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!
