Stories You May Have Missed
Against All Odds: The Story of Aharon Karov
"In December 2008, after constant rocket fire from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, the IDF launched Operation Cast Lead. The operation began with airstrikes and subsequently ground forces entered the coastal enclave.
Second Lt. Aharon Karov was among the many soldiers called up to defend the nation. Less than 24 hours after his own wedding, Karov left his bride and drove to an army base in Tze’elim, southern Israel. For the young couple, there was no doubt that Karov, as a commander and a soldier, had the obligation to lead his soldiers into battle and protect the people of his nation.
On the night of January 12, 2009, Karov and his soldiers entered the northern Gaza Strip. They followed detailed intelligence information which led them to various houses and structures where terrorists were hiding. When they arrived at one of these houses, a powerful explosive was activated.
Karov was critically wounded. Between 300 to 500 metal fragments penetrated his body and he suffered from a major injury in his head and upper body.
Moments later, a complex rescue mission began to save the wounded officer. IDF medics performed life-saving procedures on the battlefield and in the air as Karov was evacuated by helicopter.
Over the next 12 hours, Karov underwent a set of complex and dangerous surgeries in order to remove part of his skull. His family was told that he was in critical condition and Karov was named the most severely wounded soldier during Operation Cast Lead.
Three weeks later, against all odds, Karov was released from the hospital to begin rehabilitation.
Karov began his recovery with a deep commitment to the treatments prescribed to him by the doctors as well as a bundle of support from his family. The process was long, exhausting, and touched the heart of the entire nation. Thousands of letters of encouragement and blessing strengthened him and aided him during his journey towards recovery.
This officer’s remarkable improvement is considered a miracle. When he regained the ability to speak, Karov’s first words were dedicated to his wife. He called her on the phone and told her, “Tzvia, I love you.”
Roughly two months after the incident in Gaza, Karov’s soldiers finished their training. Karov, who insisted on being a part of the ceremony for his soldiers, stood on his legs for almost 2 hours despite his physical condition. At the end of the ceremony, he pinned his soldiers with a pin declaring them fighters, and was then promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by the Paratroopers’ Brigade Commander.
Step-by-step, word-by-word, Karov inspired the entire nation. His condition improved faster than anyone would have believed and not long after his injury Karov did the impossible and participated in various races and even a marathon. The young couple also grew their family and Karov’s wife gave birth to two children: a girl who was born a year and a half after the incident and a boy a few years later.
Today, Karov shares his story across the country, mostly with young men and women who are about to join the army.
In a way, Karov’s story is a Hanukkah miracle – even though the physical injury was deep and severe, his spirit was strengthened. Operation Cast Lead restored quite in southern Israel for a couple of years, but the legacy established by Karov and many other soldiers will last for many generations to come."
— The IDF, December 25 2014
Another Day, Another Rocket
“I am presently at
home in the northern Negev spending much
of the day going in and out of the bomb shelter
in my home as Grads drop
from the sky nearby. The small space is shared
with 6 grandchildren and parents. We make
the best of it. We actually welcomed in the
new year in the place as another missile
was landing nearby. Spending time in the
shelter is actually less troubling this time
since we have not yet been asked to put on
our gas masks. When we exit and see foreign
newscasts, the BBC and Sky for example, we
wonder what reality are they describing. It
certainly is not ours.”
— Email from Professor Ilan Troen
of Brandeis University, January 1, 2009
Miracles Do Happen
“A Grad rocket slammed into a residential building in Ashdod on Thursday [January 1, 2009], hitting the top floor and sending several chunks of concrete tumbling down to the street below. Thirty-two people were treated for shock, but no one was wounded in the attack, thanks to residents' adherence to Home Front Command directives to enter and remain in safe rooms after hearing a siren, officials said. 'This is nothing less than a miracle,' Magen David Adom chairman Eli Bin told the Jerusalem Post.” (January
1, 2009)
— Jerusalem
Post, (January
1, 2009)
The Difference Between Hamas and Israel
“Maintaining a night vigil along the border with Israel, Hamas fighters sat Wednesday within reach of a device connected to underground wires. The wires were attached to a battery-like device that might have been a detonator for a landmine. Clutching assault rifles and hiding behind trees, masked Hamas gunmen in military clothing reported by field radio their observations of Israeli movements. 'The difference between us and them is that they wait passionately for the day they can return home safely, while we bid farewell to our families and hope to die as martyrs,' one of the men said.”
— Scotsman,
(January 1, 2009)
Egypt Hunting Hamas Operatives in Sinai
“Egypt's Al-Ahram weekly quoted official sources as saying that Egyptian security forces are hunting for several Hamas operatives who have infiltrated Sinai and are aiming to target Egyptian forces. Egyptian authorities have called on locals to refrain from assisting the infiltrators in any way. Meanwhile, Mohammed Bassiouni, former Egyptian ambassador to Israel and currently chairman of the parliament's Foreign Relations Committee, criticized Hamas Thursday on Cairo's state television, saying, ‘Where are the Hamas leaders now, when Gazans are being killed? They are all in hiding.’”
— Ynet
News, (January
1, 2009)
Hamas Goes to War with Gazans...
The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip. Fatah officials reported at least 75 of their supporters were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken. In addition, Hamas executed more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel.
— Jerusalem
Post, (January
1, 2009)
...While Israel Tries to Protect Them
Israeli TV reported that minutes before the targeted killing of a Hamas terrorist
in his apartment or home, all the neighbors
get a phone call warning them to get out
of the area. Some of the defiant ones go
to the roof hoping to dissuade the IDF from
firing at which point a small, harmless missile
is fired to a corner of the roof. This convinces
the defiant to get away. Then and only then
is the hit performed.
There is no other army
in the world that takes such extreme measures
to protect noncombatants.
— Channel 10, Israel
TV, (January 1, 2009)
Two Palestinian Girls Killed By Qassam Misfire
Five-year-old Hanin Abu Khoussa and her 12-year-old cousin, Sabah Abu Khoussa were killed in their home on December 27, 2008, by a missile fired by Hamas. These two young girls don't live in Israel; they lived in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. They died when a missile intended to kill Israelis misfired and killed them instead.
— Jerusalem Post (December 27, 2008)
Humanitarian Aid for Gazans
On January 7, 2009, the IDF suspended its operation for three hours to allow Palestinians to acquire basic necessities, replenish stock and seek aid from the various international organizations operating within the Gaza Strip. Israel also allowed approximately 80 trucks carrying medicine, medical supplies and basic food commodities to pass into Gaza along with approximately half a million liters of heavy duty diesel and 60,000 liters of fuel.
The day before Israel allowed into Gaza 57 trucks loaded with flour, powdered milk, barley, animal feed, medical supplies and medication. Israel also transferred a shipment of hypochlorite to meet water needs and worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross to repair a power line leading in to Gaza City.
Also, Nahal Oz fuel depot operated and conveyed 215,000 liters of heavy duty diesel (required for the Gaza power station), 93,000 liters of diesel for the use of various UN organizations and 50 tons of cooking gas for domestic uses.
In addition to allowing thousands of tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Israel has transferred 2,000 units of blood donated by Jordan; 5 ambulances donated by Turkey; and 5 ambulances transferred from the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
—Embassy of Israel, Washington, DC, (January 6-7, 2009)
The Fundamentalism of Hamas
On “Meet the Press,” David Gregory read an excerpt from a book by panelist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who wrote about Nizar Rayyan, the Hamas leader who was killed by Israel during the current offensive. Goldberg, who had interviewed Rayyan, wrote:
“The question I wrestle with constantly is whether Hamas is truly, theologically implacable. That is to say, whether the organization can remain true to its understanding of Islamic law and God's word and yet enter into a long-term nonaggression treaty with Israel. I tend to think not, though I've noticed over the years a certain plasticity of belief among some Hamas ideologues. ... There was no flexibility with Rayyan. This is what he said when I asked him if he could envision a 50-year hudna (or cease-fire) with Israel: ‘The only reason to have a hudna is to prepare yourself for the final battle. We don't need 50 years to prepare ourselves for the final battle with Israel.’ There is no chance, he said, that true Islam would ever allow a Jewish state to survive in the Muslim Middle East. ‘Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God.’ ... What are our crimes? I asked Rayyan. ‘You are murderers of the prophets and you have closed your ears to the Messenger of Allah,’ he said. ‘Jews tried to kill the Prophet, peace be unto him. All throughout history, you have stood in opposition to the word of God.’ Can Israel achieve deterrence with someone like that?”
—“Meet the Press,” January 4, 2009
Life Under Rocket Fire
“Last night, as we
were descending into the shelter, my son
asked me a barrage of questions, ‘Why
can’t I go to kindergarten? Are they
going to kill us? Why do we need to go the
shelter? Is our house weak? Will the shelter
stop us from dying?’ shared Batsheva. “It
broke my heart. I just tried to explain calmly
that the shelter was more protected.”
— Batsheva Tamano, director of the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee’s Atzmaut program in Sderot
“Since the conflict
in Gaza intensified, seventy-five-year-old
widow Polina has simply not moved from her
apartment in Sderot's Kasdor neighborhood.
Polina relies on a walker to get around due
to a loss of sensation in one leg. Her reduced
mobility prevents her from moving to safety
when the blaring Red Color attack alerts
sounds. Her top floor apartment lacks a protected
room and the building's shelter is on the
first floor, an impossible distance to cover
in the allocated 15 seconds to get to safety.”
— Joint
Distribution Committee
“I respond as a Jew
who grew up in Birmingham and who has been
living in the southwestern corner of Israel
for the last 30 years. I live three miles
from the Gaza
Strip and the same distance
from Egypt....I want to preface my amendments
to all of your misconceptions and distorted
interpretations of the facts, by saying that
I am a human rights advocate myself and for
all the years that I have lived in Israel
I have voted for the human rights party (currently,
Meretz), which is politically left of center.
What you seem to forget though is that the
Israelis are also humans and we have rights
too. As I write this, my human rights are
being violated as I listen to the blasts
of Palestinian-fired missiles falling all
around me. At this very moment, a missile
just hit a kindergarten in Ashdod and it
is only due to canceling school in the south
that a lot of children weren't killed.
— Margaret Kartus Duvdevani
responding to an article criticizing Israel
in the Birmingham
News
“Our sense of calm was shattered on
Friday afternoon when the Israeli army carried
out a synchronized artillery, naval and air
attack that was coordinated on the border
of our Kibbutz, which is now a closed military
area. I ran out with the other Kibbutz members
to see what was happening, and it was here
that I saw “Israel Yayafa” – beautiful
Israel. Not the external beauty, but the
internal beauty of the people of Israel.
Basketball stars from our national team had
come in huge trucks filled with toys, presents
and food. A Nike truck was filled with sports
goods for the kids. Israel's top artists
came to our pub morning, afternoon and evening
to perform for the area residents and soldiers.
It was a classic example of everyone simply
joining hands and doing what they could in
this time of war.
—Ofer Baram is Jewish
Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel
Southern Region
“I also went to Sderot
for the first time in weeks to get my haircut.
What a simple task that sounds like. But
in these days, nothing is simple. The minute
I walked into the salon, I asked where the
bomb shelter was. Not only did I ask I went
to check it out to make sure it was OK. After
I finished, I walked outside. To my surprise
people were out. It was a beautiful balmy
day, and there were actually people in the
coffee shops sitting outside. Sderot, for
once, was not a ghost town. Added to this,
people were riding in their cars with Israeli
flags blowing from the windows. It felt like
Independence Day. And it brought me back
again to the thought that we are an incredible
people. In defiance of everything that is
going on, people are riding in their cars
with their flags waving and sitting outside,
as if to say, we are here to stay.”
— Soni Singer is the
director of the San Diego-IBIM Student Village,
situated one and a half miles from the Gaza
border
“Three schools in
World ORT’s
Kadima Mada (Science Journey) program have
been temporarily closed in the face of continued
Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. The security
measure has undoubtedly saved lives – a
long-range Grad missile, its warhead packed
with ball bearings to inflict greater harm,
pierced the concrete roof of a Grade 9 classroom
at the Makif Aleph High School in central
Be’er
Sheva last week but the school was empty
and no-one was injured. Normally, the classroom
seats nearly 40 children.”
— World ORT
“I have 100 percent
trust in our army. I am not afraid for myself.
But I am terrified for my children. And my
heart is torn in half as I try to balance
my responsibilities as a mother and as a
working woman. As the director of the Jewish
Agency's Israel Department activities in
Sderot, Eshkol and Sha'ar Hanegev, my staff
and I are responsible for the children of
Youth Futures, the Net@ pupils and the children
and youth in Partnership 2000 (P2K) programs
who have been suffering on the frontline
for over eight years. They desperately need
our help. But when my daughter calls me crying,
and my son's kindergarten teacher calls to
tell me to come pick him up as a rocket fell
less than a quarter of a mile from the school,
I want to rush home and protect them. It
is a harrowing situation. But I need to stay
strong, my staff people need to stay strong – for
our children and the children we care for
everyday.”
— Ravit Ohayon-Michal,
Jewish Agency for Israel
UNRWA's Teacher/Terrorist
“By day, Awad al-Qiq
was a respected science teacher and headmaster
at a United
Nations school in the Gaza
Strip. By night, Palestinian militants
say, he built rockets for Islamic
Jihad.
The Israeli air strike
that killed the 33-year-old last week also
laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed
a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff
Israeli accusations that it has aided and
abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state.
In interviews with Reuters,
students and colleagues, as well as U.N.
officials, denied any knowledge of Qiq's
work with explosives....But militant leaders
allied to the enclave’s ruling Hamas group
hailed him as a martyr who led Islamic Jihad's
‘engineering unit’ — its
bomb makers. They fired a salvo of improvised
rockets into Israel in response to his death.
After he was killed in an
Israeli air strike, Qiq's body was wrapped
in an Islamic Jihad flag at his funeral...and
a handwritten notice posted on the metal
gate at the entrance to the school declared
that Qiq, “the chief leader of the
engineering unit,” would now
find “paradise.”
That poster was removed
soon after Reuters visited the Rafah Prep
Boys School, run by the U.N.
Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian
refugees. Staff there said on Monday
that UNRWA officials had told them not to
discuss Qiq's activities.
— Reuters,
(May 5, 2008)
Hamas
Map Shows Strategy for Using Civilians
On January 8, 2009, the Intelligence Corps
Officer-in-Chief, Brigadier General Yuval
Halmish, revealed a sketch by Hamas that
details on the deployment of explosives and
Hamas forces in the Al-Attara neighborhood
in the northern Gaza Strip. The map was found
during Paratrooper Brigade forces operating
in the northern Gaza Strip and was translated
from Arabic during the operation. It describes,
among other things, the location of explosive
devices and firing positions in the middle
of the civilian population in the dense neighborhood,
which endanger the life of the civilians.
The map shows that snipers are positioned
at the entrance of the A-Tawil mosque and
in the mosques next to it and describes the
directions the snipers are aiming. It indicates
that explosives are planted in the entrances
of civilian homes. In addition to that, the
map also shows an explosive device planted
next to a gas station - the detonation of
the device would significantly damage the
surrounding area.
The forces also discovered
a booby-trapped doll at the entrance of a
building, which, upon detonation, pulls the
surrounding people into an underground tunnel
to facilitate the killing and kidnapping
of soldiers.
— Israeli Foreign Ministry
Hamas
Blocks Warnings to Civilians
Palestinian
terrorists and
even the police in Gaza are fighting in civilian
clothing, making it difficult to reduce civilian
causalities. In addition, Hamas terrorists
have planted explosives in civilian residence
buildings so that in the event of IDF fire,
the entire structure will explode. According
to Intelligence Corps Officer-in-Chief, Brigadier
General Yuval Halmish, Hamas is preventing
Palestinian civilians from receiving IDF
leaflets asking Gaza residents to leave evacuate
their homes. “They [Hamas] booby-trapped
the entrances of civilian houses with explosives
put close to them; the objective is of course
to hit our forces but a local explosion also
damages the houses of the civilians and causes
great damage, and likely killing civilians.”
— Steve Erlanger, “A
Gaza war full of traps and trickery,” The
New York Times, (January 10, 2009);
“Israel's
operation against Hamas in Gaza - Update
Jan 10,” Israel Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, (January 10, 2009)
Media Access
Anyone who has picked up a newspaper or
turned on the television in the last two
weeks has seen plenty of coverage of the war
in Gaza. Many reporters are complaining
they do not have the access they would like,
but there is no shortage of information coming
from the battlefront.
It is true that Israel has restricted journalists’ access
(they are now allowing some pool reporting
and embedding some reporters); however, this
is no different than the policy of the United
States and other armies which do not allow
reporters’ unfettered
access during military operations. Israel learned
a lesson from the degree of freedom it granted
reporters during the war
with Hizballah that
journalists sometimes hampered military operations
and endangered troops. Moreover, even after
granting journalists access, much of the
the reporting was distorted.
It is hard to argue that Israel has benefited
in the conflict from limits placed on
journalists as the story coming from Gaza
has been largely told from the Palestinian
point of view, with no pictures of Hamas
terrorists or rocket crews but a steady stream
of images of suffering and injured Palestinians.
It is reminiscent of the observation by Marvin
Kalb in his study of the last Lebanon war
in which he said coverage made it appear
the war was being fought by ghosts because
you never saw a picture of any terrorists.
While the journalists sitting on the Israeli
side of the border with Gaza complain and
criticize Israel, we have heard almost nothing
from the Egyptian side of the Gaza border.
In fact, the UN reported, “Every day,
local and foreign doctors, nurses, truck
drivers and journalists, among others, wait
on the Egyptian side of the border for the
opportunity to enter Gaza during the daily
three-hour ceasefire....On 9 January, the
Egyptian authorities finally admitted a group
of doctors from the Arab Medics Union to
cross through to Gaza. Forty-six had arrived
at the border two days earlier hoping to
cross over and offer their assistance in
Gaza....Foodstuffs and other aid are not
allowed through the Rafah crossing, so are
usually sent through the Kerem Shalom crossing,
some 4km away from Rafah, and which is under
the control of Israel.”
— Jerusalem
Post,
(January 7, 2009); IRIN (January
11, 2009)
Israeli School Children
Traumatized by Rockets
On January 12, 2009, students
in southern Israeli towns were allowed back
to school for the first time since the operation
began but under strict guidelines that required
classes to be held in protected buildings
and shelters.
Shlomit Amichai, director-general
of the Ministry of Education, told a press
conference last week: “It's a matter
of national importance; we must return the
children to their regular routine despite
the fact that the current situation is not
routine.”
Natan, a 17-year-old high
school student from Ashkelon is still scared. “We’ve
had eight schools and kindergartens (in Ashkelon, Beer
Sheba and Ashdod) hit directly by mortars
while they stood empty. I’m not ashamed
to say I’m terrified.”
Sderot has experienced eight
years of rocket attacks from Gaza. According
to a January 2008 report by the Israel Trauma
Centre for Victims of Terror and War (Natal),
at least 75 percent of children aged 4-18
in Sderot suffer from post-traumatic stress,
including sleeping disorders and severe anxiety.
— UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Life Under Rocket Fire
A Chabad elementary school was peppered
with shrapnel from a rocket attack. An employee
at the school said it was a miracle that
no one was hurt. “The rocket landed
in the exact spot the buses unload the students
for school. If there had been class today,
the rocket would have hit at the same time
the buses would have been there. It would
have been a disaster.”
— Jerusalem Post,
(January 12, 2009)
“Egypt is not willing even to open
its borders to wounded people from amongst
the civilians. Israel does this. Do you know
that several of the wounded are in Barzillai
hospital in Ashkelon that is under constant
missile attack? And in Soroka hospital in
Be'er Sheva? And at least one in Hadassah
hospital?”
— Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor
at the University of Colorado Naomi
Gale, (January 12, 2009)
“People in Ashkelon have 20 seconds to find shelter from the
rockets, lucky new homes have bombs shelters.But
what can you do if you find yourself in the
middle of the street?
The distance from my house to the bus station
is five minutes. Last week, a minute after
I got off the bus the alarm sounded, I ducked
near a parked car until the sound of the
rocket explosion was over. Two minutes after
that another alarm sounded, this time I ran
for shelter under a building, other people
stopped their cars and left them with a running
engine to run for shelter.
One evening my baby niece was in the tub
playing with her rubber ducky, and the alarm
sounded. We barely had 20 seconds to run
for shelter. I instantly leaned over to cover
my niece with my body to protect her in case
that rocket hit the house.
My 85-year old grandmother also lives in
Ashqelon and is confined to a wheelchair.
For her, 20 seconds are not enough time to
find shelter. My brother and I had to move
her bed into the shelter room to make sure
she was safe at all times.”
— Tzvi Raviv,
Jewish Agency for Israel Shaliach and Israel
Program Coordinator at Hillel Foundation
of Orange County
Aid Comes In, Hamas Steals It
Hamas is confiscating food donations sent
into Gaza. Reports point in particular to
the confiscation of flour and its sale, often
at outrageous prices.
On Sunday, in a Hamas Internet forum, surfers
complained about the confiscations of flour
donations in Dir-al-Balech by Hamas. There
is also a description of how Hamas transfers
the donations to its own warehouses and distributes
them to only two bakeries - Albana Bakery
and Al-Tzalah Union Bakery - both belonging
to Hamas.
— Coordinator of Government
Activities in the Territories
Another Hamas War Crime
The Israeli Arab weekly newspaper Kul
Al-Arab called Gaza Strip residents to find out what
they were experiencing. Khaled, from A-Rimal,
said: “We the children, in small groups
and in civilian clothes, are fulfilling missions
of support for the [Hamas] Resistance fighters,
by transmitting messages about the movements
of the enemy forces, or by bringing them
ammunition and food. We ourselves are not
aware of the movements of the Resistance
fighters. We see them in one place, they
suddenly disappear, and then reappear somewhere
else. They are like ghosts, it is very hard
to find them or hurt them.”
— Kul-Al-Arab, (January
9, 2009) translated by Palestinian
Media Watch
Newlywed Israeli Soldier
Fights For Life
Aharon Karov was given leave from his paratroop
unit so he could get married. Less than 48
hours after the wedding he was called back
to his unit.
The newly married couple had a difficult
time separating after such a brief time as
husband and wife, Karov’s father said. “But
it was clear to them that there are times
when you have to sacrifice for the sake of
the state of Israel.”
Karov was critically wounded in an explosion
in a booby-trapped house in northern Gaza.
Having fought Hamas, he is now fighting for
his life at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva.
— Haaretz,
(January 14, 2009)
Pilots Abort Missions to Spare Civilians
“We work very hard to keep civilian
casualties as low as possible,” Apache
helicopter pilot Capt. Orr said. “Each
missile we shoot is pinpointed to the very
meter we want it to go.”
Orr has flown dozens of combat missions
over Gaza and said aborting some of his targets
for fear of harming civilians were among
his proudest achievements. “The ones
I remember are when I have locked in on a
target and I fire and then at the last second
I see a child in my cross hairs and I divert
the missile,” he said. “That
leaves a mark.”
— AP,
(January 13, 2009)
Life Under Rocket Fire
“Yesterday, I set my alarm for 8:30. But
it was not to be. At 8:15 the red alert siren
sounded and almost before I could open my
eyes my younger daughter, 2, was already
running to our protected shelter, her older
brother, 4, hot on her tail. My children
seem to think this is some sort of game,
and I am glad it is so. For them it is a
place for the family to be together to play
and sing songs. I pray that this war will
be over before they are old enough to understand
that this is a different game – one
of life and death.”
— Soni Singer is the director of the
San Diego-IBIM Student Village, situated
one and a half miles from the Gaza border.
Classes at both Shikma and Sha’ar
HaNegev have endured countless interruptions
as red alert sirens give students and staff
about 15 seconds’ warning to find shelter
from incoming high explosive warheads packed
with ball bearings and other objects calculated
to cause maximum death and injury.
“Many, many times our lessons are
disturbed by the attacks,” Tammy said. “And
if you are taking an exam, when you come
back to the class after a red alert you have
forgotten what you wanted to write.”
“When there’s a red alert we
run out of the classroom into a safe room,” 17-year-old
Lihi Va’anunu said. “We wait
one minute and go back to the classroom.
But it’s
very difficult to focus on study after that.
We try to, but it’s hard. So when I
get home and I feel calmer I study to try
to catch up with what I missed in the lesson.”
Yael adds: “When I hear the alarm
I get scared for my family. You can’t
focus on learning when you hear the alarm
at school. Some people are very, very scared.
There are school days when there are no alarms
but there are also days when the alarm sounds
six or seven times.”
— World ORT
“Both children went to Ori's gan in the morning,
and I was very glad. I was able to continue
to work in Sderot. In the afternoon, I was
completely engaged in a car call when suddenly
I noticed cars and trucks stopping in the
middle of the street, and people running
to the side of the road. It seems that I'm
really feeling like things are normal, because
my initial thought was that it was an accident.
And then I noticed that people were not running
to the roadside, but to houses nearby. And
suddenly it registered that I had heard a
red alert alarm. I stopped immediately and
ran quickly to a protected place. This was
terribly frightening.”
— Ravit Ohayon-Michal is director
of the Jewish Agency's Israel Department
activities in Sderot, Eshkol and Sha'ar Hanegev
US Public Backs Israel
Forty-four percent of Americans support Israel's use of force, while only 18 percent
considered Hamas' use of force appropriate.
Fifty-seven percent think that Hamas is using
excessive force, while only 36 percent said Israel was.
Forty-four percent blame for the
latest Middle East crisis Hamas, 14 percent said Israel and 29 percent
said they weren't sure.
When those polled were asked whether the United States should favor a Palestinian
state, 45 percent said it shouldn't, 31 percent
said it should and 24 percent said they didn't
know.
— McClatchy
Newspapers, (January
13, 2009
A Mad Source of Lies
From Gaza
The source of many stories accusing Israel of human rights abuses is Norwegian doctor
Mads Gilbert, who has been treated by the
media as a nonpartisan observer, and quoted
accusing Israel of conducting an “all
out war against civilians,” “deliberately
targeting the [Palestinian] population,” and
causing “a man-made disaster.”
Gilbert is a radical Marxist and a member
of the political Red (Rodt) party, a revolutionary
socialist party in Norway. He has been a
pro-Palestinian activist since the 1970's
and travelled to Lebanon in support of the
Palestinians during the first Lebanon war in 1982. He has long been a vocal opponent
of Israel and the U.S.
In Sweden’s biggest morning newspaper,
columnist Lisa Bjurwald stated that Gilbert
and his colleague Erik Fosse did work for
the Norwegian aid organization NORWAY, whose
partners include Hezbollah’s Martyr
Foundation, which collects and distributes
money to suicide bomber’s families.
— Little
Green Footballs; CAMERA
Fighting Ghosts
During the second Lebanon war, Hezbollah would not publish the names of
killed operatives, preferring instead to
bury them in secret, without media coverage,
to reinforce the “divine
victory” myth it sought to create.
Reporters abetted this strategy, Marvin Kallb
noted in a study of war coverage, by rarely
publishing photographs of terrorists and
creating the impression that the war on the Hezbollah side was being fought by ghosts.
Hamas has adopted a similar policy. On
January 10, 2009, the main Hamas online forum
announced that it was forbidden to publish
photographs, names, or details of those members
of the resistance (i.e., terrorist organizations)
killed or injured in the fighting until the
end of the “Israeli aggression” in
the Gaza Strip. The moderator said that any
message violating those principles would
be removed from the forum. He added that
they were all “soldiers of the resistance” who
should avoid providing assistance to the
enemy.
The Hamas policy has three
objectives:
- to avoid undermining
the morale of Hamas operatives as a result
of the death of many terrorists during
the IDF's ground operations (according
to IDF reports, more than 200 operatives
were killed). With that in mind, and possibly
owing to the difficulty of evacuating many
bodies from the battlefield, it was reported
that Hamas was not holding proper funerals
for its fatalities.
- to deliver to the Palestinian
target audience (and to other target audiences
worldwide) the message that Israel has
no achievements in its ground operation
and thus strengthen Hamas's status and
bargaining power when the fighting comes
to an end.
- to confirm (through Al-Jazeera
and other media) the false propaganda message
that Israel's military operations are aimed
against Gaza Strip residents and that only
the civilian population is being hit by
the IDF and is paying the price.
— IICC,
(January 13, 2009)
Israeli Medic Risks Life
to Save Palestinians
“Israeli medic Moshe Vaknin drove
an ambulance to the Erez Crossing, between Israel and Gaza, and got ready to evacuate
an injured Palestinian child. With Israeli
mortars fired on one side, and bullets passing
overhead from the other, Vaknin, the deputy
director for the south district at Magen
David Adom (MDA), Israel’s version
of the Red Cross, risked his life to bring
the Palestinian child out of Gaza and take
him to an Israeli hospital for life-saving
treatment.
Since then, he's brought out two more wounded
Palestinian children for treatment in Israeli
hospitals, and last week, was one of a team
of medics who drove in to the checkpoint,
the most dangerous in Israel and possibly
the Middle East, in a special bulletproof
ambulance to rescue Palestinian truck drivers,
hired by the United Nations, and attacked
while delivering humanitarian aid....
Over the last four years in his job working
for the MDA, he has helped bring thousands
of sick and injured Palestinian children
and adults from the Gaza Strip to Israeli
hospitals for vital medical care, often on
a daily basis....Hamas sniper fire and rockets
have been aimed many times at both Vaknin
and the Palestinian patients he was transporting....“I
really don't know why they were firing at
us. They don’t care, even if we were
transporting a child or baby,” says
Vaknin....
‘Every day, almost, we’re taking
injured and sick people to Israel through
the Erez crossing,’ he says. ‘We
have a coordinator in Gaza working with us.
He will tell us if it’s a baby in an
incubator, a child, an adult, or an elderly
person. It’s pretty unpredictable,
and I’ve stopped asking questions.
Sometimes they will tell us to expect a five-year-old
child. When we get to the crossing it’s
a one-month-old baby....’
It’s a bit strange, he admits, that
living about a mile from the Gaza border
in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, he knows that he’s
treating the same people who are throwing
rockets on his family....‘We’ve
learned to live like this. It’s not
a normal situation,” says Vaknin....‘They're
throwing rockets at my family and I am still
helping them.’”
— Israel
21c
Life Under
Rocket Fire
“Let people know that
there are four agricultural municipalities
bordering Gaza. Forty-thousand people live
here. We want to farm, to cultivate the land,
to love life. But for the past eight years
we cannot send our children to school, we
can't gather for community events, we cannot
live normally. We have been forced to go
out to fight for the right to live normal
lives....
From the other side, I can
understand there is also loss. But don't
forget that three years ago we evacuated
from Gaza. We were trying, by this action,
to bring a solution to this area. And instead,
they dug tunnels and smuggled weapons and
ammunition.”
— Ofer Baram is Jewish
Agency Director of Community Relations, Israel
Southern Region, (January 15, 2009)
“Again we started our
morning with two red alert sirens. In our
protected room I hugged my children and said "good
morning." My four-year-old son looked at
me and said, "It's not a good morning, it's
a morning with Kassam rockets." Sometimes
our kids understand much more then we think
they do.”
— Soni Singer is the
director of the San Diego-IBIM Student Village,
situated one and a half miles from the Gaza border
An Israeli Dove’s
Reply to a Friend’s Critique of the War
“When I asked you after the disengagement
from Gaza, Gideon, explain to me why they
are firing missiles at us, you replied that
they want us to open the crossings. I asked
you whether you truly believe that if they
fire missiles the crossings will be opened,
or the opposite. And whether you truly believe
that it is right and just to open crossings
into Israel for those who declare openly
and sincerely that they want to destroy our
country. I did not get an answer from you.
And even though the crossings were in fact
opened many times, and were closed in the
wake of the missile attacks, regrettably
I still did not see you standing firmly behind
a moral position which says: Now, people
of Gaza, after you expelled the Israeli occupation
from your land, and justly so, you must hold
your fire.
The doleful thought sometimes crosses my
mind that it is not the children of Gaza or of Israel that you are pining for, but
only for your own private conscience. Because
if you are truly concerned about the death
of our children and theirs, you would understand
the present war - not in order to uproot Hamas from Gaza but to induce its followers
to understand, and regrettably in the only
way they understand in the meantime, that
they must stop the firing unilaterally, stop
hoarding missiles for a bitter and hopeless
war to destroy Israel, and above all for
the sake of their children in the future,
so they will not die in another pointless
adventure....And if they start building,
developing and pursuing social endeavors,
even according to Islamic religious law,
they will prove to the whole world, and especially
to us, that the moment we terminate the occupation
they will be ready to live in peace with
their surroundings, free to do as they wish,
but also responsible for their deeds.
There is something absurd in the comparison
you draw about the number of those killed.
When you ask how it can be that they killed
three of our children and we cause the killing
of a hundred and fifty, the inference one
can draw is that if they were to kill a hundred
of our children (for example, by the Qassam
rockets that struck schools and kindergartens
in Israel that happened to be empty), we
would be justified in also killing a hundred
of their children....you, Gideon, who live
among the people, know very well that we
are not bent on killing Palestinian children
to avenge the killing of our children. All
we are trying to do is get their leaders
to stop this senseless and wicked aggression,
and it is only because of the tragic and
deliberate mingling between Hamas fighters
and the civilian population that children,
too, are unfortunately being killed. The
fact is that since the disengagement, Hamas has fired only at civilians. Even in this
war, to my astonishment, I see that they
are not aiming at the army concentrations
along the border but time and again at civilian
communities.”
— Israeli novelist A.B.
Yehoshua responding to criticism of Gideon
Levy, Haaretz, (January 16, 2009)
Americans
Stand Behind Israel
A
new bipartisan poll shows that Americans
blame the Palestinians for the current
conflict in Gaza (56%-18%).
By a wide margin
(66%-17%), Americans blame “Hamas leaders who control Gaza” for the
current humanitarian crisis in the Gaza
Strip.
Despite the ongoing
operations in Gaza, Americans side with Israel over the Palestinians by a 57%-8%
margin, virtually unchanged from the pre-Gaza
War November 2008 polling (57%-6%).
Within the context of the current conflict
in Gaza, 73% of registered voters think the
conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
is about ideology and religion, and the two
sides will live in peace only when they acknowledge
each other’s right to exist. Only 19%
think the conflict is really about land.
In response to an open-ended question, 46%
of Americans correctly identify Iran as a
principal supporter of the military activities
of Hamas. Despite the problems America faces
at home right now, 79% of voters think we
must still work hard to stop Iran from getting
nuclear weapons. Among possible approaches
to deal with Iran, Americans support increased
diplomatic pressure (47%), followed by direct
negotiations (43%) and increased economic
sanctions (39%).
Nearly all Americans (91%) think
getting Palestinians to stop shooting rockets
into Israel is important to help bring peace
to the Middle East.
Americans also think
getting Palestinians to stop teaching hate
(90%), stopping Iran from arming, funding
and training terrorists (87%), and getting Iran to stop its nuclear program (76%) are
important conditions to bring peace to the
region.
Americans clearly hold different opinions
of Israeli and Palestinian leadership: 48%
say Israeli leaders want peace and are working
towards it while only 5% believe the same
to be true of the Palestinian leaders. A
plurality (55%) hold Palestinian leaders
responsible for the violence and 11% blame
Israeli leaders. Additionally, 54% think
Israeli leaders only want to defend their
people, not hurt others, while only 8% say
Palestinian leaders want the same.
— The
Israel Project,
(January 14, 2009)
Where Are The Rockets Coming From?
“Every day, the Hamas rocket teams sneak
through the fire and fury of Gaza to launching
sites such as trucks, rooftops, school courtyards
and mosques.
Groups of three to five militants scramble to set up
short-range Qassam rockets made in clandestine workshops
in the Gaza Strip and longer-range Grads smuggled from Iran. Wary of Israeli jets hunting above the squalid
urban maze, the rocket teams aim with the aid of Google
Earth and landmarks such as the twin smokestacks of
an Israeli power plant. The militants ignite the rockets
and run; white smoke trails slash across the sky.”
— Los
Angeles Times,
(January 14, 2009)
“No one seeks sanctuary
in the mosques, because Hamas fighters are
known to store weapons there.”
— Washington Post,
(January 16, 2009)
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