A new year

January 1, 2009 - 10:06 AM by David

New Year's Eve I was sitting this morning, checking out the status reports of my friends on Facebook, and thinking about the New Year, and the situation in the South.

The American friends were mostly writing about going to dinners, New Years resolutions, travelling, being cold, or referring to some other aspect of New Years and winter revelry. The Israeli friends were mostly alluding to the war in some fashion.

But that’s not to say that people here are fixated on Operation Cast Lead. My daughter reports that downtown Jerusalem was packed last night for ‘Sylvester’ celebrations, the endearingly nerdy way Israelis refer to New Years Eve, while thinking they’re being cool.

So we have a situation that, like the rest of the world, Israelis are out partying despite what’s going on in the south of the country. And when you stop to think about it, what’s going on in the south of the country is just mind-boggling. According to news reports last night, 600,000 Israeli citizens are within range of Hamas rockets and Kassams.

A Home Front commander was on TV advising residents of Beersheva, Sderot, Ashkelon and other southern communities not to gather for New Years Eve parties last night out of fear that a well placed rocket could cause major casualties. A couple that was getting married on New Years Ever in Beersheva changed the venue at the last minute for that very reason to the safer confines of Rehovot.

How long can we – meaning the people of the South and the country at large – endure this kind of situation? Well, for quite a while actually, as the Second Lebanon War in 2006 displayed. Israelis are quite resilient, and we realize that the pre-war situation, when it was just Hamas attacking us, is unacceptable.

But it would be nice if someone was telling us what’s going on, and providing the residents of the South with some encouragement and guidance during this unfathomable situation.
Why haven’t Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, or Ehud Barak or Tzipi Livni, given a ‘State of the Union’ address, particularly the residents of the South, and told them ‘listen, this is going to get bad, you’re going to get bombed and it’s going to be unpleasant and dangerous. But we’re doing this to disable Hamas from being able to fire rockets at you ever again.”

But no, nothing. It’s all implied that we – the government and the army – are going to do what’s neccessary, and you – the people – will only have to be told things on a need to know basis. We may be great fighters – although between the Lebanon War and our current inability to stop Hamas, that assumption is being challenged – but we’re terrible communicators.

Imagine the United States attacking Mexico in order to prevent a constant barrage of missiles from Tiajuana onto San Diego, and nobody from the government from the President on down addressing the people of San Diego and warning them that it’s going to be getting a little rough, but we have your backs covered.

Anyway, that’s what I get for checking status reports on Facebook. I guess if I was going to write a New Year’s wish for 2009 on my own status report, it would be that, instead of rockets, peace and quiet begin raining down on the South of Israel.

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Tags: Beersheva, Facebook, Gaza, New Year's Eve, Olmert • Category: A New Reality, Israeliness, Life, War

Comments

2 Comments on A new year

David-Joe on Thu, Jan 1st 2009 6:56 PM

As an Israeli born and raised on a border kibbutz with Jordan, and remembering as a kid having to run to shelters in the middle of the night – then surfacing after “Ariks boys” came and went after thm, I can answer the question wny Israelis do not need the American crutch of the Prez. telling them that it will be okay.

Israelis are not Americans. We understand what is going on and can rely on our own mental strength.

If the PM or someone went on tv and delivered the usual nonsesne that American presidents have to do, can you imagne how Israelis would react?

Maybe you have lived in Israel long enough to know that such a thng would be laughed at and the PM would be suspected of something.

SO stop trying Americanize Israel, we have done perfectly well doing it our own way – with some support from friends alongthe way such as France and the United States.

My only request to Israel’s friends is just stop the world long enough to let the IDF get the job done. Forget we are Jews and pretend we are French – that would give us all the time in the world because nobody cares what the French do and ho long it takes them.

e. weisbord on Fri, Jan 2nd 2009 1:02 AM