War, Surreal

Occasionally, we get a series of phone messages to tell us that there's a security drill going on here in Shiloh. Sometimes it's just to warn us not to panic when a siren goes off. They describe the drill siren versus a Gd forbid real one. Other times we have to lock up, turn off inside lights, get off the streets and even call in to a certain number to say we're fine. It's important that our security crew practices, and we all pray that they never have to deal with the real thing, an attack by Arab terrorists, dangerous rockets or finding our pastoral community a war zone.

Israel, even if you ignore that pesky "green line" and consider the June, 1967 ceasefire lines, is a very tiny country. At some point, I think it was post-Nixon, an American general suggested serious security buffer zones between Israel and the Arabs. In theory, maybe, he had a good idea, but his so-called buffer zones to go north-south were wider than  pre-1967 Israel.

Even though the State of Israel is very small by international standards, I only hear about the Arab attacks from Gaza on southern Israel from the internet news and Israeli media. They don't directly affect us. We in Shiloh aren't awakened by sirens, alarms, rockets, jets or raging fires the way my friends in the south of Israel are. It's surreal, and the dangers are just too easy to ignore.

Rocket barrage on southern Israel, IDF attacks in Gaza
Series of sirens heard in Gaza Belt region. IDF says 12 rockets fired, three of them intercepted by Iron Dome

I have friends who, like me, live far from the south, but they have signed up to get real time alerts on their phones, as if they lived in Ashkelon or one of the small communities that are constantly suffering from Gaza launched rockets, fire bombs etc. They wake up in a panic just like our friends in Netivot. The only difference is that they don't have to run within seconds to a shelter, and they can stay safely in bed in pajamas.

Israeli news media tries to "comfort" readers/listeners by relating the successes of the Iron Dome in intercepting dangerous rockets which had been launched at Israeli civilians. Instead of using military might to destroy our enemies, we just try to render their attacks harmless. That just encourages to increase the violence against us. The State of Israel must take off the kid gloves and defend us by destroying our enemies, not just deflecting the rockets.

Also, in the long run we here in the center of the country, far from Gaza, are also in danger, since local terrorists are encouraged by those in the south. Gd willing we will get a government that isn't afraid to truly defend us by destroying our enemies!