A/s320/415193402_10161022581451138_2927559707467642927_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYAn8V_H20e-mS-TvffsfcOn0sr5Wx1LDt3UNB2J08vYZKDq6w8dLXFM-9RzUHoRIhP7oXJf3yZmdPMaIzR6ItEy86N50674VteKQKgHan2zlGY7pUEI1lo72IBJLdjvB_A7372PeekLGIxFl0UBN-XQyO5j9Krz_iyZveUhwFWLXsWAdsdQ_3w/s572/415128676_10161022573276138_2565111657764626582_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="424" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYAn8V_H20e-mS-TvffsfcOn0sr5Wx1LDt3UNB2J08vYZKDq6w8dLXFM-9RzUHoRIhP7oXJf3yZmdPMaIzR6ItEy86N50674VteKQKgHan2zlGY7pUEI1lo72IBJLdjvB_A7372PeekLGIxFl0UBN-XQyO5j9Krz_iyZveUhwFWLXsWAdsdQ_3w/s320/415128676_10161022573276138_2565111657764626582_n.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><br />Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-51917921940682024942023-12-26T23:39:00.000+02:002024-01-28T18:38:29.684+02:00We think of wine as a luxury product but it's just another kind of agricultural business, a farmer tending his vines and trying to earn his or her living. There are many wineries and vineyards all over Israel, with many in the northern Galilee, close to the Lebanese border in what has become a warzone since Israel was attacked on October 7th. <br /><br />Hizballah has escalated their assault on Israel in recent weeks, firing anti-tank missiles across the border on a daily basis, along with larger rockets, small arms fire and regular attempts at cross border incursions in to Israel. <br /><br />In kibbutz Menara and other Israeli border communities more than half the homes have sustained damage from Hizballah missiles. Kiryat Shmona, one of the larger towns in Israel's far north has likewise suffered a great deal of damage. <br /><br />Just a few days ago volunteers helping to collect eggs in a northern moshav were wounded by shrapnel when a Hizballah anti-tank missile scored a direct hit on the chicken shed. A farmer in the north-west Galilee was killed by a Hizballah anti-tank missile while he checked on his orchards. <br /><br />While thousands of Israelis from that region are now refugees in their own country, the farms that they tend cannot be moved and a small number of farmers have had to stay back just to ensure that someone is caring for the chickens, livestock, vineyards, orchards and fields. <br /><br />Among the agricultural businesses in crisis on the northern border are Dalton winery and several other wineries located in the same agricultural industrial zone among the vineyards. Vineyards and wineries are among the facilities that have been damaged by Hizballah attacks. <br /><br />Wine sounds frivolous especially in the middle of a war, but it represents the livelihoods of many Israelis who for so many weeks now have been watching their years of toil systematically destroyed by Hizballah.Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-11372979915720229162023-12-22T15:00:00.001+02:002023-12-23T23:35:47.730+02:00Wartime Shabbat <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Shabbat should be a time of joy, togetherness, peace and rest. Hamas stole that from us on the day of their brutal surprise attack on Israel, Simhat Torah Shabbat October 7th. <br /><br />Since then our Shabbat preparations include setting up a radio to a special silent broadcast station that only goes on air to issue rocket alerts or emergency broadcasts. <br /><br />In addition to lights in the bathrooms we make sure to leave on the lights in the shelter, just in case. <br /><br />Hamas has a penchant for "surprising us" with rocket barrages aimed at different population centres each Shabbat. Last week it was Jerusalem. <br /><br />Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are spending Shabbat on active duty in the warzones away from home instead of with their families. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are refugees in their own country unable to return home. <br /><br />But Shabbat is still a time to be thankful, to remember the wonder of creation, to try to take time for our families, our spirit and mind. <br /><br />For prayer, for hope, for remembering the endless generations before us who celebrated Shabbat in so many difficult and frightening times throughout the ages.<br /><br />We are an optimistic people because despite a history so full of pain and suffering we have always survived, restored, rebuilt. <br /><br />Shabbat shalom.</span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-60591453367974298382023-12-19T22:27:00.000+02:002023-12-26T22:28:34.849+02:00<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwPt3hMMJqFOa_fNrhJ4f6-BTlXy-tltZHZWoOah_4s6tFiMh5ocqWNiIiSmA81Gz682vPIAUmlkpK68jzDbxVtunHqbZUB4OlUkSS9HgzsbIwipf-9hPGjnzmbHSaLTRaZjXlsy2_o1-Ja-kOxtSY8lqOzz03jaRuwMqXjc6gjLT6Mn5XOvRbgw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="695" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjwPt3hMMJqFOa_fNrhJ4f6-BTlXy-tltZHZWoOah_4s6tFiMh5ocqWNiIiSmA81Gz682vPIAUmlkpK68jzDbxVtunHqbZUB4OlUkSS9HgzsbIwipf-9hPGjnzmbHSaLTRaZjXlsy2_o1-Ja-kOxtSY8lqOzz03jaRuwMqXjc6gjLT6Mn5XOvRbgw" width="232" /></a></div><br />I've seen posts making fun of Israel for being so weak and desperate that even people in their 90s are called to the army. Such people simply don't get the volunteer can do ethos of Israel.<br /><br />In the Mishnah we are told that in a time of milhemet mitzva, a war of no choice, an existential threat, even the bride and groom leave their wedding ceremony to defend the country.<br /><br />בְּמִלְחֶמֶת חוֹבָה, הַכֹּל יוֹצְאִין,<br />אֲפִלּוּ חָתָן מֵחֶדְרוֹ וְכַלָּה מֵחֻפָּתָהּ:<br /><br />This is derived from a verse in the biblical book of Joel describing how all the nation from the elderly to the nursing infants and the bride and groom from their wedding canopy come together in prayer and repentance in time of crisis, so that Hashem will restore Israel's security, both in terms of rain at its appointed time so that the crops will grow, and by removing the threats of enemy powers from Israel's borders.<br /><br />טו תִּקְע֥וּ שׁוֹפָ֖ר בְּצִיּ֑וֹן קַדְּשׁוּ־צ֖וֹם קִרְא֥וּ עֲצָרָֽה׃ טז אִסְפוּ־עָ֞ם קַדְּשׁ֤וּ קָהָל֙ קִבְצ֣וּ זְקֵנִ֔ים אִסְפוּ֙ עֽוֹלָלִ֔ים וְיֹֽנְקֵ֖י שָׁדָ֑יִם יֵצֵ֤א חָתָן֙ מֵֽחֶדְר֔וֹ וְכַלָּ֖ה מֵֽחֻפָּתָֽהּ׃ יז בֵּ֤ין הָֽאוּלָם֙ וְלַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ יִבְכּוּ֙ הַכֹּ֣הֲנִ֔ים מְשָֽׁרְתֵ֖י יְהוָ֑ה וְֽיֹאמְר֞וּ ח֧וּסָה יְהוָ֣ה עַל־עַמֶּ֗ךָ וְאַל־תִּתֵּ֨ן נַחֲלָֽתְךָ֤ לְחֶרְפָּה֙ לִמְשָׁל־בָּ֣ם גּוֹיִ֔ם לָ֚מָּה יֹֽאמְר֣וּ בָֽעַמִּ֔ים אַיֵּ֖ה אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶֽם׃ יח וַיְקַנֵּ֥א יְהוָ֖ה לְאַרְצ֑וֹ וַיַּחְמֹ֖ל עַל־עַמּֽוֹ׃ יט וַיַּ֨עַן יְהוָ֜ה וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְעַמּ֗וֹ הִנְנִ֨י שֹׁלֵ֤חַ לָכֶם֙ אֶת־הַדָּגָן֙ וְהַתִּיר֣וֹשׁ וְהַיִּצְהָ֔ר וּשְׂבַעְתֶּ֖ם אֹת֑וֹ וְלֹֽא־אֶתֵּ֨ן אֶתְכֶ֥ם ע֛וֹד חֶרְפָּ֖ה בַּגּוֹיִֽם׃ כ וְֽאֶת־הַצְּפוֹנִ֞י אַרְחִ֣יק מֵֽעֲלֵיכֶ֗ם וְהִדַּחְתִּיו֮ אֶל־אֶ֣רֶץ צִיָּ֣ה וּשְׁמָמָה֒ אֶת־פָּנָ֗יו אֶל־הַיָּם֙ הַקַּדְמֹנִ֔י וְסֹפ֖וֹ אֶל־הַיָּ֣ם הָאַֽחֲר֑וֹן<br /><br />95 year-old Ezra Yakhin "Elnakam", the oldest reservist in the IDF, was a comrade of my Jason's great-uncle in the Lehi underground in the 1940s, before the founding of the State of Israel. In those most desperate times for the Jewish people they fought for the survival of the Jewish people against all odds. All these years later that sense of duty to defend our people is very much at the core of Ezra Yakhin's ethos.<br /><br />Yakhin, along with 87 year-old Martin Holt and 85 year-old Nacha Gilboa are old enough to remember the horrors of the 1940s and the determination of every Jew to ensure the survival of our people in our homeland and in the world in general.<br /><br />They continue to volunteer for reserve duty to remind the younger generations that we have faced such existential threats and barbaric attacks before, and survived to rebuild and restore. Am Yisrael Hai. </span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-72178314781848577242023-12-11T15:46:00.002+02:002023-12-11T15:48:15.868+02:00Hannukah olive harvest <span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: arial; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjc4gM1vMij-HWqtvr8qmYU7iHZ6wAmMHaomrhKOqBhSeAb8ykBnlmDrV_5WFupTQKSlE8fOb9KkKKaHm4zQCba0I603O9ux7lYLZRYI9r4IJdiJNbQdKJXpsEfNfo0dN3y6aqS15Wis0G-BVVEn-SN6_JSkdq7sSyCNY0HIFisx1Is74O1qNROlA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjc4gM1vMij-HWqtvr8qmYU7iHZ6wAmMHaomrhKOqBhSeAb8ykBnlmDrV_5WFupTQKSlE8fOb9KkKKaHm4zQCba0I603O9ux7lYLZRYI9r4IJdiJNbQdKJXpsEfNfo0dN3y6aqS15Wis0G-BVVEn-SN6_JSkdq7sSyCNY0HIFisx1Is74O1qNROlA" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The kids in the foreground are from several family groups of religious Zionist (dati leumi) Israeli Jews from various towns and cities in the Jerusalem area. <br /><br />The people working alongside them, such as the man in the yellow shirt, are Israeli Muslim Bedouin, students and teachers from a school for special needs children (including several with Down Syndrome) in the southern Israeli town of Rahat. <br /><br />There was also a Jewish high school group, I didn't catch from where. <br /><br />They are all volunteering together this Hannukah on a farm in a moshav village in central Israel, helping to harvest the olives to be made into olive oil. <br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">(The man driving the tractor is from the farm)</span><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />After working all morning we were invited to take a break and visit the olive pressing barn where gleaming stainless steel equipment produces olive oil the modern way. Explanations were offered in Hebrew and Arabic. <br /><br />In the distance we could see white puffs of smoke in the sky and hear the loud booms of Iron Dome rocket interceptions over the densely populated cities of central Israel. <br /><br />In the other direction we saw a glorious large flock of overwintering pelicans lazily soaring overhead.<br /><br /></span><br /></span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-91051921798255240832023-12-10T23:30:00.005+02:002023-12-12T03:02:49.833+02:00Homefront Hannukah snapshot: Israel 2023<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Id9p6zSaJAguiEilDfnveO3l-kooLKhrvNJt2EfaJ6_Syz4GM3RdIzuEACuk2tt1gO2IiBGyamTSznJPii57B0Fos8eSPLMuCZdfqyacJoWp6bhRfvUAmNfpSlyPTmmdJsH0mEpSe_FAjzV0fC_eaBDd36zmeGCyj_yxoZCa3T9LdBsQtXB6VA/s2048/386433599_243083998635741_2470981343284394305_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Id9p6zSaJAguiEilDfnveO3l-kooLKhrvNJt2EfaJ6_Syz4GM3RdIzuEACuk2tt1gO2IiBGyamTSznJPii57B0Fos8eSPLMuCZdfqyacJoWp6bhRfvUAmNfpSlyPTmmdJsH0mEpSe_FAjzV0fC_eaBDd36zmeGCyj_yxoZCa3T9LdBsQtXB6VA/s320/386433599_243083998635741_2470981343284394305_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQU5Fa9gHpEIWzQ_IoOKYbsfNUrdaZf1T3UVrtjJU4OhoSbv1LoIPZTZvw8eSuT-n0CTmI9DFvSpnYqvIYdAFIINKYeWIwFZtx4LZ3NDZ_RU46TcY5Lm7ltYWWA2WbsfIAVM1IvT2_6rAvPfVtPOv-BqW7IsTFW_MuRqISX1pnTPtEuEXWQzUONQ/s2048/403412877_6934065100016727_3168611346086826490_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQU5Fa9gHpEIWzQ_IoOKYbsfNUrdaZf1T3UVrtjJU4OhoSbv1LoIPZTZvw8eSuT-n0CTmI9DFvSpnYqvIYdAFIINKYeWIwFZtx4LZ3NDZ_RU46TcY5Lm7ltYWWA2WbsfIAVM1IvT2_6rAvPfVtPOv-BqW7IsTFW_MuRqISX1pnTPtEuEXWQzUONQ/s320/403412877_6934065100016727_3168611346086826490_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />On the "jolly" giant Hannukah dreidels decorating a roundabout in Herzliya Pituah the faces of Israel's still missing hostages replace the traditional Hebrew letters. <br /><br />In the train stations in Jerusalem and Modiin vast posters displaying with the hostages' names and faces and the legend "Bring the home" cover a wall in the foyers. <br /><br />In Modiin's central train station there is an empty plastic yellow chair in front of the poster with a sign announcing "this chair will remain empty until they all return home". <br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUhD3zRoZr726ZbSCoR6D3cSADwcCoIyvMrSS8CcvC3ATJVg3aT9DNXlEjsox-3NrVoT5rkOkm4FE98Z10Pi7lQ6FuLSGvvVn8auv2EeVTTCUH-fvJ63l-vuuOW9xGHt3cdRWlg2OLggYUDFJv2pwg0RiD_8PXsQudwyK8FmlVcdj1doqThnx6Q/s2048/406140480_1066386591371298_7127430592264475140_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUhD3zRoZr726ZbSCoR6D3cSADwcCoIyvMrSS8CcvC3ATJVg3aT9DNXlEjsox-3NrVoT5rkOkm4FE98Z10Pi7lQ6FuLSGvvVn8auv2EeVTTCUH-fvJ63l-vuuOW9xGHt3cdRWlg2OLggYUDFJv2pwg0RiD_8PXsQudwyK8FmlVcdj1doqThnx6Q/s320/406140480_1066386591371298_7127430592264475140_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />Prominently displayed in the middle of the main ticketing halls at train stations are tables with makeshift memorials and the photo of Eliyahu Elmekayes, an Israel Railways security guard killed who was also an army reservist. One of hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers drafted on emergency call-ups in the wake of the October 7th Hamas invasion, he was killed fighting Hamas in Gaza. <br /><br />The Hannukah menorahs all over the place can't escape from the shadow of being a country at war. <br /><br />In malls they stand alongside signs pointing the way to the nearest bomb shelter in case of a rocket siren. <br /><br />Outside a cafe a glass hannukiah stands in front of a photo of Daniel Kastiel, a soldier in the prestigious Maglan commando killed on the fifth day of the war in Gaza. The photo is flanked by a printed card with the prayer for the IDF and Israel's security forces. <br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguxJSZkRLU6q6uaVFQeLQxu1XPwwsLcgrClndSdUQ1N48CnMw3XewUgVAVTCNPyKX_pZO-rrpWYQJ8LseByHyMGJlmxG0ZlyPSw9W3c3fwFiJAblxt_yXMVTWTXt_c56vDLlk3XdmI5TVJePXDL8AQySFp9TeAxNKQeyVienRfYttv8fVmgm4Kmw/s2048/406843940_1517176559121651_5482756932785618556_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguxJSZkRLU6q6uaVFQeLQxu1XPwwsLcgrClndSdUQ1N48CnMw3XewUgVAVTCNPyKX_pZO-rrpWYQJ8LseByHyMGJlmxG0ZlyPSw9W3c3fwFiJAblxt_yXMVTWTXt_c56vDLlk3XdmI5TVJePXDL8AQySFp9TeAxNKQeyVienRfYttv8fVmgm4Kmw/s320/406843940_1517176559121651_5482756932785618556_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Every other person wears dogtags proclaiming "my heart is captive in Gaza" in support of the hostages and their families. Or a pendant in the shape of a simple map of Israel, maybe with a Magen David star or a heart in its centre, perhaps also a verse for mystical protection like the priestly blessing or the Shema Yisrael prayer. Quite a number of people wear necklaces and bracelets featuring all of the above. <br /><br />Israeli flags are everywhere, in festive looking stands in the train stations or hung respectfully in shop windows and malls, draped over tall buildings and bus stops, hanging outside homes and businesses, stuck on to walls, vehicles and windows, fluttering from lamposts and balconies, adorning advertisements, billboards and product packages, even on the side panels of train engines. <br /><br />I walked by a treif (non-kosher) supermarket who's window decor featured Novi God/Christmas trees festooned with copious Israeli flags mixed in with the baubles and tinsel. <br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLJICVipI0HvZIrNQqPLXn6Jdj6UPzHeQXKYjE30FbldE__mv3orMCbIdlGK2P2ey0Z6Il1ctEyE2x55Mh-5v7qOI3c4te8Cs8lTym87OlbxtkhOUVMLIMlOxZrggBjy5J77daH1AREgxOQMblpRt0XfxxYc7BfFzbXJupa2d_e4xJfEAwkolXA/s2048/406576948_1708123269688518_3316759274047541422_n%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLJICVipI0HvZIrNQqPLXn6Jdj6UPzHeQXKYjE30FbldE__mv3orMCbIdlGK2P2ey0Z6Il1ctEyE2x55Mh-5v7qOI3c4te8Cs8lTym87OlbxtkhOUVMLIMlOxZrggBjy5J77daH1AREgxOQMblpRt0XfxxYc7BfFzbXJupa2d_e4xJfEAwkolXA/s320/406576948_1708123269688518_3316759274047541422_n%20(1).jpg" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />Messages of support and encouragement have popped up all over. To Israelis in general, to the soldiers of the IDF, to families of hostages and the bereaved. The giant billboards looming over Tel Aviv's congested city highways that usually advertise fashionable goods now sport blue and white posters to raise morale while hand scrawled notices and pictures drawn by young children are taped to bus shelters, benches, shop windows and blocks of flat. Improvised banners hang on fences, balcony railings and outside shops. <br /><br />Even the traditional Hannukah holiday sufganiya doughnut treats feature patriotic colours: blue and white frosting and sprinkles or Magen David designs, bakeries selling them in flag decorated boxes with the ubiquitous "together we will win" message which is present everywhere, even more so than the flags or the second most common slogan "Am Yisrael Hai" - the nation of Israel lives. <br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42gysohKLC78i2DYuOyJ8kI3L7Zj9Ku4s81xL9CjmCbuDkfHem6BvvLCCMWuUASUl7X_Esz6fv8rsT_NdtxKggvXE8PVzmm-5KaT_FEhfYko2x5k5sKoftjQYHzG_UqYUjBv6KQk19nHJ8dJsylMCql6AFtgmqbo92Muz0JZL8nqke_OWeTK-JA/s2048/406222361_1787889174980441_9180938943035067586_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42gysohKLC78i2DYuOyJ8kI3L7Zj9Ku4s81xL9CjmCbuDkfHem6BvvLCCMWuUASUl7X_Esz6fv8rsT_NdtxKggvXE8PVzmm-5KaT_FEhfYko2x5k5sKoftjQYHzG_UqYUjBv6KQk19nHJ8dJsylMCql6AFtgmqbo92Muz0JZL8nqke_OWeTK-JA/s320/406222361_1787889174980441_9180938943035067586_n.jpg" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />This is a strange bittersweet Hannukah, streets and transport hubs crowded with soldiers in rumpled, dusty uniforms and guns travelling home for a few hours of precious leave to see their families or schlepping back to the front loaded with homecooked food from home.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUes34ur55xCCeq9dj5_FNuhfmdgtg7c1SebcSA2_Wuj6-_HVMisO_zqsmkn33doCY-uSayRK-iGQvIU5BREjID03uT104RzCRwcDjCDc0LPrtIYHALPj2Oda3XYmEs9ObvGrYyzwB-7VeG-M_BNxvi5bNdMDMfGYyRZ6-cmLqJ1UQDnZZozgdaQ/s2048/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-11-10%20at%2013.10.49%20(3).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUes34ur55xCCeq9dj5_FNuhfmdgtg7c1SebcSA2_Wuj6-_HVMisO_zqsmkn33doCY-uSayRK-iGQvIU5BREjID03uT104RzCRwcDjCDc0LPrtIYHALPj2Oda3XYmEs9ObvGrYyzwB-7VeG-M_BNxvi5bNdMDMfGYyRZ6-cmLqJ1UQDnZZozgdaQ/s320/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-11-10%20at%2013.10.49%20(3).jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />The cheery displays of sufganiyot in the bakery windows are at odds with the faces of the hostages staring out from prominent posters in every public space, the regular roar of military jets overhead punctuated with occasional boom of rockets or distant artillery, the relentless news cycles or the signs everywhere indicating the nearest bomb shelters. <br /><br />But despite it all this is Hannukah, the festival of light in the darkness, of the miracle of the olive oil, of Jewish hope and defiance in the face of those who seek to wipe us out over and over again. <br /><br />The word genocide was invented by a Jew because there were no words to describe what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. But for the Jewish people the concept was nothing new. Physically or spiritually and culturally, oppressor after oppressor has tried to perpetrate a genocide of the Jews over and over again throughout the centuries. While they inflicted terrible losses on our people we have always survived. Am Yisrael Hai. We still live and will go on living. <br /><br /> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgOsmErVdfNioTALsL91jgcOXKWMxprhsjc7OiAlkVMgh4JE2iDTGUZqqwr8IgQqaDDyonG3tY-PvaE6sR3tRZsxceRJKCR7tmYy8R6jMIyTZ13qRCmUbsRhoPq-2qzusCtL0qAJuuPdoNo95k5mrY1fqZfDZXnIsjJuZQ9T5OJFFRMZk1ZHJ8A/s1600/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-12-01%20at%2015.18.48%20(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqgOsmErVdfNioTALsL91jgcOXKWMxprhsjc7OiAlkVMgh4JE2iDTGUZqqwr8IgQqaDDyonG3tY-PvaE6sR3tRZsxceRJKCR7tmYy8R6jMIyTZ13qRCmUbsRhoPq-2qzusCtL0qAJuuPdoNo95k5mrY1fqZfDZXnIsjJuZQ9T5OJFFRMZk1ZHJ8A/s320/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-12-01%20at%2015.18.48%20(1).jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />This year there seem to be even more outdoor Hannukah menorah's lit on streets, in public squares, by the entrances of buildings, balanced on garden walls. And so many twinkle from the windows of homes and offices, on the counters of shops and cafes, perched on balcony railings. <br /><br />Knowing how many Israelis are still captive, missing or mourning loved ones it feels weird to suddenly find ourselves in the middle of the joyous festival of Hannukah when for so many of us time seems to have stopped on Simhat Torah, October 7th. <br /><br />Lighting the candles or oil wicks, comemorating the holiday with traditional foods and songs, gatherings of family and friends, the little things in life we always took for granted, suddenly all feel like a strident, defiant, life affirming act in the face of the sadistic enemy who attacked us on October 7th and the far too many in the big wide world who celebrated that murderous assault on Israel and the Jewish people and who continue to deny our right to exist.<br /><br />As night falls they broadcast the Hannukah miracle loud and clear, the story of the oil which lasted for eight days, a metaphor for the survival of the Jewish people who held out against the odds in times of terror and persecution, holding on long enough for a new generation, fresh oil from the new season, to be born to ensure our light would continue to shine in the world. </span><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-511130286951861992023-12-10T22:40:00.000+02:002023-12-10T22:40:04.735+02:00Close to home <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />Itai Roth thought that he would have to celebrate his bar mitzva ceremony without his father present, as his father, Benny, is a reservist combat soldier on active duty in Gaza. However the army was able to release his father for a few hours to surprise his son on this special occasion, before returning to the front. <br /><br />This is a small bittersweet story in a big war, but aside from the personal joy of this young boy, it's also a story about just how close the front line is to our homes. <br /><br />Active duty in Israel doesn't mean being sent off to fight in some foreign war on the other side of the world, active duty in Israel means soldiers going off to defend their own homes, sometimes literally a few minutes from the front lines, often only an hour or two away from the war zone. <br /><br />For many parts of Israel the front lines are close enough that residents are hearing the bombardments from the combat in which their parents, spouses, sons, daughters, neighbours, friends and colleagues are taking part. In most other parts of the country we are at the very least hearing the daily roar of military jets taking part in the fighting. <br /><br />This proximity means that our soldiers are going in to battle with the knowledge that they are literally defending their families and communities. <br /><br />It also means that sometimes they are able to take a few hours break from the war to join their loved ones briefly for births, weddings and sadly funerals. And yet even with the frontlines so close to home there are many combat soldiers who have hardly seen their families in many weeks. <br /><br />I feel like often for friends overseas this is the part people don't understand. Just how small distances are here, the extent to which those going off to war are both a world a way from the relative normality (or at least appearance of relative normality) in much of the home front, and yet physically the distance between the battle zone and their homes is small, sometimes shockingly so. <br /><br />Make no mistake, there but for the IDF soldiers actively pursuing terrorists and destroying the Hamas terror infrastructure on the ground, and Iron Dome intercepting the majority of the thousands of missiles launched at Israel from Gaza in the air, our home front would much more closely resemble the war zone. <br /><br />The relatively (emphasis on relatively) routine existence that has to some extent returned to most of Israel's population centre is not because Hamas isn't trying to kill us, but because the IDF is doing all it can to stop them from succeeding. </span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-27464201535032952672023-12-06T16:33:00.005+02:002023-12-10T02:21:02.476+02:00This is not a story about yoghurt<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhg-TCWEnL56NNMQVRNZ3f02_GP--pathwjW2MJsOYxccxFlmZI-jkrNwzpwyc0UQJ1lT7M-_GoMtqI0ocmASppBdUDswyIXWjYT7dW0OimTUYO5CXCtCC9JCjniYRzcb771TLJJdXLwFAk2GrSEWQjsjWdXdvCZ8SWVEiiYD1I-O28AS5gsj17gw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhg-TCWEnL56NNMQVRNZ3f02_GP--pathwjW2MJsOYxccxFlmZI-jkrNwzpwyc0UQJ1lT7M-_GoMtqI0ocmASppBdUDswyIXWjYT7dW0OimTUYO5CXCtCC9JCjniYRzcb771TLJJdXLwFAk2GrSEWQjsjWdXdvCZ8SWVEiiYD1I-O28AS5gsj17gw" width="135" /></a></div><p></p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This is not really a story about a fancy jar of yoghurt. <br /><br />Small anecdote from the war #2343<br /><br />When you sit down with your daughter to enjoy a special yoghurt and fruit snack and just then the rocket alert on your computer pings and it's for the kibbutz who's dairy makes the yoghurt you are eating right now.<br /><br />Only you know because you met one of the folks who run the dairy at a "support the refugees" pop-up market a few weeks ago that at the moment the whole kibbutz pretty much has had to be evacuated and the people who run the dairy are currently displaced elsewhere in northern Israel being "hosted" by another dairy so they can keep producing on at least a very limited scale so that their dairy can survive. <br /><br />A few brave souls have had to stay behind on the kibbutz (with army protection) to care for and milk the cows (who can't be moved) despite the regular bombardment and attempted incursions by Hizballah from southern Lebanon. <br /><br />In fact the only reason you splurged on this fancy premium yoghurt is because you recognised the label and knew the story behind this kibbutz dairy. <br /><br />You remember the haggard, harried, exhausted face of the dairyman you met at the pop-up market a few weeks back, worried for his future, worried whether he'd have a home to return to, worried for his fellow kibbutz members who had to stay behind for the cows (whom he also worries about), worried whether he could keep the dairy afloat, worried whether Hizballah was going to try to replicate Hamas October 7th attacks on Israel's northern border, worried whether they had built attack tunnels under the border in to his kibbutz, worried like every other Israeli about what tomorrow would bring. <br /><br />And the apples you cut up to dip in the yoghurt? From another northern border kibbutz who's residents are also now refugees in their own country. During the brief ceasefire last week the army told the farmers that they could use that limited window of quiet to go back to their orchards, which are right next to the border, to mount a salvage harvest of as much as they could pick while the ceasefire held. <br /><br />An emergency call went out on all the volunteer groups calling for anyone who could to go up to this northern border kibbutz (with army escort) for this rescue harvest. Farmers in safer parts of the Israel then sold the apples and kiwis on behalf of the displaced farmers. <br /><br />Suddenly eating yoghurt and apples has become an act of patriotism and support for Israel's bombarded border communities and the northern refugees.</span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-90080476810906948982023-11-22T15:39:00.007+02:002023-11-23T05:57:08.364+02:00Under the grapevines and figs <p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-nPJQcgaLh2Xuu8aSjjOBLGLtbrqoZcQQmWH018JL7XzkgIOPyH37aJu8tdcGbsEaPAk4ZsKoBXHbA2_50w4yOvSuyH_ACqZS-Q5nSSsWUMnwJy8UU8nbUevUBAvlBw7Yy4f9NNk7lt_KB0trmadCue55sg0m_v17np64a-TSufhMFk54e_M1Ng" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-nPJQcgaLh2Xuu8aSjjOBLGLtbrqoZcQQmWH018JL7XzkgIOPyH37aJu8tdcGbsEaPAk4ZsKoBXHbA2_50w4yOvSuyH_ACqZS-Q5nSSsWUMnwJy8UU8nbUevUBAvlBw7Yy4f9NNk7lt_KB0trmadCue55sg0m_v17np64a-TSufhMFk54e_M1Ng" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiviAtdlEs3qzgpvnTSK9XEWo__CPTOxgOyOqJerWhppg86Vn-GzpxtJhegpkpPxdoSdyxTNMGnAqy7yF_nbHzntuV0Vou9tGrcx_eg2YmA4eJRVcBkEOkCsPoXOCiaajFtU1xAZ9r_ITDthHGPBG0SD2tDRMfklO62UC8MGA5cT_yZoZCZBamNsQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiviAtdlEs3qzgpvnTSK9XEWo__CPTOxgOyOqJerWhppg86Vn-GzpxtJhegpkpPxdoSdyxTNMGnAqy7yF_nbHzntuV0Vou9tGrcx_eg2YmA4eJRVcBkEOkCsPoXOCiaajFtU1xAZ9r_ITDthHGPBG0SD2tDRMfklO62UC8MGA5cT_yZoZCZBamNsQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span></div><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">
After the war, after the war, it's hard to think of a time please God when our lives will be safe and quiet after the war, but today even with the constant boom of (distant) artillery pounding away and a constant soundtrack of assorted military aircraft overhead, even with all that, for the first time in a while I had thoughts of one day, after.
When this is over, when we can live here in security again, when the soundtrack to being outdoors in the fields and villages of rural Israel is just birdsong and maybe some sheep bleating or the odd dog barking instead of cannons, rocket interceptions and warplanes, then, right then, I want to go back to the place where I volunteered today, with the friends and strangers I volunteered with today, with my family and yet more friends from around the country, old ones from years ago, new ones I've met in recent weeks, the refugees now temporarily housed in our neighbourhood, people from overseas who were supposed to be visiting this autumn, all of them.
I want to take this big crowd of people and sit out in the pretty courtyard and on the scenic terrace and in the tasteful tasting room of the vineyard and winery where we volunteered today. I want there to be so very many of us feeling safe and secure sitting outdoors and indoors, filling every space, far too many of us to need a shelter because we won't need to think about being close to a shelter.
I want everyone now at the front to be there, safe and well and whole, all our sons and daughters, husbands, wives, cousins, neighbours - all the hundreds and thousands of Israelis who dropped everything and put on a uniform to protect all our lives, all our homes from a viscious, murderous enemy intent on annihilating us all.
And all the people taken hostage from Israel to Gaza, they should be there too, alive, home, free, able once again to laugh and feel the sun on their faces and see the trees and the endless sky.
We'll sit around tables enjoying the pastoral views, the fresh air, the calm. Some of us I'm sure will enjoy splurging on the award winning wines produced at this vineyard. Some of us will just go for the platters of delicious cheeses and farm fresh vegetables, maybe a coffee or herbal tea.
It won't really matter though, the point will be just to feel the freedom of being able to gather a huge crowd of people together without fear of sirens or terrorists or rockets.
Also to help the vintner and farmers recoup some of their huge losses incurred during the war, to give them a hug too.
Like the place where we worked today. His usual workers, young strong men, were called up to the army on emergency draft orders. His sons, likewise called up to emergency army service. Overnight he and his wife were left to do all the work alone: the heavy manual labour, the bureaucratic office work, the packing and bottling, caring for the sheep which graze the vineyard and eat the weeds.
At the same time he lost much of his income, the corporate events, the Friday wine and cheese tastings, the accounts with wedding halls, hotels and fancy restaurants closed due to the horrific Hamas surprise attack on Israel. Who has time or money for award winning wine in the middle of a war for survival?
With the steady rain of rockets over southern Israel he couldn't have even hosted workshops or tastings if he'd had customers interested in such things - the shelter in his nearby home is only big enough for about a dozen people and besides, who would want to be caught out by a rocket attack while driving there?
The grapes though won't wait for people or wars. The harvest was just completed before the Hamas invasion on October 7th. Even with all his workers and his sons called to the army the farmer and his wife have to process the grapes to keep their vineyard going and hopefully still have a livelihood left to maintain their farm, keep their home.
So they got in touch with the Hashomer Hahadash agricultural organisation which even before the current crisis helped to organise volunteers to assist farmers in need, and that's how a group of us: a teacher, a lawyer, a travel agent, the chef of a well known Jerusalem restaurant (so far closed for the duration) and yours truly, found ourselves on this picturesque moshav village not far from the much bombarded southern Israeli city of Ashdod.
Some helped with the physically demanding job of pressing the grapes and repairing fencing. Some did the less intense work of sealing and labelling bottles, packing them in boxes and general maintenance, like washing up the wine making equipment.
All the while the air around us reverbrated with the regular boom boom boom of artillery from the fighting in northern Gaza, just a few kilometres down the highway. For one brief surreal moment the same sky was shared by a v-shaped flock of pelicans, a military helicopter and the rumble of warplanes overhead, all at different altitudes.
As much as the work we did seemed to be genuinely useful to the vineyard owners we had the impression that just by being there we were helping to lift their morale, to make them realise that they were not alone, that random Israelis from around the country, even from frontline Ashkelon, cared enough to schlep out and lend a hand to someone they had never met, just because when our country is in crisis that is what you do.
So one day, one day, when the war is over, when God Willing everyone is home safe and sound and the backdrop to sitting outside in rural Israel is birdsong and not artillery, one day, I hope you will join me in the garden of this winery, right next to the vineyard and its charming flock of sheep and raise a glass of wine (or water or coffee or tea) to the memories of the far too many people we have lost, the children, babies, men, women and elderly massacred on that terrible Shabbat October 7th and the brave soldiers and security forces who gave their lives and their futures so that the rest of Israel could live and have a future in our homeland.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1AhL8dGCaaaS3vtjbZVTujufZKNtZQ14QgLg0DCsoHnwIjho2ihs4jkhPcYhKu3Brs3AscOI0DptTfVFAdLp67wjUsasxDj_3zftwi012q9afaQF1JIb3fvQ276VcXWmWfFNMxzyKA02RnTu7hktDBGpUHLYz02CgZdWz_9PH4p4DGj3sRJrGBw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1AhL8dGCaaaS3vtjbZVTujufZKNtZQ14QgLg0DCsoHnwIjho2ihs4jkhPcYhKu3Brs3AscOI0DptTfVFAdLp67wjUsasxDj_3zftwi012q9afaQF1JIb3fvQ276VcXWmWfFNMxzyKA02RnTu7hktDBGpUHLYz02CgZdWz_9PH4p4DGj3sRJrGBw" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</span></span><p></p>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-3232286071878397512023-11-17T15:44:00.002+02:002023-11-17T15:44:36.182+02:00One pomegranate at a time <span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWXUvxQXXUMulQnq3sxfc6S5D7qEv7gVPH74nGj94oeEYhUxj-R1njGzb2CLQInFzMtak79KMOBh_HtmBbKemzVdR94wp2evDxQE1Q-jT4U4FOAVgjCuNhd3yhv2SDQS3V4Nw46-AQYlgLXUKi8pDplr9M-Irq8EyjSMnEVMkkp3rREhBsQXIgEQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWXUvxQXXUMulQnq3sxfc6S5D7qEv7gVPH74nGj94oeEYhUxj-R1njGzb2CLQInFzMtak79KMOBh_HtmBbKemzVdR94wp2evDxQE1Q-jT4U4FOAVgjCuNhd3yhv2SDQS3V4Nw46-AQYlgLXUKi8pDplr9M-Irq8EyjSMnEVMkkp3rREhBsQXIgEQ" width="320" /></a></div><br />A quick story before Shabbat, an observation that I've been meaning to share because to my mind it embodies so much the spirit of Israel right now. <br /><br />It feels like another lifetime, but it was only a few weeks ago. At one of the pomegranate orchards where I volunteered an elderly couple showed up. The wife took the farmer aside and explained that her 89 year-old husband was desperate to do something to help, but he wasn't really up to the task, even though he had agricultural experience. <br /><br />The farmer helped find them a tree with a lot of low hanging fruit. The elderly man sat on a crate from which he could reach many pomegranates and in the time that the rest of us were clearing whole trees of their fruit he painfully slowly, with what looked like arthritic hands, snipped off the fruits hanging near to him, snipped a couple of fruits, gently put them in a crate, rested a little, drank some water, then cut down one more fruit, and so on until he was clearly exhausted by his efforts and his wife insisted that he go home to rest. <br /><br />The farmer came and thanked him personally, hugged him and and told him that his careful work had yielded the most beautiful premium pomegranates for market.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIMqzv4vCLsop0fim1YREzyUbFInHIxKmrA-JOGZZDFJ9uJaWy6x5X8feC0EFYwqg7KDuBCFjBJ-rvKt91utN2AqYQHaw8tJRm56ubT6ZSROKN-EFZvH0R4ON752Giywor9WJ8Scbs8VmpGxW3EogOTy7gz7p97XIujPnAnnxHih_rhdWKEAv7jw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIMqzv4vCLsop0fim1YREzyUbFInHIxKmrA-JOGZZDFJ9uJaWy6x5X8feC0EFYwqg7KDuBCFjBJ-rvKt91utN2AqYQHaw8tJRm56ubT6ZSROKN-EFZvH0R4ON752Giywor9WJ8Scbs8VmpGxW3EogOTy7gz7p97XIujPnAnnxHih_rhdWKEAv7jw" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-86613041474024661072023-11-14T23:30:00.032+02:002024-02-20T02:34:00.728+02:00<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So many funerals. So much heartbreak, so much to cry for. <br /><br />More than anything what punched me in the gut this week was a shiva visit with so many young children in their cute cartoon t-shirts with ripped collars because these sweet young kids were among the mourners sitting shiva (for their father) in accordance with the Jewish custom that the immediate family of the deceased makes a symbolic tear in their shirts at the funeral as a sign of bereavement. <br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebltLCez4k5qm7WriL_G4-mAQFwJ7q_95wvnbRI54f5LSI_qjZxs3RVUqznp6VZsxx85yLQIdlrmIJOSPPz3sfTKUUnNgjQ2uNY3RsAfFITMv87QzT7M1EkGOJE_Z2ssQ_sYM6elP4gr8lyQJMoio4JNgS7CvQyKIJpmHbdpPxIVZuFwCmf-cag/s4640/IMG_20231114_170117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2610" data-original-width="4640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebltLCez4k5qm7WriL_G4-mAQFwJ7q_95wvnbRI54f5LSI_qjZxs3RVUqznp6VZsxx85yLQIdlrmIJOSPPz3sfTKUUnNgjQ2uNY3RsAfFITMv87QzT7M1EkGOJE_Z2ssQ_sYM6elP4gr8lyQJMoio4JNgS7CvQyKIJpmHbdpPxIVZuFwCmf-cag/s320/IMG_20231114_170117.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p></p>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-90510416858405104932023-11-14T23:00:00.002+02:002023-11-23T00:41:30.792+02:00<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'm really grateful for the thousands of people who showed up to support the Jewish community and Israel at the historic rally in Washington D.C. It takes a great deal of courage in these terrible times to stand up and be counted, it means so much to us in Israel.<br /><br />Right now I honestly don't care if the world thinks I am defective, an outsider or wrong for existing as I am in some way. I don't care if I get to belong or not.<br /><br />It would just make me feel a bit better right now it if millions and millions of people around the world weren't out calling for me and family to be murdered and my country wiped off the map.<br /><br />Kind of rubs me up the wrong way when hundreds of my fellow Israelis are massacred, tortured, raped and kidnapped and folks around the world think that is a cause for celebration.<br /><br />I'm horrified by the wide smiles on the faces of Western college kids as they tear down the posters of kidnapped Israeli civilians or gleefully talk about the brave Hamas freedom fighters butchering kibbutz families in their homes.<br /><br />I'm sick from the anti-Semitism that denies the right of Jews to have self-determination in their ancient homeland but which is also making life untenable for Jews in so many parts of the world.<br /><br />I really don't need to be supported, accepted, liked or validated. I'd just like to be allowed to live.</span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-54079928512828765612023-11-07T19:03:00.001+02:002023-11-15T19:07:08.021+02:00Ethics of War <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;">War, even when fought ethically and within the laws of war, as the IDF is doing, is a horrific situation. There is no such thing as a neat, clean war, and urban warfare is some of the most difficult for precisely this reason. </span></span> </p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">In all the conflicts I've researched over the years I have never seen any military as ethical and determined to avoid civilian casualties as the IDF, and I'm not saying this because I'm Israeli, I'm saying they take precautions that I haven't seen any other military take, even to the detriment of their own military goals, and despite that, war is horrific and with a terrorist organisation willfully, intentionally, embedded in a dense, urban, civilian environment, there is no way to defend Israeli civilians without endangering civilians in Gaza.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The IDF gives advanced warning to civilians to evacuate, to the extent of phoning local residents, telling them which buildings are going to be bombed and keeping people on the line and asking them to check that all civilians have been evacuated before a building is bombed. Of course this often allows Hamas leaders and terrorists to escape as well, but the point here is destroying command posts, weapons caches, tunnel entrances, munitions factories and so on. One of the main reasons the IDF takes down taller buildings and towers is that they are often used by Hamas as look out positions or sniper posts. There are tactical reasons certain buildings are the target of IDF strikes.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If the IDF didn't care about minimising civilians casualties they could have literally levelled Gaza and everyone in it in a matter of days and in doing so would probably have saved many Israeli lives, especially those of soldiers, but also civilian lives by ending the massive number of rocket launches at Israel (remember that without Iron Dome Israel would have massive civilian casualties from rockets alone, as it is Iron Dome doesn't give 100% protection and Israelis have been killed and seriously injured by missile strikes)<br /></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This isn't about revenge, this is pure and simple about defending Israel from what has become an existential threat to Israel and to Israeli civilians.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The choice is to fight this war and topple Hamas, or to accept the existential threat of a murderous regime which explicitly states its intent to repeat the atrocities of October 7th whenever it gets the chance. <br /><br />No country can live with that situation. It is Israel's moral and ethical obligation to millions of Israelis to secure their survival.</span></span>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-7427404204782834462023-11-02T02:56:00.000+02:002024-02-20T02:56:33.007+02:00PTSD nation <p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm volunteering round the clock, these days often in agriculture because farms are desperate for help with harvesting and hands on working the soil is also a way to try to shut down the thoughts for a while, even if military jets are roaring overhead and there is the ever present threat as we work in the orchards and fields of being caught out in the open during a rocket attack. <br /><br />Often there is so much going on I'm not sure what day of the week it is. With all the volunteerism, all the people working hard, we are also a nation deeply traumatised. I don't even know how to begin to describe some of the conversations I've had recently with friends. <br /><br />One told me they are terrified that the family will be burnt alive in their home like so many in the Gaza border kibbutzim. Another calls me almost every day terrified they will have to watch their children die at the hands of invading Hamas terrorists.<br /><br />Another has an outdoorsy teen who has pocket knives for carving wood, foraging wild plants and camping. A good kid, always out with his friends on hikes in the woods or trekking in the desert. He has now put his pocket knives and a couple from the kitchen in their home shelter in case of terrorist incursion. He told his parents that if terrorists invade their home or set it alight he would rather they all kill themselves then be tortured by Hamas or taken hostage like the people from the Israeli Gaza border villages.<br /><br />More than one person has told me about their nightmares and day time panic attacks from every revving engine or motorcycle, terrified that Hamas terrrorists are invading their home town the way they poured over the border on October 7th. <br /><br />Many live close to the border with the Palestinian Authority controlled areas (most of Israel is close to a border with PA controlled areas, distances are very short here) and while I reassured them that there is extra security and high alert to guard against a Hamas/Jihadi invasion, in my heart I know that I can't really give her that guarantee, the threat is very real, the stuff of nightmares is real, there are more Hamas cells out there who want to emulate the atrocities of October 7th. <br /><br />People here are very resilient, they are doers who respond to crisis and tragedy by wanting to affirm life by helping and doing good. But even so, there are a lot of people who maybe on the surface are managing to function through the day but on the inside are falling apart, tormented by horror films turned reality. <br /><br />Everyone tries to support each other however we can. I know many who've invited friends who live alone to stay with them, so they shouldn't have to face the difficult nights by themselves, nights in which every noise is amplified by an eerie silence where every sound is chilling, every odd nightime noise possibly a sign of terrorists digging attack tunnels under the border, every unidentified neighbours' voice in the darkness maybe a sign of a terror incursion. <br /><br />And most of us are doing this with children in the house, whether young or adolescent or teens, making sure we are there for them, to help them, to keep ourselves available to be strong, soothing and supportive parents in the middle of this nightmare. <br /><br />This week many of my teen son's friends were at the funeral for his friend's brother, a soldier who gave his life protecting us from Hamas. This young man was a former Scouts leader (here Scouts is mostly run by older teens) and hundreds of kids who knew him as their Scouts counsellor came to pay their respects, crowded in to Jerusalem's military cemetery in the pouring rain. <br /><br />Soldiers here aren't killed fighting wars thousands of miles away, but right here, maybe an hour or two drive from our homes, literally protecting their own families from the most unspeakable horrors. <br /><br />For each funeral, and there have been so very many, local people line the streets in respect, hundreds, sometimes thousands, most of whom didn't know the person being buried, just lining the route of the funeral car to support the bereaved family, often in silence, sometimes with quiet, sombre song. <br /><br />Our local elementary school has swelled in size, each class taking in refugee children staying in our area, new students from the Gaza border area, but also from the northern border with Lebanon, now also under daily attack from Hizballah in Lebanon. <br /><br />Some of these children directly experienced the horror of October 7th, some spent days locked with their families in shelters hearing the shooting and pogroms outside. Some have no homes to return to, houses burnt by terrorists or destroyed by rockets. <br /><br />This week a group of people from my neighbourhood got together to make a joint birthday party for refugee kids staying in our area.Everyone pitched in, party suppliers donated everything from bouncy castles to a cotton candy machine, bakers made decorated cupcakes, make up artists volunteered for face painting and teen girls set up a hair braiding stand. My friend's husband came with his teen kid and put on a juggling show while a martial arts instructor did free workshops and other friends just brought their guitars and drums and improvised a music performance. <br /><br />We set up in the garden of a catering hall (space donated for free) because it had a shelter. We couldn't risk a park for fear of rockets out in the open. We got lucky. We had a quiet couple of hours with no distant booms, no skies streaked with rocket trails on the horizon. Kids laughed, some of the tight faced, worn looking adults managed to as well, a little of the constant tension eased for just a little bit, like a window on to a life in a time that we can't really recall but which shockingly enough existed less than a month ago. <br /><br />Like the many small improvised weddings happening all over the country in recent weeks, we are a society that seeks to affirm life, even in one of our darkest hours, to find a chink to let in some light. Thank you for listening.</span></p>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-49317011676846223572023-10-22T17:39:00.002+03:002023-10-22T17:39:09.603+03:00<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space-collapse: preserve;">What does a small scale bathing costume manufacturer do during a war? </span></span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sadly thousands of Israelis from the Gaza border have had to flee their homes following attacks by Hamas, many unable to take anything with them, not even spare clothing, coming from kibbutzim, moshavim and towns under attack. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Marci Rapp of MarSea modest swimwear took 10 bags of swimsuits to give to women and girls at two Dead Sea hotels which are providing emergency housing for some of Israel's thousands <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>of displaced people. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">She hopes that with the nighmares that many of these families have experienced being able to go swimming and enjoy some relaxation will allow them to process and forget for at least a little bit the traumas and horrors unleashed on them and in particular allow the kids to just be kids again, as though their time at the Dead Sea is a holiday and not literally a life saving refuge from war.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Support Marci's small business via her website so that she can continue helping Israeli refugees: <a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/marsea.modest?__cft__[0]=AZX3BM3AnVnNYQzDF1oCR9P5CyaVXTSY7SZCJhEpr-PvMrZEKdAC-GcuYvMDaff8Y2dYugBaiViMNX-Httc3cpKsl0JiKye42zs1L-88HVOWVWdHGK0_5exAsqOEGdaRGv_sZM3oFxCZa2QPpJK2CknQDbtEm7GRfV6GM2DNMEkBsA&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;">https://www.facebook.com/marsea.modest</span></a>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh2z3lKt7jG2aywUQ9VDQNhJ9JgKEjvyz5OoGGXbVw1DSKYR-QKfNp4oUuFXdFTuTRcDI2gDGfJDu2-TCSj2k69td5edtKGNQeHStFQwu9hAYQaC4JQWoYLeR9bL4Nke6r7U4zolpyfop40hZmwzIPJ36B5G_03E33GUemGMzaL22o3g1_nLUBqQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhh2z3lKt7jG2aywUQ9VDQNhJ9JgKEjvyz5OoGGXbVw1DSKYR-QKfNp4oUuFXdFTuTRcDI2gDGfJDu2-TCSj2k69td5edtKGNQeHStFQwu9hAYQaC4JQWoYLeR9bL4Nke6r7U4zolpyfop40hZmwzIPJ36B5G_03E33GUemGMzaL22o3g1_nLUBqQ" width="180" /></a></div><br />
</span></div></div>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31327871.post-35389423341301304972023-10-22T03:44:00.001+03:002023-10-22T03:49:07.073+03:00Memories of Nahal Oz <p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0NboiN3bwi4EWbRHDPI3XVYP0fDvOe--1dWG_lhhdmNfJd6BTpPNqqcSyTgH4t55BiqCOED1RUwOV7Kzom3xwqNIsENrlE50QVgUxRD6-Yyi7D50IUfWNp8lL-1W3e6WTWijak1pnNxF0hWlIQ8T4Y2ES1fq3sGGOVqSGTvKEPPv4sXp3PLbIkw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1920" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0NboiN3bwi4EWbRHDPI3XVYP0fDvOe--1dWG_lhhdmNfJd6BTpPNqqcSyTgH4t55BiqCOED1RUwOV7Kzom3xwqNIsENrlE50QVgUxRD6-Yyi7D50IUfWNp8lL-1W3e6WTWijak1pnNxF0hWlIQ8T4Y2ES1fq3sGGOVqSGTvKEPPv4sXp3PLbIkw" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">
I went to high school with someone from Nahal Oz (her father's work took the family away from the kibbutz for a few years) and many years ago DH's cousin got married to someone from there in a beautiful, joyous, irreverent kibbutz wedding (the couple later set up their home elsewhere). </span></span><p></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">When I hear Nahal Oz these are the people and images that come to mind. Every time we drive by the area. Every time over the years I see it flash up with a rocket alert on my rocket siren app <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>that just about everyone in Israel has the way people elsewhere might have a weather app. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I know the news is a dizzying blitz of place names most of you have never heard of, Beeri, Kfar Aza, Re'im, Nir Oz, Nahal Oz. Two weeks later and the horror stories merge in to each other, the murdered families, the butchered babies, the houses burnt with their residents inside, the elderly and children kidnapped to Gaza, even the family pets slaughtered for sport in the modest gardens and neat paths of these kibbutzim. Each place name a nightmare of gruesome photos and body bags, families wiped out, communities shattered.
But please try to also remember the reality of what these places were, the modest agricultural communities, the special people, the idealism, the spirit of these places. The care and concern for each other and for their neighbours in Gaza. The many social initiatives locals were involved with. Their love of Israel and their for their fellow human being.
This is what Hamas could not abide, this is what it so gleefully wanted to erase in its barbaric amok murder spree of its Israeli neighbours.
Remember what Hamas did to these kibbutzim, but also remember what these kibbutzim were, what hopefully one day they will rebuild and become again.
Keep this in your mind: a wedding in Nahal Oz, locals and guests in sandals and informal summer clothing in the heat of this semi-arid region in late spring. A makeshift outdoor hupa (wedding canopy) in the dusty, sandy soil with a backdrop of agricultural fields, a few dusty leaved eucalyptus trees. The sun low in the sky, glowing in to a gorgeous sunset. Depending on which direction the breeze is blowing there is a faint or not so faint smell of cow shed.
Everyone is smiling and happy and a bit silly. The groom walks down the aisle to the theme from the Muppet Show. The bride to something Latin American. There's a lot of giggling and humour during the ceremony. And then dancing in the meadow near the hupa to music that spans modern Israeli and Middle Eastern pop, Latin American dance beats and golden oldie rock and roll. Simple, irreverent happiness and love. </span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I don't know what happened to the local people at that wedding, to the people from the kibbutz we were casually dancing with. To the couple from a neighbouring kibbutz I got chatting with. All these years later I don't remember names, just people I casually chatted and danced with at a wedding nearly 25 years ago. But each time a new death or kidnap notice is posted with a photo I'm afraid it will be one of those random smiling faces I remember from all those years ago at a wedding in Nahal Oz.</span></div></div>Princesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03699664247859826025noreply@blogger.com0