Today is Sunday August 13th, I am wondering if it is going to be the last day of the war?
Tomorrow at 8 am the ceasefire is supposed to start, tons of words are poured in the TV and the Radio trying to guess what tomorrow will bring.
My family and I spent the weekend in Jerusalem, trying to take some time off and live like normal people, well almost normal people. We were in a small hotel just outside of Jerusalem, looking west at the beautiful view of the valley below it. The hotel who's usually not so full was packed with refugees from the north. Families of ten or twenty together, two three or four generations spending time together in a weekend that probably they never thought they will do in this life time.
Last night we headed back home to Haifa, Sunday is another day and I need to get back to work. It was amazing to see the traffic going North from Tel Aviv, it seems as if all the North was spending the weekend in the center and south of Israel.
We drove and when entering Haifa I drove slowly to see where did the missile hit the road. On Friday we heard that a missile hit the highway northbound lane, a near by building in the MATAM advanced technology center where Lea works and where I work lost all it's glass windows. The highway was closed for a few hours causing traffic jams all over that area. I drove slowly trying to see where the missile hit the road, but couldn?t, the road was fixed the fence was replaced and everything looked as if nothing happened.
We got really good in Israel in cleaning up the roads, remove any remains of the event whether it is a suicide bomber or a missile, and getting back to normal life, pretending every thing is normal.
The only way to be able to know where the missile hit was by the Israeli flag that was waving on a pole there. It's a new habit we picked, sticking a flag at the missile falling spots, I just hope we will not run out of flags.
Today, started as any other day, with hope for the ending of this war. Very early it became clear that today is not going to be just another day. Sirens kept screaming from the morning, starting their screams every few minutes, sending us to the bomb shelter again and again. The news were filled with reports on falling rockets and missiles all over the north. In a small place near Shlomi an 83 years old man died, in other places people were wounded. In the evening, in the twilight when the sun disappears, the missiles appear, it has to do with how the launchers are detected, it seems that in the twilight it is hard to detect the launchers and therefore encourages firing of more missiles.
This was also the time that Haifa came under attack, first strike and a few far away explosions could be heard. Another strike and the Boom sound got closer, the vibration in the floor was felt very clearly, I looked at the internet and saw that the 3 missiles hit a neighborhood south to were we live, not very far. Another attack, the forth or fifth during the last hour and again a few missile hit Haifa, I look at the TV and see that the place that was hit is my old neighborhood, I went to school that doesn't exist any more on the same spot that the missile hit. My parents lived near by and that was my route home every day. My friend's father still lives there, he is 75 and live alone. We talk on the phone and exchange memories from when we were six years old and for the first time went to the grammar school. The hit was in a parking lot and a dozen cars are on fire, the black smoke is rising giving Haifa the looks of Beirut, twin cities for a moment.
The night falls and it gets dark outside, till now the dark night was also quiet and no sirens or missile attacks happened during the night.
Tonight is special. Each side is trying to get a better position for the cease fire in the morning, each side is trying to throw the final blow that will get it the knock out.
I sit and watch TV and see all the commentators talking even though I am not sure they have what to say. They need to fill a lot of broadcast time and just repeat again and again the assessments about the ceasefire and who will be the first to break it.
I think that we lost this war, not the military aspect of it, but the political.
The Hezbullah is still going to stay in south Lebanon, it will restore its power and get new ammunition from Iran and Syria. The International force will not really do anything and I hope it will not end like the US Marines force that was forced out from Lebanon after loosing 220 soldiers in one suicide attack. We will see the Hezbullah building it's power again and see the new missiles and launchers being moved from Syria into Lebanon and will do nothing about it.
What can we do if in the next two months we will detect ammunition smuggling into Lebanon? Break the cease fire and cry that we are being screwed again? Who in the world will want to even hear us.
The only solution to this situation is eliminating Hezbullah as we know it today and hand over on a platter the clean south Lebanon area to the Lebanese government.
Again we fall into the trap that is making our life here so miserable, thinking with our western mentality.
The middle east has only one way of ending conflicts, have your opponent's head on a pole and present it in the town square, everything less then that will be considered a lost.
The future is not so bright for Israel, a hundred years ago the Arab killed us with knives, then with pistols and guns, then they tried with their armed forces, planes and tanks, and then with Scud missiles and now with rockets and short and long range missiles. Every war brings the next one and escalates the type of weapons used.
The next step is chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons and who ever is shutting his eyes to the future or saying it won't happen, the world will not allow it, is gambling with his life and his children lives.
Tomorrow may bring the cease fire, the cease fire may be short or long, however we must start fight the next war and make every effort to make sure that Israel and our children will be safe, we shouldn't be fooled again like we were in the last six years, fooling ourselves that this quiet will last for ever.
We should all recruit ourselves and start fighting since the other side is not going to sit still, it already started preparing the next round.
Today is Sunday, Aug 13th, it is the last day of this war and it's also the first day of the next one.
Tomorrow at 8 am the ceasefire is supposed to start, tons of words are poured in the TV and the Radio trying to guess what tomorrow will bring.
My family and I spent the weekend in Jerusalem, trying to take some time off and live like normal people, well almost normal people. We were in a small hotel just outside of Jerusalem, looking west at the beautiful view of the valley below it. The hotel who's usually not so full was packed with refugees from the north. Families of ten or twenty together, two three or four generations spending time together in a weekend that probably they never thought they will do in this life time.
Last night we headed back home to Haifa, Sunday is another day and I need to get back to work. It was amazing to see the traffic going North from Tel Aviv, it seems as if all the North was spending the weekend in the center and south of Israel.
We drove and when entering Haifa I drove slowly to see where did the missile hit the road. On Friday we heard that a missile hit the highway northbound lane, a near by building in the MATAM advanced technology center where Lea works and where I work lost all it's glass windows. The highway was closed for a few hours causing traffic jams all over that area. I drove slowly trying to see where the missile hit the road, but couldn?t, the road was fixed the fence was replaced and everything looked as if nothing happened.
We got really good in Israel in cleaning up the roads, remove any remains of the event whether it is a suicide bomber or a missile, and getting back to normal life, pretending every thing is normal.
The only way to be able to know where the missile hit was by the Israeli flag that was waving on a pole there. It's a new habit we picked, sticking a flag at the missile falling spots, I just hope we will not run out of flags.
Today, started as any other day, with hope for the ending of this war. Very early it became clear that today is not going to be just another day. Sirens kept screaming from the morning, starting their screams every few minutes, sending us to the bomb shelter again and again. The news were filled with reports on falling rockets and missiles all over the north. In a small place near Shlomi an 83 years old man died, in other places people were wounded. In the evening, in the twilight when the sun disappears, the missiles appear, it has to do with how the launchers are detected, it seems that in the twilight it is hard to detect the launchers and therefore encourages firing of more missiles.
This was also the time that Haifa came under attack, first strike and a few far away explosions could be heard. Another strike and the Boom sound got closer, the vibration in the floor was felt very clearly, I looked at the internet and saw that the 3 missiles hit a neighborhood south to were we live, not very far. Another attack, the forth or fifth during the last hour and again a few missile hit Haifa, I look at the TV and see that the place that was hit is my old neighborhood, I went to school that doesn't exist any more on the same spot that the missile hit. My parents lived near by and that was my route home every day. My friend's father still lives there, he is 75 and live alone. We talk on the phone and exchange memories from when we were six years old and for the first time went to the grammar school. The hit was in a parking lot and a dozen cars are on fire, the black smoke is rising giving Haifa the looks of Beirut, twin cities for a moment.
The night falls and it gets dark outside, till now the dark night was also quiet and no sirens or missile attacks happened during the night.
Tonight is special. Each side is trying to get a better position for the cease fire in the morning, each side is trying to throw the final blow that will get it the knock out.
I sit and watch TV and see all the commentators talking even though I am not sure they have what to say. They need to fill a lot of broadcast time and just repeat again and again the assessments about the ceasefire and who will be the first to break it.
I think that we lost this war, not the military aspect of it, but the political.
The Hezbullah is still going to stay in south Lebanon, it will restore its power and get new ammunition from Iran and Syria. The International force will not really do anything and I hope it will not end like the US Marines force that was forced out from Lebanon after loosing 220 soldiers in one suicide attack. We will see the Hezbullah building it's power again and see the new missiles and launchers being moved from Syria into Lebanon and will do nothing about it.
What can we do if in the next two months we will detect ammunition smuggling into Lebanon? Break the cease fire and cry that we are being screwed again? Who in the world will want to even hear us.
The only solution to this situation is eliminating Hezbullah as we know it today and hand over on a platter the clean south Lebanon area to the Lebanese government.
Again we fall into the trap that is making our life here so miserable, thinking with our western mentality.
The middle east has only one way of ending conflicts, have your opponent's head on a pole and present it in the town square, everything less then that will be considered a lost.
The future is not so bright for Israel, a hundred years ago the Arab killed us with knives, then with pistols and guns, then they tried with their armed forces, planes and tanks, and then with Scud missiles and now with rockets and short and long range missiles. Every war brings the next one and escalates the type of weapons used.
The next step is chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons and who ever is shutting his eyes to the future or saying it won't happen, the world will not allow it, is gambling with his life and his children lives.
Tomorrow may bring the cease fire, the cease fire may be short or long, however we must start fight the next war and make every effort to make sure that Israel and our children will be safe, we shouldn't be fooled again like we were in the last six years, fooling ourselves that this quiet will last for ever.
We should all recruit ourselves and start fighting since the other side is not going to sit still, it already started preparing the next round.
Today is Sunday, Aug 13th, it is the last day of this war and it's also the first day of the next one.
בן 47, חיפאי, נשוי ואב לארבעה בנים, אחד הבנים נרצח בפיגוע טרור בחיפה במרץ 2003
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