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July 21, 2006
Waiting out the rising storm
Israelis live in fear, hope as tensions escalate on two fronts.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
For more than three weeks now, Israel has been embroiled in an
escalating armed conflict with the Palestinian terror organization
Hamas and the Lebanon-based, Iran- and Syria-backed Hezbollah.
Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip immediately after
the kidnapping of Israel Defence Forces soldier Cpl. Galid Shalit
from a border crossing post June 25. Two other IDF soldiers were
killed during the incident.
On July 12, two reserve soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev,
were taken from their posts by members of Hezbollah in an operation
in which a further eight IDF soldiers died. Israel immediately responded
with an aerial incursion into southern Lebanon, bombing Hezbollah
strongholds and such strategic targets as the international airport
in Beirut, to prevent the transport of weapons materials into the
country from outside sources. A large number of civilians have been
killed since the offensive began, and there have been calls from
some members of the international community – including the
leaders of France, Russia, Britain and the United Nations –
for Israel to tone down its response.
Within Israel itself, dozens of people have been killed or wounded
by a constant influx of Katyusha rockets and longer-range missiles
that have landed as far inside the border as Haifa and Tiberias.
The port of Haifa – the main entrance to Israel by sea –
has now been shut down. The northern part of Israel is currently
under martial law and residents are being advised to remain indoors
as much as possible, within easy reach of a bomb shelter.
At the beginning of this week, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz
approved the summoning of an additional three battalions for IDF
reserve duty. The reservists are set to replace troops currently
operating in the West Bank, allowing those soldiers to be deployed
in the north, to assist in the conflict with Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, in a speech to the Knesset Monday evening, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert affirmed, "Israel will not be held hostage
– not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any
sovereign state. We are entitled to our freedom and, when necessary,
we know how to fight for it and defend it."
Olmert said the Israeli campaign would continue until all three
kidnapped soldiers were freed, southern Lebanon was under the control
of the Lebanese government, Hezbollah had been expelled and a cease-fire
was in effect on both fronts.
On Monday, the Independent contacted several people in Israel with
Vancouver connections.
Although they expressed some degree of alarm, everyone interviewed
spoke with equanimity about the eventual outcome of Israel's current
operations and a sense of resilience in the face of what has become
the country's worst crisis in a number of years.
An overriding theme was that those living in the centre or south
of the country have extended open invitations to residents of northern
Israel, offering them a respite from the fraught situation.
"We have already sent out invitations to our relatives and
their friends to join us in Tel-Aviv," said Freeman Poritz,
a former Vancouverite currently serving in the IDF. He added that
since a warning of potential rocket attack was issued for Tel-Aviv
last Sunday, "I packed an emergency bag containing clothing,
snacks and water, even a little cash. In case I need to get out
of my apartment building quickly and high-tail it to a public bomb
shelter, I know that my 'emergency bag' is ready. I need to be able
to survive for approximately 48 hours living out of this bag."
In the north, people are already spending much of their time inside
bomb shelters.
"It's difficult to stay in the shelter many hours," said
Haim Barbivai, mayor of Kiryat Shemona, one of Jewish Vancouver's
sister cities in the Galilee. "We are not enjoying it. But
we have nothing to do, because if we want to be alive, we have to
be in the shelters."
Barbivai said that residents were only leaving the shelters for
a short time in the morning, to buy food – and that 15 per
cent of the population had already left: "they've gone to Tel-Aviv,
to family in the south."
Still, he was optimistic that the IDF would accomplish its mission.
"Say to everybody in Vancouver, we are strong and we have a
passion that the army [will] finish its work," he said. "We
have a lot of patience to give the army to do its work. We believe
that the army will win. The truth is on our side."
Mira Peled is principal of Har-Vagai High School in the Upper Galilee
Panhandle, sister school to Vancouver's King David High School.
Students from each school have been on exchange visits for the last
two years. "It [the conflict] will pass," said Peled hopefully.
"Things will be better and it's very important to feel that
you think about us."
Peled lives on Kibbutz Dafna, near Kiryat Shemona. While her own
surroundings are relatively calm, she said, in the cities, "People
are not at ease, because they can't do whatever they do. They have
to stay at home, they have the kids at home, and it's a vacation,
so it's not that easy. We are used to being outside all the time,
especially in the summer.
"It's not nice," she continued, "but we've been here
before. I don't know where it's going to, that's what I'm concerned
about. I hope we don't go into Lebanon by foot. We've been there
and we don't like to be there again."
"We're all worried about the soldiers," said Doba Shaver,
a former Vancouverite who has lived in Safed for the past 12 years.
"We have to daven for these soldiers at home. Everybody cares
about each other here. Israel is very cohesive. It's a very small
country – everybody's involved with everybody else. It's a
very beautiful, warm feeling."
Safed has been hit numerous times by Katyushas over the past week
- including a major explosion last Friday. That, said Shaver, was
a "very, very scary one. It was a very loud bang."
As yet, she and her family have not left their apartment building
– although they've had offers of hospitality from complete
strangers in other parts of the country. Everyone, she said, is
taking a different approach – some staying put, some leaving,
some seeking refuge in bomb shelters. Among them is a friend of
hers with six children, the youngest of whom are five-month-old
twins.
"I live in a building with about 80 families – it's a
big building – and almost everybody's gone," said Shaver.
"They went to relatives around the country. A lot of people
were scared and they went away. In Safed itself, there's no one
here. It's a little eerie. It's really quiet, it's like a ghost
town. It's really weird."
What she's most upset by is international media coverage of the
current conflict – the suggestion that Israel is being heavy-handed.
"That's nothing new," said Shaver. "The whole world
hates Jews and that's just a fact. They always are down on Israel.
My kids say, 'I don't understand, we're not allowed to defend ourselves?
I don't understand, why is the world saying that?'
"We've been through this so many times where we say to the
Arabs, 'If you do this, we'll do this' and they say 'OK,' and then
we'll do our part and they don't do theirs. Just over and over again,
it boggles my mind how the world doesn't get mad at them, but they
don't.
"They [the terrorists] are sending the rockets from people's
homes. So Israel, to defend ourselves, has to hit these homes. Then
poor Lebanese people get killed, that's what you see on the TV.
But they [the IDF] tell the Lebanese people, they tell the civilians,
'Get out of the house, we have to bomb it,' but they don't get out
of the house. Their own brothers don't care if they die. They're
told, 'Don't leave the house, because we want to show on TV how
Israel's murdering these poor little civilians.' It's very upsetting,
but it's just the way it is – the world is anti-Semitic. I
don't know if it's jealousy, I don't know what it is, but the Jews
are always made to look bad."
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