Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The country we chose to live in



So this is the country we've chosen to live in. A country in which more than 40% of its population has had to run to find shelter from rockets being fired by Hamas from the Gaza strip. A country towards which more than 180 rockets have been fired in the last 24 hours. A country in which in certain areas, a mother has 15 seconds, the time it takes you to pour a cup of coffee, to gather her four children and run to the bomb shelter. A country in which I have to tell my family, who lives abroad, that the news make it sound worse than it is just to keep them calm. Yet, it is the country I feel safe in. No other country in the world goes to such lengths to keep their citizens safe. We have bomb shelters and iron domes and chayalim who proudly go out to defend our citizens.

Yesterday afternoon I took my kids with a couple of friends to a kibbutz near Modiin to collect grapes and step on them to make grape juice. The perfect afternoon for the kids. We were having a great time. And all of a sudden, the sound of a siren filled the air. We were in the field with no shelter to run into. We gathered the children and hid under tables. I had Ilanit, my youngest, who is a year and a half old, duck under the table and i laid on top of her trying to protect her head and mine, while my 6 year old, Nathan, was hiding with the rest of the children nearby. Not being next to both my children and the uncertainty of whether Nathan was doing what he was supposed to in this situations was terrifying. We hid for what seemed like an eternity, but what must have been two minutes until we felt the ground shake and the resound of a rocket hitting open ground. My first taste at this country's crude reality. I can't imagine a mother who has to go through what I went yesterday several times a day.

Today however, as rockets continue to be fired and we find ourselves at what hasn't yet been cataloged as war, but I cannot find a different name for, Israelis went to work, visited coffee shops and restaurants, went grocery shopping and took the kids to school. Because in Israel, life doesn't stop. Because we are Am Israel, we don't let anyone push us over, we are strong and we want to live in peace and will do whatever is necessary to ensure that we continue to enjoy the freedoms that this beautiful country provides.


Sunday, July 6, 2014

Am Echad, Lev Echad

What do you say about the past week's events that hasn't already been said? The impact the death of our three boys (OUR boys because after 18 days of searching for Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, of hoping they would come home, they became our boys), had on every one in Israel was immense and when we heard the devastating news that they would not be coming home because they had been brutally murdered by terrorists, the loss wasn't just for their families, but for every one of us. 

I have read article after article from people from different points of views, from different levels of religiousness, from different backgrounds and nationalities, but all with the same message of support and same tone of sorrowfulness. If I wrote about this week's events, my blog wouldn't be any different. I feel the same sadness, the same anger, the same sorrow that everyone has felt this past week. So instead of writing about the three boys and the terrible loss this country had, I want to share the impact today of all days this week has had on me.


Today, I went with a friend and her family to visit the shiva of two of these boys' families. I didn't want to intrude during this very sorrowful moment, but at the same time I wanted to show my support. To be like one of the thousands of people who have shown the families during these past few days that they are not alone. And so I went, and what I saw and felt was incredible. 

The amount of people at the Frenkel's house was unbelievable. Naftali's parents were sitting under a tent in their backyard surrounded by tens of people tying to give their condolences. Among those, was Sherri Mandell, whose son Koby was brutally murdered by terrorists in 2001. I was not farther than a yard away when one of those moments in which the world starts moving in slow motion took place. Sherri Mandell and Rachel Frenkel saw each other. Two women who had never met, but who recognized each other from TV and who now share an inexplicable bond held each other's hands. I couldn't hear what they said, but I could feel the intensity of the moment. 
We then visited Gilad's family's home. We had the incredible opportunity to sit with Gilad's parents and one of his sisters in their living room and listen to stories about Gilad and we talked about how not only in Israel, but in the US, in Colombia, in Panama and everywhere in the world, the boys are being remembered and memorials are being held in their names. Bat-Galim, Gilad's mother told us how a month ago the parents of these three boys had never met, but today, they share an incredible bond and they have found a new family in each other.

And just like the Mandells and the Frenkels and the Sha'ers and the Yifrahs share an unbreakable bond, Am Israel has bonded together over this tragedy, like we usually bond over difficult times. I have been utterly amazed at how an entire country mobilized to first find these children and now to comfort their families. Am echad, lev echad. The people of Israel is one nation, we are one heart.