Update: Nitzan caravilla bomb shelters

Update: Nitzan caravilla bomb shelters

by Sara Layah Shomron

Last week the government brought in more make shift sewer pipe bomb shelters. They're smaller and placed in the middle of each cul-de-sac. This makes it much easier for the neighbors to make the 30 second dash – especially if one is toting young children, pregnant, old…



Painted by neighborhood youth
The message translates: secure for Mahadarin (strictest kosher supervision) under Army homefront supervision



benches

They also installed benches. It sure beats sitting on the cold cement. Hmmm, I wonder which creature comfort the government will think of installing next.

Musings on my recent OC Register interview

Musings on my recent OC Register interview
by Sara Layah Shomron

It just so happens that the Jewish Federation of Orange County, California has a partnership program with Kiryat Malachi and the Ashkelon coastal region. Nitzan, is on the Ashkelon coast and the site of the Israeli government's largest internal relocation camp for Gush Katifers. It is where my family and I live. It also just so happens that several years ago my parents retired in Orange County. What a coincidence! So I took the initiative and made a connection with the Orange County Jewish Federation Partnership program. I thought I might be able to help increase their awareness of the Gush Katif plight here at Nitzan.

Given my recent blogs on this site about Operation "Cast Lead" and our newly government issued sewer pipe bomb shelters, I was contacted by and then pre-arranged a late Monday night, Jan. 12, 2009 telephone interview with journalist Vik Jolly of the OC Register - billed as "Orange County's news source."

The interview was posted yesterday, Tuesday, January 13, 2009. I think the interview went well. Vik Jolly gives readers of the Orange County Register a well written and good article; he didn't add anything anti-Israel "for balance" as some journalists do. It is also wonderful of Jolly to provide links to my Shiloh Musings blog posts, A7 article, and Shifra's historic novel, Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim (Mazo Publishers). This will help those OC Register readers interested in learning more.

Space limitations didn't allow for inclusion of all that I said. Batya, whose blog site this is, encouraged me to blog what I felt missing. So, here goes.

"Booms." While Vik Jolly and I spoke, I felt and heard strong "booms." I told him as much adding, "if the siren sounds, I'll say bye, and immediately hang the phone." I hastened to say, "I'm not being rude; rather, have 30 seconds to run to the sewer pipe." Were this to happen, I asked that he call back some 10 minutes later.

Mr. Jolly inquired as to who was doing the bombing. I thought Arabs were targeting us as we've felt and heard past booms targeting Ashkelon - booms that we received no siren ushering us into the sewer pipe bomb shelter.


our sewer pipe bomb shelter
The scenic and calm view was beautifully painted by our neighborhood youth.

I asked my husband his take on it. He thought that the booms were part of an IDF operation. It was confusing to know. Yet Mr. Jolly made no mention that the interview was being conducted under a background of booms and concern. Doesn't this make the article more real to the reader? More like the popular "reality shows?"

Arab terror in Gush Katif. Tali HaTuel H"YD and her children H"YD murdered at point zero range as they drove from Moshav Katif to Ashkelon; Arabs targeting our Gush Katif communities with mortars, shootings, road-side bombs... An idyllic life turned into a nightmare.

Caravilla. These are temporary, flimsy government issued structures. The government found a loophole not to build bomb shelters otherwise required by law in permanent housing structures.

Compensation. Grossly inadequate; people using it for daily expenses leaving insufficient funds to build a permanent house; high unemployment among Gush Katifers now because of the disengagement;Gush Katif farmers not being given land, hard for them to start over again - many in their 50's, they lost business contacts, have to learn new soil conditions…

politics. My thoughts regarding a so-called two-state (final) solution (parenthesis mine); polls - easily manipulated; and this Israeli Operation "Cast Lead" and its goals - 8 years too late...

It would have been good if these points had been mentioned- but it is a lot of detail. After all, there is only so much space and so many words per article.

Thank you Vik Jolly and the OC Register!

Is NYC's Michael Bloomberg Running For US President?

Bloomberg was one of the "also rans" in the last US Presidential race, and I've been wondering if it was just a warm-up for 2012. He visited Israel's south, the war zone, where nobody can garrantee anyone's safety. The Arab terrorists have been launching deadly missiles on the population for years, and now it has intensified.

Bloomberg is the only international figure, I've heard, who has publically linked the terrorists the Americans fear, Bin Laden etc, with the terrorists who are trying to destroy Israel.

Yes, Bloomberg understands the situation better than most. I wish the Israeli Government would listen to him.

For Updates...

...about the war.

Keep checking with Jack. He has been posting twice a day. Here's 11, and 11.5.

That should get you started.

And don't forget to tell him who sent you.

It's hard to believe that we're finishing off week #2.

Strange Timing

Hat tip to Daled Amos who blogged about the IDF Spokesperson's blog.

I checked out the blog and sent in this comment:

Interesting blog and numbers on the chart. My question is, considering how many more missiles were launched against Israel during the first months of the year, why did it take so long for Israel to respond?

Those numbers are very clear. The earlier part of the year was the time for us to strike. That's why I think that this war is The Election Campaign War.

Call Me Templeton-the-Rat

Call Me Templeton-the-Rat
By Sara Layah Shomron

When did I become a rat? Yes, a rat hiding in a sewer pipe. I am finding that I don't want to wander far from the nearby sewer pipe bomb shelter and that regardless of day or night, I now putter around inside, waiting to hear the warning siren to make a run for it. And when I hear it, I call out "go! - everybody to the sewer!"

This past Friday we heard and felt booms landing in Ashkelon (10 min away). The siren blare gives us 30 seconds to get into the sewer pipe bomb shelter. I've suggested to my neighbors that we have a bomb shelter contest for whoever gets in first. Of course they pointed out that it's already rigged on account my caravilla is the closest. One neighbor told me that a laptop will work in it - good to know. At night several family members "sleep" fully clothed including shoes - ready to make a run for it.

One of my younger daughters is particularly upset that we refuse to take the dogs into the shelter. Though we've explained and explained -she loves them and worries about them so (as do we). The dogs aren't showing any signs of trauma.

And I have cabin fever. I don't walk far from my sewer pipe bomb shelter. There aren't any bomb shelters set up at the small local shopping area, the health clinic, or Neve Dekalim beit knesset (synagogue). One thinks twice before venturing out. Nobody ever said the life of a rodent is an easy one.

My family has received a number of generous hospitality invitations offering us a reprieve from the bombing. "There's no place like home," my family insists refusing to leave the caravilla. Most of my neighbors are spending Shabbat (Sabbath) elsewhere.

The army ground force command announced that Shabbat (Sabbath) prayers are to be held in concrete buildings. No gatherings larger than 100 or 300 people - depending on kill-ometer distance from Gaza. Here at the temporary Nitzan caravilla site that only leaves the sewage pipes. When did we morph into rats?

Today my husband and I walked up to the permanent housing site of Neve Dekalim- Nitzan. How wonderful it felt to be outdoors in the warm, fresh air; near orange groves and the nature reserve. Our house is in the building process having its outside walls, bomb shelter, and poured roof completed.



We made haste to our newly built bomb shelter when the siren sounded, twice.

How good it felt to be in our own house bomb shelter




and not in the caravilla sewer pipe bomb shelter.




Several people were wounded and two girls suffered psychological trauma in Ashdod , may they have a speedy and complete recovery. Buildings and a park damaged by rockets in Ashkelon.


Motzei Shabbat, about an hour after the Sabbath departed, the siren blared. My family was in the sewer pipe bomb shelter in record time. We heard and felt nine booms. We pray that there aren't injuries.


Shavua Tov – have a good and safe week!

It Depends On Whom You Ask

It's all in the timing. Because of that I have no doubt that this Operation "Cast Lead", Election Campaign War, was planned as a way of getting more support for Kadima and Labor Parties in the next Israeli Elections, scheduled a month from now.

All the polls had been showing that Likud was much stronger than Kadima, and Labor was shrinking badly. The polls, also, showed that the people were disgusted that the Israeli south, including Left wing areas, was being attacked by Arab terrorists in Gaza and Gush Katif, and the only way to increase support would be to attack Gaza. Note that the media does its best to just write/say Gaza and not Gush Katif, because they don't want to remind anyone that Disengagement was good for the terrorists and bad for the Jews.

Recent polls, since the "operation" began, have been inconsistent. IMRA reports:

Friday, January 2, 2009
5 Polls show radically different results for Likud and Kadima.
9.3% want ceasefire now

5 Polls show radically different results for Likud and Kadima
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date 2 January 2009

Poll #1 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 800 adult Israelis
(including Arab Israelis) by TNS Teleseker apparently on 1 January and
published in
Maariv on 2 January 2009.

Poll #2 Telephone poll of a representative sample of adult Israelis
(including Arab Israelis) by Geocartography on 31 December and published in
Globes on 1 January 2009.

Poll #3 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 472 adult Israelis
(including Arab Israelis) by Dialogue on 31 December and published in
Haaretz on 1 January 2009.

Poll #4 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 505 adult Israelis
(including Israeli Arabs) carried out by Maagar Mohot Survey Institute
(headed by Professor Yitzchak Katz for Israel Television Channel 2 "Mishal
Cham" program 30 December 2008 - 4th day of operation in Gaza.

Poll #5 Telephone poll of a representative sample of 500 adult Israelis
(including Arab Israelis) by Smith Consulting on 29-30 December and
published in The Jerusalem Post on 2 January 2009.

Current Knesset seats in [brackets].

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
28 22 27 25 23 [29] Kadima headed by Livni
16 12 16 15 15 [19] Labor
28 38 32 31 29 [12] Likud
11 08 09 10 10 [12] Shas
12 15 11 10 12 [11] Yisrael Beteinu
04 03 03 04 05 [03] "Jewish Home" (previously NRP)
00 00 00 01 02 [06] Nat'l Union
05 04 05 05 06 [06] Yahadut Hatorah
06 ?? 07 05 06 [05] Meretz
00 ?? 00 02 02 [00] Green Party
00 ?? 00 00 00 [00] Social Justice (Gaydamak Party)
00 ?? 00 02 00 [07] Retirees Party
10 ?? 10 10 10 [10] Arab parties
00 ?? 00 00 00 [00] Meimad
00 ?? 00 00 00 [00] Strong Israel (Efraim Sneh)

?? Specific results not shown in the article for these parties.

Additional results for Poll #1 Telephone poll of a representative sample of
800 adult Israelis (including Arab Israelis) by TNS Teleseker apparently on
1 January and published in Maariv on 2 January 2009.

The Knesset elections are scheduled for 10 February. In light of the war in
Gaza should the elections be postponed or held on time?
Postpone 33% On time 55.3%

A few days ago the IDF began fighting Hamas in order to bring about a halt
to the firing of rockets at Israel. To what extent do you support this
operation?
Greatly support 78.9% Considerably support 14.2% Considerably oppose 2.2%
Greatly oppose 1.7%

After five days of battle against Hamas what do you think Israel should do
now?
39.6% Air operation only
41.8% Ground operation
9.3% Ceasefire now

If and when there are negotiations of a ceasefire with Hamas, how should
Israel handle the Gilad Shalit issue?
17.2% Agree to ceasefire in any event
77.3% Agree to ceasefire only with release of Gilad Shalit

In light of the war against Hamas and the management of the administration,
have your feelings about the following people changed?
Barak: Improved 43.9% Worsened 2.5% Unchanged 48%
Livni: Improved 27.9% Worsened 3.1% Unchanged 63.5%
Olmert: Improved 24.4% Worsened 7.1% Unchanged 63.5%
Netanyahu: Improved 23.0% Worsened 3.5% Unchanged 68.4%

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

What Happened To The War?

Quick note before Shabbat

Contrary to custom, we've had the TV on this afternoon. No war coverage on IBA's Channel 1, none at all, just the usual "meet the rabbis" and all that usual Friday afternoon stuff.

I just checked Arutz 7 and didn't see any announcements that it's over, just that kids in the crosshairs should study at home.

It's probably just a trick.

Shabbat Prayers To All

And while you're praying, a refuah shleimah to Ruchama Chaya bat Sarah, a young mother who has been in coma since giving birth a few weeks ago.

Epileptic Seizures, Expulsion, and War Related Stress

Epileptic Seizures, Expulsion, and War Related Stress

By Sara Layah Shomron

For years Gush Katif civilians lived in a war affected area where they were exposed to traumatic events and confronted with war related stress. Many attribute their resilience and determination to a strong religious belief, deep sense of purpose, and Zionist ideology. This says they, allowed them to persevere and maintain their mental well being as Arabs targeted them with mortars, road-side bombings and shooting attacks.

Residents of Gush Katif held fast to their convictions despite sustaining or witnessing injury, or death of a family member, neighbor, or friend. The expulsion from Gush Katif tore from them that deep sense of purpose. Also, in addition to the trauma of the expulsion, it seems that stress that had once been manageable, including dealing with past events experienced in Gush Katif, has been rendered difficult to cope with and sometime intolerable by the horrific uprooting.

There is growing research suggesting that war time stress may show up years later in a civilian population as evidenced in a connection between Post-traumatic stress syndrome and physical health problems (Sibai, Fletcher, & Armenian, 2001; Sabioncello et al., 2000). Moreover, stress may affect an increased risk of being diagnosed with epilepsy (Christensen, Li, Vestergaard & Olsen, 2007). To this end research studying the occurrence of epileptic seizures in war affected areas among children indicates "Stressful life events can be provocative factors for the occurrence of epileptic seizures," (Bosnjak J.; Vukovic-Bobic M.; Mejaski-Bosnjak V., 2002).

A Neve Dekalim youth I know was recently diagnosed with Juvenile Myclonic Epilepsy (JME). She is sensitive to epileptic drug side-effects and continues to search for a drug to control and manage seizure activity. A once self-confident, in-control child has had her self-confidence eroded; she no longer trusts her judgment as she presently suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. She is on medication and thank G-d seems to be doing better.

And now, three and a half years after our Gush Katif expulsion, she has come to truly comprehend the magnitude of her loss of Land, house, and community by living in the temporary Nitzan caravilla relocation site. She yearns for the stability she had in Gush Katif where she thrived. Suddenly the whistling sound of the end of the washing machine cycle alarms her as it reminds her of the whistling sound of a mortar overhead back in Gush Katif. Post- traumatic stress syndrome complicates her epilepsy.

Operation "Cast Lead" is in effect as Ketusha Grad rockets fly over-head. We have a mere 30 seconds to seek cover in one of the concrete sewer pipes that the government has provided in lieu of shelters capable of protecting us from missile attacks.

Israel National News reports an Ashdod child's epilepsy was triggered after a rocket fell nearby.

Will an entire country walk around dazed and wounded?

More About The Children's Show on IBA

The New York Times is ignoring the suffering of Israeli kids, just sympathetic to the Arabs, but on Israeli TV, at this moment, The "Channie's Room" is back on, and now the kids are interviewing a journalist from competing Channel 2 about the war and Gilad Shalit.

Phone calls are coming in. They stated that priority is from kids who are living in fire range, and at this moment a little boy, 8 1/2, is explaining what he did when the alarm went off.

She runs a great show and doesn't talk down to the kids, but she does recognize that they are kids.

The usual show involves games and prizes. This was a show to help the kids cope.

Now the tv is back to news.

Ambiguous and More AMBIGUOUS!

I'm enjoying a rain day, last minute change in plans, and I didn't have to leave my house. I guess the prayers for the safety of our nation has swayed G-d to allow some rainfall. So, I have the news on the TV.

Unless I missed something, they reported that the cabinet met to discuss how the war should go. There seems to be debate on its aims. Now debate? Shouldn't there have been clear war aims before we attacked the Gazan missile launchers on Shabbat?

The TV journalists are interviewing a government official and keep asking about cease fire and what's the war aim. All he could say was that the government wants a "significant change." That doesn't say much. Ambiguous is the best word I can think of.

Avigdor Lieberman is now on the program. He's speaking clearly. He said that an attack like this should have happened from the very beginning seven years ago, when the terrorists first began launching kassams at Sderot and Gush Katif. He's right. He'll get support for telling the truth. He also calls it a lie that there's international pressure on us to stop. That's a myth. I agree with him on that, too.

Now someone else (a Prof. Stern) is on saying that without a clear war aim this war is a waste. And I agree with that too. This is starting to be like Olmert-Livni's first war, which I likened to A bissel ointment on the gangrene.

To quote King Solomon:

Nothing's new under the sun.

Life-protecting Sewers for Gush Katif Expellees

Life-protecting Sewers for Gush Katif Expellees
By Sara Layah Shomron

Our family lives at the Nitzan caravilla site, halfway between Ashkelon and Ashdod. NO bomb shelters at this Nitzan or any temporary caravilla site. So when the Red Alert siren sounds of incoming rocket(s) - we quickly lay down on the floor and cover our heads as though in an open field (even one of our dogs initially cooperated as he put his paws over his ears) while others squeeze large families under their dining table, or behind a sofa and yet others simply ignore the warning and sit/walk outside.

"Bomb shelters" are being brought in today. One neighborhood already has. It's comprised of three HUGE sewer pipes put together to create one tube 6 ft high and about 12-15 ft long. in which one can stand and walk. On each end there's a cement block covering most of the opening so one is protected from shrapnel. It's like a hamster's toy - only BIGGER. Actually my Wisconsin elementary school playground had a couple of these. Kids would squeeze inside during school-time recesses to keep warm from the freezing winter temperatures.

In our cul-de-sac today there was a conversation calmly discussing where to put the concrete sewage pipes in our parking lot. People don't seem to be panicking (I translate and paraphrase):

Not in front of my house. It will destroy our breeze and view

I have a measuring tape – here- take an end

Put it in front of my house

No put it over there- it's more in the middle

The government will get us all inside these and seal them closed

We've been expelled from our houses, in these caravillas, and now we're supposed to go into sewers? What's happening to us?

Does anybody know if these are used?

Have you guys seen the other neighborhood where kids are drawing on them? We should have a contest

You know we'll have to sleep in street clothes

A neighbor sent their pre-teen daughter to request the sewage pipes be put by her house –they can't make it in 30 seconds otherwise. And so went the conversation.

Several hours later three HUGE sewer pipes were trucked into our neighborhood. One of the neighbors made it clear to the army officer in charge that they wanted the pipes placed somewhere other than immediately in front of their caravilla. A compromise was reached with the sewage pipes placed a further distance in front of their caravilla. After all, we wouldn't want the sewage pipes to dislodge, roll, and smash into a caravilla.

Postscript: The siren sounded just a short while ago in the late evening hours. My husband, on the computer wearing earphones, hadn't heard. Suddenly he noticed me and the girls lying on the floor with our hands protecting our heads. "What are you doing? I didn't hear a siren - outside to the sewers" said he. We had totally forgotten and made haste. Only four other neighborhood families joined us. We were about to return to our caravillas when we felt another BOOM though heard no siren. Methinks from now on we'll sleep in our street clothes with a warm jacket in easy reach.

"Even miles away you can be a part of us and together we will write a new page in the history of e Jewish people and the Land of Israel," Katif Fund http://www.katifund.org/

In the US: Make checks payable to

FRIENDS OF GUSH KATIF,

Friends of Gush Katif (501 (c)(3))

PO Box 1184

Teaneck, NJ 07666

In Israel:

Gush Katif Committee

Ahuzat Etrog

P.O.B 450

Israel, 79411

The War From The Air

This is from the official government youtube site. There's lots more on the site. This Election Campaign War is modern.

Barak loves technology.

Too bad he didn't use it to destroy the terrorists' missile launchers before they could be activated.

About the Latest Mid-East War, A Couple of Questions

Is this just just a very expensive, in money and human lives, election campaign?

Barak is sounding tough:

Barak: We'll deepen and widen operation as much as needed

What's an "operation?" OK, that's the translation from the Hebrew מבצע mivtza-campaign/operation, פעילות pi'eelut-activity. The official name is: "מבצע "עופרת יצוקה Operation "Cast Lead" – a phrase taken from a well known Chanukah song which refers to "cast-lead draydels." (article) But seriously, what are the war aims?

Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened a news conference in which he said that the operation has three goals: "to hit Hamas hard, to change the situation radically and to prevent the continuation of rocket fire at Israeli civilians." "The IDF also wishes to inform the Israeli public that it must prepare itself for continued rocket fire by Hamas."

Did you catch that? What in the world does he mean?

At the same time, Israel is sending mixed messages to the Arabs, by letting in supplies and attacking.

Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the aid was to let the people of Gaza know that Israel does not consider them its enemy.
"We are sending them a message that the Hamas leadership has turned them into a punching bag for everyone. It is a leadership that has turned schoolyards into rocket-launching pads," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio.
Israeli newspapers reported that the gesture was also in response to international pressure on Israel to lessen the impact that an invasion would have on Gaza's civilians.

Why now, davka? After years of Arab terrorist missile attacks? Could the timing have something to do with the upcoming elections? Barak, especially, is under attack by his party, Labor, because of their consistently low showing in the polls.

So far, the one good thing was trying to keep the start a secret to catch the enemy unprepared.