from a friend in Israel....​

from a friend in Israel....​

 

This morning, the Israeli government accepted the terms of a ceasefire.  Hamas responded by firing even more rockets onto Israel.  They have already fired over 140 rockets onto Israeli towns since this morning.  And that is AFTER Israel accepted the ceasefire.

 

This evening, at about 7 PM, a rocket that landed near the Gaza Strip, at the Erez crossing, injured one man and killed another.  The radio reports (which are very immediate) said that the men were there to distribute food and treats to the soldiers on duty there.  A few years ago, I was on such a mission, the day that Israeli forces left Gaza; I was taking photos of the withdrawal.  Within an hour, the radio confirmed that the seriously injured man had died and was aged in his 30's.  Just now, they announced on the radio that he was a Chassid Chabad.  I had a look on-line and there seems to be some dispute among Chabadniks about whether or not he was a Chossid or not.  (What's the difference?)  His name has not been announced on the radio yet; they generally wait until family have all been notified.

 

After the death was announced, I heard booming outside.  Fireworks.  The Arabs nearby are celebrating.  I kid you not.  For the past four hours, I have been hearing non-stop fireworks exploding.  This is common on Ramadan evenings, but they seem especially joyous tonight, having killed their first Israeli.  (A 74 year old woman, an American tourist, died of a heart attack during a raid this week.  There have been many injuries, as well, some critical.)  The Jerusalem light-rail has resumed going through the Arab neighborhood of Shu'afat - it was stoned there this evening, with no injuries, just property damage.  Shimon Peres probably still thinks that this is the "New Middle East" when it's the same as it's always been.

 

I want you to understand what it's like here.  When the Gazans fire a rocket, Israeli systems detect the launch very, very quickly and calculate the trajectory and predict the landing site.  This triggers sirens and alerts in that specific area.  The radio also announces an alert for that town.  If the landing spot is a built-up area, Iron Dome launches one or more rockets, to shoot down the incoming rocket.  Hamas often tries to overwhelm Iron Dome by firing batteries of rockets, all at once.  So, as I listen to the radio (like the rest of the country) the broadcast is interrupted with an alert and the targeted town is named. During incoming attacks, this happens every few seconds - no exaggerating!   You're listening to the radio and they list a whole bunch of towns and cities, sometimes clumped together in the same region, sometimes all over the country, and they are all under attack.  Sometimes it's hard to follow what is going on on the radio program, because every sentence is interrupted twice with the names of other towns that are now being targeted in real-time.

 

People here have gotten used to this, and have even become complacent.  However, technology isn't perfect.  Iron Dome has performed extremely well (as far as we can see at this stage).  But it only has to fail critically once for the consequences to be terrible.  Had there been no such defense system, the Israeli casualty list would include many thousands of names by now.


I got the attached video from a relative today.  They are in the Tel Aviv area.  With the air-raid sirens wailing in the background, they saw 2 or three Iron Dome intercepts, with at least one appearing to be right above their home.  This is a very densely populated area.  Surreal, huh?  An air war right over your home.


Welcome to the New Middle East.