The fall of a wall

August 15, 2010 - 9:23 PM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, War

Removing the Gilo barrier. (Photo: Ynet/Noam Moskowitz)

It may not be as dramatic as the Berlin Wall coming down, but for anyone who was in Israel during the years of the Second Intifada at the beginning of the 2000s, the dismantling of the concrete barrier that has separated the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from the nearby village of Beit Jalla is indeed a big deal.

The Palestinian village was basically taken over by terror organizations who muscled into homes and used the vantage point to launch barrages of missiles and sniper fire on the Israeli neighborhood over a period of several months, causing death and destruction.

The IDF erected a barrier consisting of 800 concrete plates to prevent the sniper fire, and it’s remained in place ever since, even though there has been little violence in the ensuing years. This week, the residents of Gilo are beginning a new chapter as the IDF has started dismantling the concrete plates, a project that is estimated to take about two weeks.

Yediot Aharonot spoke to some of the residents of the neighborhood’s
Ha’anafah Street, which suffered the most attacks. And they had mixed feelings about the wall finally coming down.

“To be honest, I’m a little scared, I just hope its not an opening for something bad; that they’ll see the walls coming down and it will start all over again,” said Ester Cohen.

Cohen remembers the frightening time 10 years ago, “I live in the same house since the shootings, and it was a very difficult experience. I have a disabled daughter, and she would enter a trance of fear, screaming and shouting. There is still a little trauma. I am not completely okay with them taking it down, but I hope it signifies the start of an age of sanity. I would like to feel that I live in a sane place, like anywhere else.”

Maybe the removal of the concrete barrier separating Gilo and Beit Jalla will be the beginning of that age of sanity.

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Tags: Beit Jallah, Gilo, IDF, jerusalem, terrorists

Fred Teng Gets It

January 14, 2009 - 9:58 PM by DavidS · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Life, Politics, Profiles, War

Given the avalanche of hate against Israel on the internet, at anti-Israel protests around the world, and in the media (of course!), it’s easy to believe that “nobody” likes us. By “nobody,” I mean, of course, folks from the wide world. And even if they are willing to overlook our “crimes” in Gaza (no, of course I don’t mean that), they still don’t “get it” – they just can’t understand what we’re up against. missile1

So I wanted to share with you a message I got from a friend who’s in New York right now. There was a big pro-Israel rally this past Sunday, featuring speakers from the Jewish and general community. According to the message I got,

“The most powerful speaker at Sunday’s massive rally for Israel was Fred Teng, president of the Chinese Community Relations Council of NY. His words would have been exceptional even coming from an Israeli — and how much more striking for having come from the heart of a New Yorker and a member of the Chinese community.”

Suffice to say Mr. Teng “gets it.” He’s got Hamas’ number – comparing them to the gangs of big American cities who get their jollies running drive by shootings against innocent people. In the words of Mr. Teng,

“Enough is enough”

“These Qassam Rockets and the people behind them are like Drive-by Shootings. We have to put every gang member away for good, not just the ones that did the shooting. These Qassam Rockets and the people behind them are like a Fire in the Forest, You can’t STOP only half of the fire in the forest, and thinking you will be safe. If your house is next to the fire, you won’t think so. It is not the Qassam Rockets; it is the people behind the Qassam Rockets that we need to go after. This is an epidemic threat to the entire world.

“In the last 60 years, every gesture of peace by Israel only met with escalated violence. Every peace proposal, whether it is multi-lateral, bi-lateral, or uni-lateral was never honored by the terrorists. However, in this time of extreme difficulties, we shall not lose hope. We shall say yes to Peace. We shall say yes to Life. And we shall forever say yes to an eternal Israel Am Yisrael Chai.

Maybe someone should tell this guy we have an election coming up? Sounds like he’d make a good prime minister!

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Tags: activism, American Jews, coexistence, Gaza, hamas, IAF, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Israeli Air Force, Israeli Jews, Kassams, media, Operation Cast Lead, Politics, Qassam, rocket, Sderot, terror, terrorist, terrorists, War

ISRAEL21C Behind the Filming: Science has no Borders

January 13, 2009 - 3:29 PM by Molly · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Life, War

I recently filmed a news story about the Weizmann Institute and the Davidson Institute opening their doors to children of the south. Since the war with Gaza started schools have been closed forcing children to stay home while rockets rain down on their towns. These kids are not being properly educated about the fundamentals, but rather learning the hard lessons of life under fire. The children who experience the daily barrage of rockets are suffering from emotional trauma and will most likely be scarred for life as they remember their childhood days hiding at home when the sirens went off.

The institutes are currently providing educational refuge on their campuses and will continue to do so until the war is over. Kids of all ages can play outside in their amazing science park (I didn’t get the chance to play but it looked like a lot of fun) or experiment in their science labs. (Note: the science experiment the children are doing in the video is how to make ice cream with dry ice…crazy!)

I interviewed Zvi Paltiel, the Director of Young at Science at the Davidson Institute who spoke with me about the current program geared towards children from the south. For the video I chose a sound bite where he is expressing the importance of having the children learning on campus during this stressful period. However, what I wasn’t able to include was his openness to having the program and the science mobiles (watch the video to learn what those are) available to the children of Gaza as well. I think he put it best when he said that “science has no borders.”