SICK & TIRED

BS"D
20 Av


I'm up very late - or early - because I can't sleep. I've been sick off & on with a cold & various other ailments for the better part of a week now, which foils my plans to donate blood while I'm here. The least I can do is bleed a pint for someone injured by the war.

Being sick has allowed me to watch tv, listen to the radio & talk to people about the war. & I'm sick of it. Tired of the shocking behaviour displayed by Hizbullah, Nasrallah, Ahmadinejad & the disastrous decisions made by the Israeli government. This UN ceasefire proposal has only encouraged terrorists to rebuild, reorganize & to hit us again.

& I'm especially sick & tired of this:
A bereaved mother speaks out to Olmert
& this:
Arab nations called to destroy a weakened Israel
& especially this:
Mike Wallace (a Jew) convinced that Iranian leader is not an anti-Semite

What I would like to see is more of this:
25 Ways to Help Israel
Donate to Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) - they provide full medical services not only to Jews, but to the Druse, Christians, Bahai & Muslims when maniacs rain missiles down on us.
Peaceful & just coexistance between Jews & Arabs

So here I sit at my laptop in Jerusalem, which is a safe place to be, thank G@d, provided that our soldiers & police stop the daily attempts at suicide bombings. But young Jewish men are still being stabbed to death in the Old City. There are cops, army & UN everywhere. Ambulance, police & fire sirens as well as alarms going off frequently. Where I live is about two & a half kilometres from Bethlehem & Beyt Jala. We have a sealed room in the basement of this building, just in case.

I took the bus (which I never do here, but I'm sick) to Yoel Moshe Solomon Street so I could buy small gifts for some friends & family. I walked into a store & the woman behind the counter rose to greet me. She was American-Israeli & could tell that I was Anglo.

"Welcome", she smiled, "Thank you for coming to Israel during this crisis. It's so expensive to come & stay, so we really appreciate your supporting us when you could have just as easily stayed home or traveled somewhere else. It means a lot to us that you're here. What's your name & where are you from?"

She had a lot of pain in her eyes. I asked her how she was doing - whether business was good. She answered, "My son is in Lebanon".

Her pain turned to anguish.

I gave her a blessing that her son should return to her very soon, all in one piece in his body & as well in his head.

People seeking refuge from the north of Israel jump & cry when you so much as slam a door, or when a car backfires.

She told me of her little cousin, a young man who was killed in his tank by Hezbullah. It was so dangerous there that it took the IDF 3 days to get him out. Meanwhile, his family was given the tragic news, but were unable to have a funeral or begin shiva. They just had to wait. He was to be married next month.

When are travesties like this going to be stopped?

When will we realize this dream?

I came home after my excursion downtown only to find a refugee asleep in my housemate's room. She was from the Galilee. My housemate had driven all the way up north to deliver food, toiletries & other badly needed articles & picked her up. She must have dodged a lot of bombs to be sleeping like that.

Some friends & I visited with a family who escaped Tzfat & are staying in a vacant apartment here in Jerusalem. The mother asked, "Why should my son be opening each door only to find what behind it when we could have finished this without sending the boys into Lebanon? Lamah? Mah Karah?

Why? What's happening?

I'm sick & tired of this war.

אִם-אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם-- תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי
Im esh'kacheykh Yerushalam -- tish'kach yemini
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose her cunning.


[Addendum: for another, more eloquent & informed, Jewish Canadian's take on what is happening here, read my friend Zach.]



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