This was written last Wednesday, August 2
Three weeks to the day since this war started. We all hope that it ends soon. I, as well as the vast majority of people here feel that we are in a war that must be fought. We cannot go back to the situation before July 12 with Hezbollah on our border with their thousands of rockets pointed at our cities and with Iran and Syria continuing to support them and undermine Lebanese sovereignty. This war must end with Hezbollah either disarmed or strongly weakened and with the Lebanese army deploying on their southern border. I agree that a strong multi national force on our border including Lebanese troops is needed. Lebanon must take full control of all its territory and Israel must be free of the Hezbollah threat and its attacks. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorism and the countries who sponsor them (Iran, Syria) must be handed a defeat. I know how the following will sound, but it is true: It is important for the world and for the fight against these people who consider the west-Israel, United States, Holland, etc. –the enemy.
The last three weeks have been spent watching constantly the news, especially the Israeli news. And worrying about the situation, hoping that the war reaches some turning point. We have mourned every death, watched Katusha rockets rain down on our cities, causing death, injury and destruction. We hear the stories from all over about thousands of families from the north being hosted by people in the center and the south of the country. We see the effect the war has on the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who haven't left the north and are still stuck in the bomb shelters and their safe rooms. The majority of those who are left are mostly the poor, the infirm and the sick. Some are recent immigrants with no place to go; others are defient refusing to let Hezbollah and their deliberate targeting of civilian areas.
We have managed to live a normal life. Zoe still goes to day care. We have been informed that because she is so advanced she is skipping a level and going straight from toddler day care to nursery school level. My daughter the genius. Adar and Nadav are having a wonderful summer. Currently they are attending a day camp at a kibbutz about midway between us and Jerusalem. There is a bus which takes them there every morning and drops them off in the afternoon. Every day there is a different theme at the camp and a different performers. Today the saw a juggler and couldn't stop talking about it when they came home.
Joyce and I still go to work. Joyce doesn't have much work to do. Several people in her office have been laid off, but at the moment her job is safe. I have continued to work. Since the war started i have only worked one day less. Although there have been lost of cancellations and Archeological Seminars, the company that runs the archeological sight where I dig has lost a lot of work. All the the teen tours that were touring Israel at the start of the war stayed. There was a lot of itinerary changing going on, but all of these groups visit us during their stay anyway. However other groups such as family groups have cancelled. Although I must say that some groups and even families are still arriving for their summer vacation. Just today for instance, I guided a Jewish student group from England and in the afternoon I guided several families who all had come to Israel for their vacation. As it stands now I am working most of the days that I originally was scheduled although most of them will probably be half days instead of full days.
A couple of Saturdays we have managed to go to a couple of national parks so we can enjoy some family time together. Tomorrow night Grandma and Grandpa come for a short visit. The kids are really looking forward to that.
Life goes on. And that is the most important thing that we can do at the moment.
I am forwarding to all of you something that a friend of mine wrote after his visit to northern Israel yesterday. I thought it might be of interest to some of you to see the experience of others.
Take care all,
Danny
i went up north sunday to help friends of mine who are coordinating a relief effort in tzfat.....their town which is 8 miles from the lebanese border and has been hit pretty hard.....25,000 out of the 35,000 who live there have left leaving behind the sick, elderly and the poor....i spent 24 hours making food and medicine runs in and out of bomb shelters....i had people come up to me on the street and ask for food for their children.....
i wasn't the only one with a list of people and addresses...but i know not everyone was being reached....the people we found in the bomb shelters had been there for the better part of 2 weeks.....i personally evacuated a young woman who is a paraplegic to the emergency room, she was out of her meds and not doing well at all.....thank goodness it was during the 24 hour cease fire, i only saw one katusha land a ways out of town....
when i woke up Monday morning after hearing the 155mm howitzers going off every 5 minutes or so all night i heard the unmistakable sound of small arms fire followed by explosions the tell tale sign of a battle raging right on the other side of the border...this went on for some 20-25 minutes.....if you have ever fired a shot in anger the smell is what comes back somewhere in your brain triggered by those not so far away sounds
humanitarian crisis? how about 300,000 israelis forced into bomb shelters from rockets that are packed with ball bearing to maximize casualties.....the rockets targeted not at military bases but at women, children, the elderly and anyone else that is unfortunate enough to be in the way.....make no mistake we are fighting for our very existence.......even as we sit here in the comfort of our tel aviv suburb we are not only in range of their rockets but we await as the iranians are pulling hizbullahs string like a bad marionette.....is today our day.....
this is not some existential disagreement......there is no room on our battlefield for camus, nietzsche, kant or even hemingway.......this is not glorious and we most certainly to not gain pleasure from this.....our soldiers go into battle knowing that if they are not successful it is their families that will fall after them....a greater motivation is not known to man.....our greatest sorrow is that we will lose sons and husbands, fathers and brothers.....each one a precious gift to our country and our people
zaq harrison
Three weeks to the day since this war started. We all hope that it ends soon. I, as well as the vast majority of people here feel that we are in a war that must be fought. We cannot go back to the situation before July 12 with Hezbollah on our border with their thousands of rockets pointed at our cities and with Iran and Syria continuing to support them and undermine Lebanese sovereignty. This war must end with Hezbollah either disarmed or strongly weakened and with the Lebanese army deploying on their southern border. I agree that a strong multi national force on our border including Lebanese troops is needed. Lebanon must take full control of all its territory and Israel must be free of the Hezbollah threat and its attacks. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorism and the countries who sponsor them (Iran, Syria) must be handed a defeat. I know how the following will sound, but it is true: It is important for the world and for the fight against these people who consider the west-Israel, United States, Holland, etc. –the enemy.
The last three weeks have been spent watching constantly the news, especially the Israeli news. And worrying about the situation, hoping that the war reaches some turning point. We have mourned every death, watched Katusha rockets rain down on our cities, causing death, injury and destruction. We hear the stories from all over about thousands of families from the north being hosted by people in the center and the south of the country. We see the effect the war has on the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who haven't left the north and are still stuck in the bomb shelters and their safe rooms. The majority of those who are left are mostly the poor, the infirm and the sick. Some are recent immigrants with no place to go; others are defient refusing to let Hezbollah and their deliberate targeting of civilian areas.
We have managed to live a normal life. Zoe still goes to day care. We have been informed that because she is so advanced she is skipping a level and going straight from toddler day care to nursery school level. My daughter the genius. Adar and Nadav are having a wonderful summer. Currently they are attending a day camp at a kibbutz about midway between us and Jerusalem. There is a bus which takes them there every morning and drops them off in the afternoon. Every day there is a different theme at the camp and a different performers. Today the saw a juggler and couldn't stop talking about it when they came home.
Joyce and I still go to work. Joyce doesn't have much work to do. Several people in her office have been laid off, but at the moment her job is safe. I have continued to work. Since the war started i have only worked one day less. Although there have been lost of cancellations and Archeological Seminars, the company that runs the archeological sight where I dig has lost a lot of work. All the the teen tours that were touring Israel at the start of the war stayed. There was a lot of itinerary changing going on, but all of these groups visit us during their stay anyway. However other groups such as family groups have cancelled. Although I must say that some groups and even families are still arriving for their summer vacation. Just today for instance, I guided a Jewish student group from England and in the afternoon I guided several families who all had come to Israel for their vacation. As it stands now I am working most of the days that I originally was scheduled although most of them will probably be half days instead of full days.
A couple of Saturdays we have managed to go to a couple of national parks so we can enjoy some family time together. Tomorrow night Grandma and Grandpa come for a short visit. The kids are really looking forward to that.
Life goes on. And that is the most important thing that we can do at the moment.
I am forwarding to all of you something that a friend of mine wrote after his visit to northern Israel yesterday. I thought it might be of interest to some of you to see the experience of others.
Take care all,
Danny
i went up north sunday to help friends of mine who are coordinating a relief effort in tzfat.....their town which is 8 miles from the lebanese border and has been hit pretty hard.....25,000 out of the 35,000 who live there have left leaving behind the sick, elderly and the poor....i spent 24 hours making food and medicine runs in and out of bomb shelters....i had people come up to me on the street and ask for food for their children.....
i wasn't the only one with a list of people and addresses...but i know not everyone was being reached....the people we found in the bomb shelters had been there for the better part of 2 weeks.....i personally evacuated a young woman who is a paraplegic to the emergency room, she was out of her meds and not doing well at all.....thank goodness it was during the 24 hour cease fire, i only saw one katusha land a ways out of town....
when i woke up Monday morning after hearing the 155mm howitzers going off every 5 minutes or so all night i heard the unmistakable sound of small arms fire followed by explosions the tell tale sign of a battle raging right on the other side of the border...this went on for some 20-25 minutes.....if you have ever fired a shot in anger the smell is what comes back somewhere in your brain triggered by those not so far away sounds
humanitarian crisis? how about 300,000 israelis forced into bomb shelters from rockets that are packed with ball bearing to maximize casualties.....the rockets targeted not at military bases but at women, children, the elderly and anyone else that is unfortunate enough to be in the way.....make no mistake we are fighting for our very existence.......even as we sit here in the comfort of our tel aviv suburb we are not only in range of their rockets but we await as the iranians are pulling hizbullahs string like a bad marionette.....is today our day.....
this is not some existential disagreement......there is no room on our battlefield for camus, nietzsche, kant or even hemingway.......this is not glorious and we most certainly to not gain pleasure from this.....our soldiers go into battle knowing that if they are not successful it is their families that will fall after them....a greater motivation is not known to man.....our greatest sorrow is that we will lose sons and husbands, fathers and brothers.....each one a precious gift to our country and our people
zaq harrison
posted by Unknown @ 10:54 PM
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