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My Take On Things

7/29/2014

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Every morning, first thing, I switch on the computer and do check of the news. Rockets overnight? Soldiers hurt or worse? Secretary of State Kerry said anything else as ridiculous as his previous comments? Obama? Well, we lived through Kissinger and Nixon, so I guess that we'll live through this pair.

That's one thing about being Jewish -- you always know that it could be worse.

I should be getting more work done but I spend so much time jumping from my FB feed to the news stations that I'm falling behind. One of the most frustrating things is the amount of commentaries that appear on my screen, with introductory messages from friends that say things like "if you only read one thing about the conflict, read this" or "not to be missed" or the lure "you won't believe what _______ said/did/showed." I try to ignore most of them, just for my sanity, but I do get drawn in, way too much."

So here are my thoughts. Bear with me.

Hamas had dozens of tunnels that they'd dug well into Israeli territory, some of them right under Israeli kibbutzim and other border communities.

According to Israeli intelligence, Hamas planned to send thousands of their operatives into these tunnels on Rosh Hashana, to break into the communities and slaughter the residents as well as to take many of them hostage back into Gaza. Not only that, but we now know that Hamas has Israeli uniforms -- if they would have come through in uniform, it would have been unimaginable chaos.

Rosh Hashana is 2 months away. If Hamas has just sat tight for another 2 months, they would have gotten away with this massive attack. Israel evidently had no idea, and the army would have been ill-equipped to deal with the attack when it took place. So all they had to do was to wait quietly and -- 9/11 would have paled in comparison.

But in June three young boys were kidnapped by Hamas operatives in the West Bank. Israel clamped down on Hamas in the West Bank which encouraged Hamas in the Gaza Strip to start firing rockets. The ceaseless rocket firings caused Israel to enter Gaza, locate the tunnels and learn about the planned attack.

The kidnapping and murder of the three boys was terrible, but perhaps there was a different Plan from above. Perhaps, by sacrificing their lives, they saved the lives of thousands of Israelis.

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Miracles

7/17/2014

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If I hear another person talk about luck, in relation to the fact that over 800 rockets have fallen on Israel and, so far, only one person has died, I'm going to seriously question their sanity. How do you ignore so many miracles?

Zahals spokes man reported that to day at 4:30 am, a tunnel with 13 terrorists was was found just before they entered a Jewish Kibutz (Sufa). If Their plans would have been successful we would have woken up to a day of a massacre like we have not seen in years.

Ashdod-
A rocket fell in a gas station with 35.000 liters of gasoline, which haven't exploded.

Gaza-
We wanted to cut them off from electricity, but the world stood up gaginst it, so Hashem had cut off 50.000 houses form electricity by their own rocket.

Beer Sheva-
Kids were playing in a football court , and a rocket fell right there right after they left.
not far from there another rocket fell by a gas balloon and didn't explode.

Eshkol-
A rocket fell in a kitchen right before the family went in. nothing happened.

Negev-
the girls went out and a rocket fell in their room right after they left.

Near Jerusalem-
A rocket fell on a balcony of a family and did not explode.

Holon-
A rocket "missed" a child by a split second.

Ashkalon
A rocket fell on a pediatric clinic on the one day of the week when the dr. didn't see patients


Nes Tziona-
A rocket fell on a high way full of cars - No One got hurt................
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Still On the Edge

7/17/2014

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After a week of ceaseless rocket attacks on our population centers, the ground forces have been sent into Gaza. I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

I'm full of worry for our soldiers and the civilians who are living in such terror. I feel horrible for the Gaza citizens, the innocent ones who never did anything except try to feed their families and live under Hamas. Yet Israel has no choice.

I'm bewildered and aghast at the people who blame Israel for this situation and feel that our government should ignore the people who are trying to destroy our country and refrain from responding to the rocket fire.

Most of all however, I can't help being grateful that I live in a place in which we have an army to defend us, a government that protects us and an entire infrastructure that  will do everything possible to keep us safe and secure.

I can't help but contrast our situation today with that of the Jews of Europe whose governments, armies and neighbors turned on them. As difficult as things are now, it can't even begin to compare with the terror that the Jews lived and died under. No one helped them with psychological help when they were terrorized, no one saw to their wounds, no one ensured that they would be compensated for damaged property.....

My daughter rolls her eyes when, after every fast, I mention that fast days remind me of the people who didn't have anything to eat after the fast. So I don't share these thoughts with anyone. But whatever happens, at least I live in my country that protects and defends
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On the Edge

7/10/2014

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It's kind of how I feel -- on the edge. (Coincidently, the military operation is called "Defensive Edge.I live in Israel, but in a quiet area, where the Hamas rockets haven't yet reached.

It's surreal, cooking for Shabbat, and listening to the radio announcer break into the broadcast every few minutes to say "there's a siren in .......". Since I started cooking at 11:00a.m. I've heard announcements of dozens of alerts, all over the south and center of the country. I can hardly concentrate, so I can only wonder how the people who are in the midst of the situation are managing. I remember the drill from 2006, when the north was under rocket fire -- you try to concentrate, but can't.

Not much that I can do from here except to keep the people of the south in my thoughts and prayers. I did accept a last-minute group of 8 girls for Shabbat dinner, so I feel as though I did something. (Of course, that involved a revised cooking schedule, but we should be OK.)

Vegan Shabbat dinner:
vegetable rolls (in pastry dough)
rice with pesto
potato kugel
sweet potato kugel
BIG salad
BIG challah
dips
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Tricky, Tricky

7/6/2014

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Interesting Shabbat lunch. We had a local family of new immigrants join us -- their story would make a good book. (The father, originally from LA, lived all over the Far East for many years and has a daughter with an Indian woman who left when the girl was very young. The father met a Philippina woman online and went to live in the Philippines . They married and had 2 children and lived on a small island. They became more religiously observant via the local Chabad and right after the typhoon, they made aliyah. There's actually much more to the story than that, but suffice it to say that they are always interesting guests!) There was also an engaged couple -- the woman did Livnot many years ago and we were friendly then.....her fiance is a lovely guy and I appreciate his easy-going nature. We had 3 guests from Livnot who are in Tzfat for various periods of time and a neighbor who lives in the apartment below my house.

The "excitement" started when I asked the Livnoters to share any "Words of Wisdom" that they may have prepared at Livnot (it's kind of Livnot's answer to a Dvar Torah.....inspirational thoughts, but not necessarily related to the week's Portion of the Torah).

The young man shared his Words of Wisdom -- basically that, because of the high possibility that a gay Orthodox youth may attempt suicide (as born out by statistics), the mitzvah of preserving a life overrides the prohibition against homosexual behavior and the Orthodox community should adopt a more open and welcoming stance towards gays.

What a can of worms! Our neighbor kept insisting that, "the Torah says....." about the prohibition against homosexual activity while the rest of us tried to emphasize "live and let live."

Glad that I had a glass of wine in my stomach so that I could stay relatively mellow. Never boring a
 
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    Laurie

    Laurie has lived in Safed for almost 30 years. She's the mother of five kids, all of whom were born and raised in Safed.

    Laurie began to blog at Safed.blogspot in 2004. She has been writing about daily life in Safed, as well as her own involvement with the local community, Safed institutions and individuals and her goal of improving the city one step at a time.

    The blog has now migrated to this site.

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