A Few Things, Today

Today, just as we were turning to leave Beit El, by the bus stop, just before the firing range, we heard a car speed by and a siren-like sound. There was a light on top, the security car, and it speedily passed other vehicles. Soon we lost sight of it, but then we heard the sirens of what turned out to be an ambulance.

It was obvious that something had happened. Was it a terror attack or traffic accident? We kept looking for clues, via the amount of emergency vehicles and the directions they would take. The ambulance passed us just before the T-Junction, Givat Asaf; then it turned north, our direction. We still had no idea what the emergency was.

We had room for one more passenger, and a familiar-looking woman got in; she said that she was going to Ofra. Then I saw a neighbor of mine, the one who had killed the terrorist who ran over my foot. "Too bad," I said; "he's going further and should have gotten the place."

The woman told us that she really needed to get to Ofra quickly; her daughter had just been shot. Whoah! Then she told us all she knew. A school bus taking high school girls from their school in Maale Levona to Ofra was attacked by terrorists in Sinjil, not far from where the road forks between Shiloh/Eli and Maale Levona. All the woman knew was that her daughter was lightly hurt, and she was going to meet the ambulance in Ofra and then travel with her daughter to the hospital. The fact that we hadn't been met by speeding ambulances was a good sign, meaning no serious injuries. The bus had actually continued to Ofra, where the injured were being treated.

After we dropped her off, we wondered how many hours we would be stuck waiting on the road. That's the usual routine after terror attacks, but we got home pretty quickly.

I watched TV when eating supper. The big news was the Arab rocket attack on Sderot during President Katzav's visit. The people of Sderot are angry at the government for abandoning them, for not following through with their threats to reenter Gaza if southern Israel was attacked, for not protecting them. The response of the reporter, considered one of Israel's best, was outrageous. She argued with the man she was interviewing:
"How can Israel attack the Arabs? Europe will be angry! What if innocent Arabs are injured?"

The Sderot resident tried to explain, but then the interview was cut.

Next they showed moving trucks filled with furniture and explained that people are leaving Sderot. They interviewed a woman who said that she had lived there her entire life, but she couldn't take the rocket attacks. She was afraid for her children. If things ever calmed down, she'd return. They gave the impression that the city was ready to fold.

In contrast, who could forget the brave residents of Gush Katif, who suffered constant rocket and mortar attacks from the Arabs and refused to leave their homes.