Israel is under fire.
Southern Israel has been getting hit for over 10 years
and people always said “wait till the rockets hit Tel Aviv!”
Well, rockets from Gaza have hit Tel Aviv.
Again and again people run to bomb shelters after the sirens.
Operation Protective Edge is going into a third week.
In Jerusalem, Israel we have had “only” a few sirens,
so the daily routine like hanging the washing goes on.
Fall school supplies are ready in shops, though there are very few shopping for the fall.
Some tourists are cancelling their trips,
ElAl has room to spread out on their flights and thanks those who fly with them.
But people are still eating falafel on King George Street.
Jaffa Road towards the Old City,
and towards Machane Yehuda Market, the shuk,
looks the same minus lots of Arab women shopping,
but it is the month of Ramadan and they are fasting month and it is hot.
I did spot one interesting couple,
I had to get a good photo of those shoes.
Everyone knows someone who has been called up for duty,
and my son-in-law has been on the Egyptian border
on reserve duty for over two weeks.
Like so many other young mothers, my daughter is trying to manage
with her children out of school, work and appointments…
and how to get to them all to a bomb shelter
when there is a siren warning of incoming rockets.
Jerusalem Cinema City is one popular option for an outing,
being that most of it is safely underground.
But the Bloomfield Science Museum and
Israel Museum also provide fun and educational activities.
And in this crazy upside down time,
last week as planes flew over head in Abu Gosh,
a caterer held a tasting for a dozen August weddings.
We ate it all and keep planning the wedding.
At the same time it is hard to not think about
and thank all our Israeli soldiers,
as friends went to Ashkelon to be with their wounded son,
and another funeral begins.
And so we join forces again and stand united in our grief for our beautiful, too young, children who have been killed during the last few days (last few days!!!). Can it be, that we entered into our bubble of complacency, as hundreds of rockets lit up the sky with their deathly “beauty’ of lights, flights across the heavens and pretty, puffy balls of white cloud, as they were shot down one by one, by our amazing “hand of God” Iron Dome?
It is not as if we did not know that we would suffer losses on our side – if and when, men in high places decided to send in ground troops, based on information about terrorists, tunnels, human shields, bombs under hospitals, residential areas, schools and mosques.
We the little people depend on our leader’s decisions, intelligence, technology and expertise in defending our people and our country; and we, the little people pay the ultimate price, mourning
(can we call them, necessary deaths??) of our sons and fathers.
We grieve for our young widows and baby orphans;
We stand in awe at 20,000 of our people who gathered at the funeral of one young “lone soldier” Sean Carmeli, from Texas to pay him last respects and honor.
Another American Max Steinberg from LA was also killed in the fighting; and we have no words anymore. “Thank you” what a stupid word… for a tragedy of such magnitude.
Beautiful words as always. I am just home from another funeral of lone soldier from California at Har Herzl.. overwhelmed and without words.. will have to share some photos soon. Standing next to grave of Roi Klein z”l could only think of such talent lost…so tragic.
It is surreal being here up in the beautiful North of beloved Israel, watching from so far, and yet so near the tragedies which touch each and every one of us. Maybe one day we will see the reason for this loss of precious lives and how we are forced to live and die by the choice of madmen, who crave their own deaths.
We stay strong and united and with every imagined victory they may claim, we know better, how they fail as human beings.
These are the pictures that everybody needs to see. We’re also in the north, as Avril says, watching from far – and yet near. Thank you for sharing these. Stopping by from Haveil Havalim; feel free to come on back and see me at Adventures in AliyahLand.
Thanks so please feel free to share, planning more for this week..All the families I know visiting Israel now are having a great time. Less crowded than usual summer, so better for tourists now.