On Thursday we began another full day. The day began with a presentation by Aluf Benn, editor in chief of Ha'aretz newspaper. He spoke with us on a lot of different topics but the focus was mainly on the election. Overall it seems as if not much will change with regard to the prime minister's office unless there is a strange upset. There has been some party movement, but overall there isn't really anyone new or any up and coming folks for which to watch. He also addressed some of the tension between Netanyahu and Obama of which there was not much new to report. E1 was mentioned but again, as perhaps leverage or posturing and not about immediate building. Overall, he was very interesting, but being as tired as I was/am this would have been a great session to record. Oh well.
Next we visited Moshav Timorim, which is about 20 miles from Gaza. There we met with Mali, a woman whose hoe suffered a direct hit from a rocket. She and her family were home when it happened. She said that her children had taken to sleeping in the ma'amad and when the tzeva adom came across she and her husband joined them. They heard 4 or 5 loud booms and then it was quiet and the alert over. They opened the door to the ma'amad and saw that half of their house was destroyed. The rocket hit the upstairs, landed on her bed, where she and her husband had just been, and then ripped through the downstairs. Because the rockets are packed with bullets and other shrapnel, you could see puncture wounds and holes in different parts of the house. Mali and her husband had just finished paying off the mortgage of their home, which the two of then built from the ground up. Their three kids - 13, 11, and 9 are a wreck. Sadly, not too long after or before (I don't recall) Mali's 13 yr old was at a friend's home during a tzeva adom. When they came out, the house next door had been hit. Being close to the rockets twice, one can only imagine what she is feeling.
Mali and her family have moved into a different home on the moshav for the time being. Almost immediately following the incident, a representative frothy Jewish Agency showed up at her home to deliver a check for $1, 000 from the fund for victims of terror. Our federation dollar's go to help that fund. All Israeli citizens, Jews, Bedouins, Arabs Christian and Muslim, who are victims of terror, can get help from this fund. It is important to note that the Israeli government does pay to help these families rebuild,but as with most places, it is not without its red tape.
Mali also told us about her dog. The dog was in the house but not in the ma'amad. Shortly after the family left, she went back looking for the dog. Initially she didn't see him and only found his bed, still intact but everything around it destroyed. Since she did not see any blood near the be, she was convinced the dog was still alive. Sure enough they found him hiding in the debris. The think that he hid under the stairs right before the rocket hit. It was interesting to hear her story about her dog, as the day before I saw a dog in sderot, and I thought it was awfully calm. I wondered, has this poor dog been traumatized by the tzeva adom and the booms?
After visiting with Mali, we went to Beer Sheva to meet with Avital Sandler Loeff, who is director of Israel Unlimited, the JDC Israel's division for disabilities and rehabilitation. We learned that for the past 3 months, Avital and the team at the Beer Sheva Center for Independent Living, had been planning for a possible emergency situation/s and how to help the disabled community.
I am going to pause here to post. I will post the rest after Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom!!!
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