I did entitle this blog "The Israel Adventure". Yep. That's a good name for it, alright!
Israel is in it's 6th day of Operation Pillar of Cloud - fighting Hamas after how many? - SEVEN years did someone say? - of daily rocket attacks on our southern cities. Enough is enough. Gilad Shalit is no longer being held captive there and there is no longer any reason NOT to do something to stop the attacks. I still wonder what took us so long to spring into action.....
I just got back from the U.S. a month ago (more about that in another post) and while I was there I was trying not to think about the possibility that "something" would happen while I was there with a husband and 3 kids here and of me not being able to get home. Thankfully, it didn't happen while I was so far away but it sure is happening now!
We and all our friends knew that we would all be in range "next time around" and sure enough we are which is a first. Thankfully, we've still been getting uninterrupted nights' sleep and haven't had ONE air raid siren alert yet. However, we have been hearing plenty of "booms" throughout the last 6 days which I can only assume is our Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepting the rockets that were headed our way.
Last Thursday night I left work at 4:45 with a co-worker and just as we left the building we heard 3 booms. We looked up in the sky and saw three black puffs of smoke hanging in the air basically right over our heads. O-KAAAAAAAAAY! This isn't something happening in "the south" anymore. This isn't fun and games. This is REAL. Now when I'm driving, my eyes are scanning the sky and my heart leaps at every bird flapping by until I realize it's JUST a bird.
On Friday, Y said to me, "Ima, the principal came into our class and told us the bomb shelter was open and if we have time we should run there if there's a siren but if not we should find a wall and lie down next to it with our hands over our heads. If a bomb goes "pop" on me, what good is having my hands over my head going to do?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why does an 8-year-old have to think these things??? Nuts. Just nuts. But she's taking it very much in stride.
My prayer is that we do NOT give up before the job is finished, that we do NOT cave in to pressure. Otherwise we'll be in the same or worse situation a few years down the road. I also hope they don't jump the gun and send in the ground troups prematurely. IMO, they can do a hell of a lot more damage from the air without endangering anyone. They should send in the ground troups at the end to sweep up the pieces when it's all over.
