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.