August in Israel is, quite simply, a month of vacation. There’s little chance of seeing your doctor, making that dentist appointment, or doing anything that is not related to the entertainment industry, without someone apologizing that the person you are seeking is on vacation, just about to leave on vacation, or just returned and still catching up.
Perhaps that is why Israel responded a bit more strongly than normal to yesterday’s rocket attack. Yes, that’s right. Yesterday, Gaza fired TWO rockets at Israel. First reports that came in within minutes of the siren that terrified tens of thousands of Israelis in the Sderot area, said that, by the grace of God alone, the rockets had hit “open” space. It’s a metaphor, that “open space” that is meant to calm. It’s okay. It didn’t hit a kindergarten like it did last time. It missed hitting a mall or a bus or something that would have been a national tragedy.
What it did do, was hit the “space” between two homes. Damage to property we can handle. Death and injury in the beautiful and hot vacation days of August is more than we can bear. After all, we are on vacation. Hiking the hills, splashing in the seas and waterfalls of our land. We are shopping and walking. Sleeping a bit later than we should. We are desperately holding on to the last few weeks of Summer…and they fired TWO ROCKETS at us.
Why? Well, apparently, there might be some connection to the fact that some of their terrorists have decided they want to go on vacation too and so to demand “justice” for the injustice of their attempting (or succeeding) in murdering Israelis, they are demanding something. I really don’t know what, nor do I care. They already have visitation rights with their families – more than Gilad Shalit had during the five years he was imprisoned…held captive, by Hamas in Gaza.
They have hours of sunshine each week, perhaps even each day. They are fed well, perhaps even better than what they’d eat back “home.” They are given access to obtaining a college degree. One prisoner upon being released in an exchange where we released over 1,000 terrorists for one soldier, had the nerve to turn around and sue Israel that he be allowed to finish his degree on our tab. Um…no.
Their conditions are not only legal according to international standards, they are light years ahead of conditions in their own jails and in another world as compared to the torture they so easily apply to the prisoners they take. But they decided to go on a hunger strike and in instant solidarity, Gaza fired TWO ROCKETS into an Israeli city.
If you understand the logic and believe that is a natural normal response, I pity you. If you are outraged by the idea that a nation can be blackmailed by attacking its civilians, its children free from school and playing outdoors, welcome to Israel’s reality.
Yesterday, as we vacationed and enjoyed the amazing beauty of our land, they thought it was okay to attempt to kill people, or, at very least, to terrify parents who ran to grab their children and rush, in the 15 second allocated to them, to outrun a missile.
Our nation was violated last night. As simple as that. It is a violation of all that is Summer. It robs people of the joy they need, the chance to relax for a brief moment before we begin our yearly routine.
I’ve experienced what it is like to have a missile incoming, to know you have to collect everything that is precious, your children, your spouse, your parents and run into a room. Close the door and listen. You don’t even know what you expect to hear. Sometimes it is a boom – Iron Dome smashing into a rocket and exploding it over your head. Sometimes it is an explosion. I’ve heard both.
Sometimes, it is nothing – the missile hit something but it was too far in the distance to be heard and so you wait until the news comes in. As I left the bomb shelter once, confident that it was a false alarm, reports came in that a house was hit – direct hit. Emergency services were entering the house. We held our breaths until we were told that the family had made it to the bomb shelter. The house was gone, but who cared? They were save inside the bomb shelters we build everywhere. That’s what counts. That’s all that counts.
Yesterday, the siren sounded. People ran. The missile hit and nobody died. And so our air force flew straight and true and attacked targets that were empty – the location from which the missiles were fired, a known military target. A sign, thinks Israel, a warning. Meaningless, thinks many Israelis. What the Gazans think? God knows.
But I’ll tell you something. Despite the violation, which bothers us, don’t kid yourself and don’t lessen the crime they committed by firing at tens of thousands of people…but despite that violation, guess what…
Here we are in Israel, still on vacation, still enjoying our land, our seas, our skies. There was a most beautiful sunset last night over the hills here in the north. Tsfat (Safad) streets are teeming with people, the restaurants are full, the stores overflowing.
Today, we will buy a backpack for my last teenager before she returns to school. On Thursday, my soldier comes home for a whole week! My grandsons will play in the water today, as they did yesterday.
We will gather around the table…my daughter is making waffles! Yes, they fired two rockets at Israel, which violates international law and human decency. But guess what else…as a nation, we look at them and scoff. We recognize the blessing for what it was – they have to be pretty talented to fire a missile and hit the small area between two large houses, missing everything of value, or we have to be very blessed.
Today, Israel goes with the blessing, once again. The simple miracle that they missed. Again. Still. Each and every day, we offer the same response. We live. We laugh. We love. We celebrate our land. Vacation as usual, as August flows on here in Israel.
