"We need to continue acting to bring the peace and quite," Minister Eli Yishai of Shas (the religious party), Deputy Prime Minister, said after ducking down to hide from a falling rocket. The rockets have a longer range, greater precision, and are built like the Katyusha rockets Hizbollah uses – they contain small metal balls designed to maximize the death and destruction caused when the rocket explodes.
Explosive belts use the same idea – cover them with bolts and nuts and the effect will be so much greater, the harm inflicted on live tissues magnified tremendously.
The third day of Operation Lead Cast was a cloudy, rainy day. It is said that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has more difficulty acting (or seeing) under such conditions. At the beginning of the day, it seemed Hamas is not reacting as forcefully as expected. Given the arsenal at Hamas's disposal and its need to react lest it looses its bully status would indicate the silence is just before the storm is to hit.
Today was the last day of Hannukah, the Festival of Lights. It is also the last day of a week-long vacation. Anyone boarding the trains toward Tel Aviv saw them full of parents with kids, going to a day in the City. Possibly more than yesterday, the shopping centers were full as the rain caused the parents to spend the time inside. The last day of calm. Curly heads of kids. All ages, roaming around enjoying the last day of freedom.
Lunch at the Nation's Square in Tel Aviv reminded me dining at Spago in Beverly Hills, just off Rodeo Drive. The restaurant was full, business as usual. War going on anywhere? I received a phone call inviting me to attend a Gala Award Dinner in Jerusalem. Aish HaTorah (Fire of the Torah) is having its annual event there.
A Gala Dinner in Jerusalem
Aish HaTorah is a world leader in creative Jewish educational programs and leadership training. Founded in Jerusalem in 1974, it operates today 26 full time branches on five continents, welcoming a hundred thousand people to their programs, 2.5 million visits a month to Aish.com and more than a quarter of a million unique email subscribers. Aish's reach is impressive, the content of their videos and articles thought provoking and its mission dedicated to answering the vital question "Why be Jewish?!"
Rabbi Noah Weinberg, the Founder of Aish HaTorah, acting as Rosh Yeshiva (head of the seminary) welcomed the guests. Rabbi Weinberg talked about the Jewish Maccabim and their miraculous war against the Greeks, a superpower that ruled the world at that time. At the end of a twenty year revolt, the Maccabim drove out the Greeks. We – the Maccabim, modern day Israelis – made a revolution, teaching the world we do not make peace with tyranny, obscenity, cruelty. WE FIGHT. The Jews did not give up. They did not forget their – and we do not forget our – mission on this earth – TIKUN OLAM ("correcting the world").
Rabbi Weinberg, full of inner fire and foresight, asked: Do we care about humanity, about our Father in Heaven, about our brothers, about the kids in Sderot (the city half a mile away from Gaza that has been the subject to daily rocket attacks for the past eight years)? Do we care, he asks, about humanity turning to a central depravity? and he answers:
If it hurts, yell
If it hurts and you yell, act
If it hurts and you yell and you act –
REALIZE: We are the children of the same GOD
IT IS NOT TOO LATE, WE CAN DO IT, AND NOW IS THE PROPER TIME.
I sat and listened, realizing I am witnessing a miracle – the manifestation of all that is good in Judaism emanating from Jerusalem - the concept of GOD and the idea of love thy neighbor we taught the world - expressed by the leader of an organization spreading a message that we, the Jews, changed the world, that the time for act is now.
Newly elected Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, presented the Boneh Yerushalayim (Builder of Jerusalem) Award to former Israeli Ambassador to the USA, his Excellency Danny Ayalon. Nir Barkat also sent a message from the residents of Jerusalem to those of the South: We invite you, during these days of fighting, to Jerusalem. We Open Our Hearts and Homes to You. We want to host you in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem's City Hotline connects families who wish to host with those who want to come to Jerusalem for a short break from the constant threat of rockets.
Night Falls, Rockets are Launched
From the Gala Dinner I cross the street to the central bus station to take a bus back. The driver does not understand the optimism shown on my face: "Did you not hear?" He asks. I did, earlier in the day one dead and 15 wounded when a rocket his a construction site. Later during the day, an Arab stubbed several Israelis. Other than that – a tense calm of the last nine hours. "No," he says, "the rockets have just fallen in the port city of Ashdod."
It is raining at 10:30PM, we are on the way from Jerusalem. 40 shock victims, a dozen wounded, including four critically wounded, one person died (a Druze serving in a military base). A women is on the operating table in Kaplan Hospital (where the bus is headed), two others are fighting for their lives at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva.
Half an hour later, the woman dies during the operation from massive internal bleeding. 39 year old, mother of four, she was in a car when the siren sounded. She stopped the car and went out to find shelter. Silence. Some passengers say a prayer.
The Home Front Command is opening new stations in order to give a better response to the ever expanding circles of violence. The reach of Hamas has not lessened. The IAF has been successful in hitting some of the production capabilities (labs manufacturing new explosives and rockets), possibly crippling this capability temporarily, but the military arm of Hamas is apparently unharmed, its caches untapped – a vast inventory of rockets and missiles of all kinds.
The IDF Spokesperson relates the following message: "THE IDF IS PREPARED AND READY FOR THE ORDER ONCE IT ARRIVES." The Home Front Command urges people to follow its instructions – it saves lives. Leaflets are distributed in additional cities to the citizens to know what to do when a siren is heard – a new era has began, that of Kassam and 122mm Grad rockets. People need to digest this new reality and act as instructed, while trying to maintain normal life schedules.
The Prime Minister warns of targets that will be hit in a very substantial manner. The leadership of Hamas goes underground. The Minister of Defense states: "Israel will use all the methods and means at its disposal to ensure the rocket barrage onto Israel is stopped."
The people on the bus all listen to the radio. The driver is focused on bringing us safely to our destinations, a road accident causing a major backup. As the drive continues, live reports on the radio talk about rockets continue falling, constantly reaching further north, hitting accurately. It is getting close to midnight of the third day of Operation Lead Cast, under the cloud and rain cover, Hamas rat-operatives come out of the tunnels, aim at civilian populations and hit and then return to their tunnels. Time and time again.
Hamas continues to hit us with propaganda as well, always maintaining a clear, distant lead. Hamas sprints ahead, we lag considerably behind. The next few hours and days will tell. The first three days of the war have been conducted much like the Second War in Lebanon, same script. The enemy has learned what was effective and is using it again. Does Israel have new surprises in its arsenal? An exit strategy? Anything but a warning to its citizens the fight will be long and painful?
Two-face Propaganda – Saying One Thing and Meaning Another
On this third day of Operation Lead Cast, Israeli Arabs continue to follow a familiar script. They go to demonstrate in the thousands. These are violent protests, a life and death situation to Jews who may be innocent bystanders or happen to drive through the area at that moment in time. People get hurt and property damaged. These protests are a step away from turning into mob-lynching and riots, the sorts of which we saw in Los Angeles.
The Mayor of Um El Fachem, a predominantly Muslim city slightly larger than Beverly Hills near Haifa, has provided the following interview. I am providing the translation:
· "Expressing an opinion does not mean we are not part of Israel"
· i.e. it is legitimate to express vehemently poisonous criticism against Israel and to aid and abate Israel's enemies during the time of war
· "Indeed there were a few young ones who went to the main road [and acted violently]"
· i.e. these are extremists, not the general population ("Islam is a Peaceful Religion, the Islamists Hijacked Islam")
· "The vast majority tried to prevent them from doing so"
· i.e. but we were not successful because we did not really try and because we actually support what they do (also: 9/11 cannot reflect on the peace loving Muslims; most Muslims do not condone what took place)
· "Our opinion is that if Israel will only provide food, medical supplies and electricity, there will not be more Kassams"
· i.e. the Siege is the source of all evil, the fact that all the above are being supplied, even today, is irrelevant to the Mayor. Whom is he trying to persuade that there will be no more Kassams? Israel unilaterally left Gaza three years ago, usage of rockets and the method of kidnapping soldiers only intensified.
· "We are against killing of civilians – on all sides"
· i.e. there exists moral equivalency between Israel who is trying to protect its civilian population and uses medical precision in targeting Hamas terrorists and Hamas that uses the Gazans as human shields and target Israeli cities.
We must wake up: The "Occupation" of Judea and Samaria is not the issue. There is no "siege" or "holocaust" in Gaza. Israel allowed 23 trucks of aid to enter Gaza and the Minister of Defense now allowed 100 more trucks to cross tomorrow. There is no moral equivalency. There is a clear attempt to use our systems – like freedom of speech – against us. There is a propaganda war to mislead ourselves – maybe we err? maybe we are wrong? – and it sounds very convincing.
Israel is the last line of defense in the spread of radical Islam. The advancing sphere of influence is led by a sovereign country, a member of the United Nations, intended to become a world superpower and control more lands that it already controls, to change our way of life in the West that even we will not recognize it any more.
It is not too late. We can (and must) wake up and take action. Now is the proper time.
E-mail:
aribussel@gmail.com
