Scorched Earth

August 20, 2006 - 1:18 AM by

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David Lisbona ventured north of his Haifa home to what was, until recently, the lush green forests of the Galilee. The fires caused by Hezbollah rockets, however, have taken their toll.

As soon as the cease-fire went into effect on Monday (14 Aug) Irit suggested that we drive up for a few days to the Galilee (northern Israel) which bore the brunt of the 4000 Katyusha rockets that were fired at Israel from 12 July – 14 August.

We drove up on Tuesday and were amongst the very first visitors after the war…

He also had some reflections about what he’s been through this summer:

33 years ago I immigrated to Israel from the UK. Israel seemed to me an exciting place with warm people where I could feel at home being a Jew and not in any tension or dissonance between my national and my religious/cultural identity. For 29 years I lived in or near Tel Aviv which is the largest metropolitan area. That’s where the jobs and most of the action are, and where most of my friends and relatives lived. Four years ago I moved 100 km (60 miles) up the Mediterranean coast to Haifa, “only” 40km from the Lebanese border. It would never have occurred to me that I was moving from a “safe” part of the country to a war zone but that is what Haifa, and the rest of northern Israel has become in this war. Not that there is anything that intrinsically protects the centre of Israel from rocket attack. The Hezbollah in Lebanon have long range rockets which could hit Tel Aviv. They are fewer in number, more expensive, more complicated to deploy and therefore more vulnerable to Israeli Air Force attack. That’s why they were used less or not at all. The Syrians and the Iranians have long-range missiles which can hit most of the population centres in Israel.

This time it is us in Haifa and the other intermediate towns in northern Israel who have got a resounding wake-up call as to our vulnerability. I never imagined that I would be under rocket attack and I assure you that it’s very unpleasant. I can (and do) rationalize about the limited danger to myself and my loved ones from the 3500 Katyusha rockets that were fired against Israel this last month “only” 50 civilians were killed . But that’s not the point – it’s the sudden (and frightening) realization that we (the Jews, the Jewish State of Israel) are definitely not wanted around here, and that there are enough groups around who want to hound us out of here. For the vast majority (about 7 million) of us Jewish Israelis , we have no other home. Going “back” to Poland or Morocco where our parents and grandparents were born is not an option.

It is human nature, and quite healthy in many ways, not to think about dangers around us. If we spend the whole time thinking about the purity of our drinking water, pesticides in our food and the dangers of an earthquake , we’d enjoy life much less. But there are times, like with air raid sirens going off, that we suddenly wake up to those dangers. It’s not clear yet what we, as a family or a people, are going to do about it but we can’t ignore the danger any more. Life is going to be different.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality 

Comments

One Comment on Scorched Earth

  1. Michael - KIC on Sun, Aug 20th 2006 1:22 PM

    2. What a shocking site to see burnt out Israeli forests! Such a shame that the world focuses so much on damage to Lebanon and ignores the suffering and damage across northern Israel.

    Michael
    http://www.kicisrael.blogspot.com

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