3rd January 2025
This one is going to be a short missive! Our sleep was disturbed by
a Houthi missile, yes one of those big ones that travelled a vast distance. It
was shot down somewhere near Modi’in but the entire area was woken up at 04:45
which is later than the usual sirens and included our Jerusalem area. The
problem with 04:45 is that when you leave the safe room it’s hard to decide
whether to go back to sleep or to start your day early! We chose to tuck up and
grab a couple of hours, but of course we overslept and instead of my usual
writing time of 06:30 it’s now after 9 and I have a meeting at 11. | hadn’t
intended bothering you with my morning diary but, never mind. Here goes with the
missive!!
Shabbat Shalom and a peaceful 10th day of Christmas, The
Twelve Days are 25 December to 5 January, counting first and last. The
Octave, or Eighth Day, is New Year's Day and the Feast of the Circumcision, the
day Jesus was circumcised according to the Jewish faith. The evening of the
last day is Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve, the next morning being Epiphany. I
hope that I got all that right, but whatever happens I wish you a peaceful,
blessed day.
Naomi Goldstein Yalin posted this excellent breakdown of War
Summary, Day 454*
100 still held captive in Gaza.
37 hostages confirmed murdered, bodies held in Gaza.
117 living hostages rescued.
38 hostage bodies rescued.
1,794 Israelis killed.
397 fallen soldiers and police in the battle in Gaza.
87 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
14 fallen soldiers and police in Judea & Samaria.
30,675 estimated projectiles fired at Israel.
88,000 Israelis displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.
The last statement, arguably the most important one, is what I
intended writing about today, to give understanding of our life during this
war.
For starters, after yet another missile attack from the far-off
Houthis, using an advanced Iranian missile in an attempt to disrupt our lives,
everyone went back to their daily routine this morning!
Israelis, or the vast majority of Israelis, are volunteers, be it IDF, picking
crops in the South, crops that would that otherwise rot on the trees since the
growers are either on Miluim or their workers are non-existent; cooking
barbecues for soldiers when they come out of the war zone exhausted and
traumatised or ensuring that they are warm and protected in very cold and wet
conditions.
Starting 2025 with a wonderful act of kindness and care is very
special.
My grandson Yosef, went up north several times to
visit friends who are in an active unit of the IDF, raising their morale and
bringing them felafel. They were high up on the Golan heights in freezing cold conditions
and even though their uniform was supposed to be sufficient, the unusually cold
weather meant that they were really freezing. These young soldiers had to keep
going in the damp, made worse by heavy rain and freezing temperatures. On
his return Yosef immediately spoke to his mother, my daughter Rachel, and they
went about finding suitable jackets that could fit under the official uniform
coats.
Thanks to the kindness of many friends, we went and bought
25 of the 32 coats promised. The shopkeeper of the North Face store in the Mamilla
Mall gave us a 30% discount and as soon as Rafael's "pluga" comes out
for a break, Yosef and Rachel will travel to wherever they are to give the
coats to them.
We can only pray that this kindness, this way of showing gratitude,
will keep them safe and they can bring the hostages home.
While we were counting out the various sizes of the coats, a
gentleman next to us, an American tourist, was buying a warm coat for himself. “What
are you going to do with all those jackets” he asked. “They are for soldiers to
keep them warm,” said Rachel. Then cheekily, after all she is my daughter,
Rachel said “Do you want to buy one?” The gentleman jumped at the chance and
immediately did so! We were so moved and forgot to get his name! If you hear
that story from a delightful gentleman who was visiting Israel, please let us
know because we want to thank him! Now we have to wait until Rafael, Yosef’s
friend and his plugah come out for a break so that Rachel and Yosef can travel
to give them their warm North Face coats.
I just heard from Harold and Rebecca Finger from Sydney who
are here in Israel, volunteering in whatever way they are needed. Today they
have been making food for a very special unit and then travelling down to the
Gaza border so that the young soldiers have good food for Shabbat. This is
Israel. This is Israel for the last 454 days.
There are some people who are more effective than others and then
there are exceptional people who save the Jewish people, sometimes from
themselves. One of those people, the exceptional ones, is Dr. Malcolm
Hoenlein. On the 7th of January, Malcolm will receive the Presidential
Medal of Honour, never has there been one more worthy. Some of my best
adventures over the last twenty five years were with Malcolm who gave me the
honour of including me in some of his exceptional groups. We went to places
no-one is allowed to go, including Jenin – meeting the then PM of the PA; we
went down into the place with the tightest security in Israel, called “the bor”,
the underground warren of Israeli intelligence, and many other places that he
knew I wouldn’t ever tell you! I remember the groups brought to Israel, knowing
full well that this was just the public face of a man who worked behind the
scenes, often in the White House, the King of the American Jews with his heart
in Israel. Thank you, Malcolm, we look forward to the ceremony.
It is my need to keep up with the news from media sources that one
could reasonably call enemy reports. Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, Sky, CBC and so many
more report the devastation of Gaza but none talk about the reason, the killing
and October the 7th which started this whole ghastly war. Of curse
Gaza is devastated, the tunnels built by Hamas are absolutely everywhere and
incidentally, the hospital that was attacked this week, when the soldiers got
in there many of the patients and most of the doctors were Hamas operatives
because the ordinary people had escaped as per the warnings of the IDF. Lebanon
was an entirely different situation, we stopped the Hezb-Allah’s clearly laid
out plans to perform an October 7th like massacre and take over
northern Israel, Metulla and Kiriat Shmona. Lebanon is a different matter
because a majority of the population is against Hezb-Allah, Iran and want to
get back to a normal life, or be part of Israel. Gaza is different. The PM
offered the Gazans $5 million for each hostage given up to Israel and nobody
took the bait!! Gaza is guerilla war. Yes there is devastation but Hamas is
still active and most of all the hostages, whoever is still alive, are still in
horrific captivity. Until the hostages come home we cannot be whole again
The war is not only Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and of course the puppet
masters in Iran, threats come from all over this crazy region. Soldiers of a
special unit just found a colossal underground, Iranian arms factory in Syria
which, thank heaven, they planted explosives, came out and blew the entire
factory up. As you can imagine, the explosion was huge!
I said it would be a short missive and here I am going on much
longer than I intended. Today was a quiet day and If I don’t hurry I won’t get
to see Rachel and the children. Yosef was 20 two days ago! Zvi went to Shalva
where he watched a basketball match then to his parliament and I have to get my
voice in good tune so that I can sing Happy Birthday to my lovely daughter in
law Stephanie in London. So I had better get on with songs!!
Exodus, not only the first part of our story, our exodus from Egypt, far
more than that wonderful movie, but the theme song of that movie, written by
Pat Boone, has the lyrics that say it all. Andre Rieu, genius maestro
and huge supporter of Israel, in concert in Maastricht https://youtu.be/RDkYUfJPjE0?si=Ktd_XhA0yPeCb9Sr
Hanan Ben Ari is a highly popular Israeli singer, here he
sings about his country, the country he will never abandon, he sings about
Israel https://youtu.be/9wYEWx1291g?si=qQ1pQcjBxCzDBWuW
For the last song I decided to be selfish! This is my favourite
song, a love song to Israel. Lalechet Shevi Achariech. When I first went to
Ulpan (Hebrew language school) in Israel, in Ramat Poleg by the sea when it was
just a few lone houses, whereas today it is a whole town, as part of our
learning process we sang in Hebrew. I was in the choir and this was my solo. It
really says it all. https://youtu.be/FQLU1a-rnGA?si=PgJnFw0Ajr1xdFrI
Shabbat Shalom to all of you, a peaceful Sabbath.
With much love from our veranda and the view of Jerusalem
Sheila
