50 days
24th November, 2023
Shabbat Shalom. Let’s hope and pray that this Shabbat at least 13
hostages, the little children and tiny babies, will be sent home to Israel.
The psychological games continue as Hamas reneged on yesterday’s
release and changed it to 16:00 today, just before Shabbat. What is the hold up
this time? As my friend Anne Behar said “They can find 10,000 dead within
minutes but can’t find 25% of the children abducted on the 7th of
October.” Hamas refuses to allow the Red Cross to visit the remaining hostages
after the release of the first group.
The IDF has informed the very few that their loved ones are coming
home, but to be prepared for their psychological and physical state. Every
single day, several times a day, soldiers, specially trained soldiers of the
IDF, call the families of the hostages to check on their wellbeing. I cannot
imagine the deep sadness of those whose loved ones are not coming home – yet. The
families have, in their deep sadness, formed a cohesive support group and each
one is happy for the few, but I cannot, as I said, imagine their emotional
state having to wait, yet again; not knowing under what conditions they are being
held.
Ismael Haniya is a billionaire. He is the “Prime Minister” of Gaza
yet lives in opulent luxury Qatar where he is reported to have watched the
horror of October the 7th on
Al Jazeera, “prostrating himself in joy” at the scenes. Haniya was sentenced to
life imprisonment in 1989 but released in a prisoner exchange in 1992 since
when he has been one of the masterminds of Hamas. I can never forget the release
of Haniya and over a thousand other terror prisoners as they headed north in
buses; they were released in exchange for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers
Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad who were abducted from Har Dov, on the
Lebanese border in 2000 and held by Hezb-Allah. We met all three parents, felt
their agony, heard their prayers that their children may still be alive and if
not at least to have a body to bury and sit shiva over. Benny Avraham’s parents
used to come to our home to rest between Knesset visits. Chaim would fall
asleep in the big armchair. He said the it was the only time he was able to
rest. All three boys were dead, but their parents didn’t know that and Chaim
literally died of a broken heart. To understand the irony of Israel’s high moral
standards; in 2002 Ismail Haniya received lifesaving brain surgery in Israel’s
Assaf HaRofeh Medical Centre!
Yahya (pronounced Yichyeh) Sinwar, one of the other founders of
Hamas and the mastermind behind the 7th of October massacre, was
also released from Israeli jail. He served 22 years of 4 consecutive life
sentences before being released in exchange for Gilad Shalit. The rest is
history. I can remember a sense of doom as the world rejoiced the return of
Gilad Shalit and the then and now Prime Minister Netanyahu greeting him in
triumph. It was a great day for the Shalit family but at what price? Many of
the terror prisoners will go to the Ofer Prison prior to their release,
possibly straight into the West Bank. The Ofer high security prison brings
forth many thoughts for me. My friend Jill, during one of her volunteer stints,
help clear the files and so on of the former IDF controlled prison before it
was turned into a high security, high walled prison under private (not really)
supervision. It is also only a few kilometres from where Rachel lives and right
next to the border control to Ramallah. The proximity to Ramallah is hardly
surprising since Ramallah stretches many kilometres along the border, beside
the Jerusalem Modi’in road.
Many of you have asked me about the work of Impact-se the
organisation which I am proud to act as Chair of the Board. I tend to describe
it in simple terms, because it is complex and very refined work and research by
a small but exceptional team, culminating in reports on tolerance in education,
predominantly in the MENA region, which are then taken to governments around
the world who take major decisions based upon said reports. Clearly, the events
of the 7th of October required a rethinking of funding to the PA by governments
of the European Union, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Australia, the USA,
basically all influential governments who fund the education systems of the
Palestinian Authority and UNWRA. To understand the complexity here is the most
recent report on the hate education of the PA which most of the above are now
defunding based on our reports. It is highly detailed and therefore not short,
but very important. https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/Education-for-Terrorism-in-Palestinian-Schools.pdf
This has been another tense week, but a week in which both Zvi and
I were very busy. Zvi and his choir, Hakol Yachassi, go to the various
Jerusalem hotels to sing to refugees from both the South and the North. Zvi
also goes to rehearsals of his other choir, the Jerusalem Symphony Choir, where
he meets with friends while preparing for their next concert. We both went back
to make sandwiches, as I told you I changed from cheese to tuna and Zvi from
bagging to schlepping! I went to Movement, Art Studio, and of all unusual
things, met with other women in the village library and we all made felt birds!
Really! I know it all sounds flippant, but it is all about interdependent
support, we need each other, even if we don’t mention the sons, daughters and grandchildren
who may well be on the front line in Gaza, we are together, irrespective of
what we do. If it is something that helps the country, the hostages, the IDF or
the refugees, all the better but it is essential to our sanity that we are
together. One of my favourite projects, which I did not take part in, was the
knitting of hats for soldiers. This little village sent hundreds of warm
beanies for soldiers on the Golan where it is already very cold. Of course, my most
important activity is writing to you, telling you about the situation from my
perspective, from Israel’s perspective heads the list. By the way, you often
ask if you can forward my newsletters; of course you can! I prefer them being
forwarded as a whole rather than out-takes but even that is better than nothing!
Don’t forget, the website is http://www.theviewfrommyveranda.info/
A really funny outcome of this war is apparent in the IDF, all of
the men, at least most of them, have moustaches, lip-rugs! It’s partly because
beards and helmets don’t go together but it has become a real fashion
statement, an emblem of their service against Hamas. From Viva Zapata to
handle-bar they take selfies to prove their devotion to the hairy upper lip! I
can only hope that they will shave them off when the hostages are all home,
safe and – no I cannot even pray for safe and sound, but at least home in the
loving arms of their family, those who still have families.
I want to tell you about one problem that I have, quite apart from
all of the above; my keyboard is slowly fading! Both the Hebrew and the English
letters are disappearing and it’s a very new keyboard! It may sound as if I am
making excuses for my typos, but honestly, if I hadn’t learned to touch-type
many years ago (gosh is it really 60 years ago?) I would be in real trouble. I
must call the supplier but never seem to have time!
Zvi has gone to a neighbour to see the final stages of a big
mosaic, a mosaic made by many people in Motza, as another “therapy” group. It
will take pride of place at the entrance to the village. Hopefully he will come
home with lots of photographs that I can put on Facebook. After the neighbour
he will head of to Jerusalem, to the Botanical Gardens restaurant “Caffit”
where his parliament has a separate room where they meet each Friday lunchtime.
The parliament is made up of Professors, politicians, journalists, civil
servants and a couple of businessmen. It used to be co-ed but the women decided
that we had better things to do on a Friday and many women have their own Friday
parliament.
Tonight, Zvi’s boys and their families will be with us for Friday
night supper. The table is once again extended (it goes from small corner table
to a one that can set up to 20 diners), and I set it yesterday so that I can
write to you, finish the cooking and still get to see Rachel and family before
Shabbat. We will be 14 for Shabbat dinner, not too many, and the pea soup, the
children’s winter favourite, is made, I made a few salads last night and
luckily my stash of food in the freezer will be raided for the main course; bolognaise
for the children and Rachel’s delicious beef for the adults. Roasted sweet potato,
cucumber salad, cabbage and pomegranate salad, a big green salad, oven chips
for the children (they can’t do without them) a tomato salsa salad and anything
else that comes to mind. Dessert is taken care of, Gili and Ella want to make
cakes and I bought profiteroles and yesterday I made a wonderful chocolate
sauce with some almond milk so that it would not be milky! Very exciting!
Since music is so important to our wellbeing, I want to go back to
giving you more than one song. This song by Shlomo Artzi is not new as one sees
from the video of a young and still handsome man, but his words, his music and
his strength have not waned in their power. https://youtu.be/nrhOtJS3psQ?si=VxR_QMOgG9v4-gaB
Ayn li Eretz Acheret – I have no other country. The original beautiful
song https://youtu.be/pyFK0m-OGNo?si=tPk7nyvhsdGB1voD
and the real, emotional rendition made after
the 7th of October. It may be difficult to watch but so is the truth.
https://youtu.be/kHkdzTIR1Gk?si=6tMUl-J-wSXklwhg
As I sit talking to you, I pray, with all my being, that Hamas will
not renege yet again and the 13 hostages will be freed. I pray that the tiny people
will forget the horrors and go on to lice good lives and that those still in
captivity will come home. Amen
I wish you a Shabbat Shalom.
Sheila
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