War Musings #71 Real Life Under Attack

 

My simple battery alarm clock

I first posted this as a "rant" on my Facebook page and then realized that it needs wider exposure. I know that some people won't agree with me. I want to make it clear that we don't have a "safe room" certified shelter in our house, but our house was built relatively well, double outer walls and a ceiling prepared for a second floor. My husband and I are both "elderly" and don't run out of the house when there's a siren. We go to inner walls away from windows, but when sleeping in bed... we rarely do more than cover ourselves. Sorry that's the truth and the situation with many people I know, even if their homes are more fragile than ours.

Another important point is that the alerts, which come by cellphone, are 5-10 minutes before a missile may reach our area. Most of the time, even when followed by a siren 5-10 minutes later, the missile was destroyed by the Iron Dome. And many of the missiles would have landed miles and miles away. 

"Last night's "alerts" were the last straw for me. I had gone to sleep early because of total physical and emotional exhaustion, but a couple of hours later I was awaken by a serial of alerts via my cellphone. Except for Shabbat and Jewish holidays, it's kept on -not just during the war- and within grabbing distance of my bed. It's also set with an alarm for those super rare nights I sleep late.

The alerts we get are supposed to give us time to get to a "safe" location, just in case the "sighted" missile may land nearby; if there actually is a missile close by the siren will shrill. A very high percentage of the warnings are NEVER followed by a siren. So last night I was woken for no reason at all. None of the sensed missiles ended up near Shiloh. We weren't actually in danger.

That's it for me. I plan on turning off my phone at night and turning on my simple battery alarm clock. When I wake in the morning, I'll turn on my phone."

Will Orange Suffer a Boycott if it Divests of Israel?

I received the following message as a comment on my blog:

Batya, please post if Orange divests from Israel. I will not know about it from the UK, but here many people are with EE, which is owned by Orange. If Orange leaves Israel, I will leave EE here. 

I just wonder how many people will try to boycott Orange related companies if they really close down their Israeli operations.

The CEO of French telecom giant Orange SA said Wednesday that he would have liked to sever ties with Israel as early as "tomorrow," but isn't ready to take the financial risk such a move would entail.
French human rights groups have been pushing their government, which has a quarter stake in Orange, and the company itself to end its business relationship with its affiliate, Partner Communications Ltd., a popular Israeli mobile provider. The groups cite Partner Communications' activities in Israeli settlements as the reason for the push.
Speaking at a news conference in Cairo to lay out plans in Egypt for the years ahead, Stephane Richard said his company intends to withdraw the Orange brand from Israel as soon as possible, but that the move would take time. (Israel Hayom)

It seems that the company and its subsidiaries should be boycotted.

"We want to be one of the trustful partners of all Arab countries," says CEO of French mobile company Orange, Stephane Richard | Photo credit: AP

I'm glad that we left Orange years ago. We signed up with the relatively new Golan-Telecom about a year and a half ago. We get unlimited service including calls abroad and two foreign numbers. Family and friends call me at a Long Island phone number. Golan doesn't have large fancy showrooms and stores. It's an Israeli company.

Over the years we had tried almost all of the big cellphone service companies, and they just take tons of money without providing more service than we get now.

The boycott of Orange must be abroad. Boycott all of their related companies. If anyone can give a listing in the coments here, it would be appreciated.