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She made aliyah in her 20's, I guess around 30 years ago or so.
To all our friends and family,
First of all, thanks to those of you who have been in touch. The knowledge that we are in your thoughts is very important to us now.
As you all know, Israel is at war in Lebanon. The reasons for this may not be too clear, so I shall try to write a short synopsis of what has triggered this renewed state of hostilities with our northern neighbour with whom we have enjoyed a decade long ceasefire. To complicate matters, this breach was not made directly by the Lebanese government, but a terrorist organization known as Hizbollah, who occupies, with immunity from the Lebanese government, Southern Lebanon. Thus Hizbollah controls the border shared with Israel. You may wonder why a sovereign state allows a terrorist organization to operate with such autonomy. We wonder that also and it is in direct contravention of a UN resolution that, after Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon following the last war there, states that Israel fully withdrew from all Lebanese territory. The resolution also stipulated that the Lebanese government disarm Hizbollah. This, unfortunately, was not carried out. Hizbollah, a proxy of Syria and Iran, has used the last decade to arm themselves with missiles and dig bunkers and well fortified positions.
Ten days ago, a unit of Hizbollah terrorists snuck through the fortified Israel border and ambushed an Israeli military jeep killing three and kidnapping two. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert immediately declared such attacks as an act of war, justifying a full Israeli military response. This ambush was carried out under the diversionary cover of a rocket barrage fired by Hizbollah into northern Israeli villages and cities reaching as far as Akko. In response to this violation of Israel's northern border and kidnapping Israeli citizens from inside Israel, the Israeli Airforce began bombing bridges, roads, airports and ports creating land, sea and air blockade of Lebanon.
Israel's demands are simple; the Lebanese government must take action to regain control of the Hezbollan controlled south and return the kidnapped soldiers unharmed.
What happened after that, you have been reading in the papers and seeing on the news. The Israeli airforce has been bombing Hizbollah targets: bunkers, headquarters, ammunition stockpiles, rocket launchers. Hizbollah has been lobbing missiles at all of our cities from Haifa north.
I would like to point out that Hizbollah, and therefore the indirectly compliant Lebanese government, breached the peace treaty, not Israel! The claims, by the international community, that Israel has over reacted and the Israeli response should be more proportional. Imagine it were you, in your own country and your neighbour launches unprovoked attacks across the border onto your soil. How would the US respond if Canada or Mexico began kidnapping and ransoming soldiers and launching rockets into your villages and cities? It is safe to say that the US would respond with a full blown military action offering little to no restraint, and would not drop leaflets telling civilians to vacate areas occupied by the terrorist forces; as Israel has done in Lebanon. If such attacks occurred in any other developed country in the world, this includes France, Russia and China (all of which have sided with the Muslim countries in the UN) their response would be to the same degree if not far more aggressive. We are tired of the international community's complaints that Israel's response is not proportional because everyone else would respond far more aggressively and with much less restraint.
We, in Tel Aviv, are going about our daily lives and praying that our airforce has destroyed or will quickly locate and destroy the missile launchers that are capable of reaching Tel Aviv. Our family from Nahariya has moved in with us after the first rockets landed 2 blocks from their house.
As I sit here writing to you, I can hear the rumble of warplanes overhead. We have lived with this sound for days and days. We feel under siege from all sides. The Iranians, by their proxy - Hizbollah, in the north. The Hamas, controlled by Syria, in the south. On Wednesday, it took many hours to get home from work because of all the roadblocks with security forces searching for a homicide bomber - they caught him before he arrived at his target.
Israel (and Lebanon) were enjoying the beginning of a prosperous tourist season. Israel's economy has been flowering and our government had decided to cut down defense spending and spend more money on social issues - health, education, closing social gaps. This is now in abeyance. It is never a good time for a war. And when all this is over, Israel will have to divert money to replenish our stocks of weapons.
Our hearts hurt hearing the numbers of dead and wounded as a result of the rocket barrages in Israeli towns and cities . The arrogance of Hizbollah knows no limit - they have declared two brothers (a 3 year old and 7 year old Israeli Arab kids, who playing outside and were killed when a hizbollah rocket landed in Nazareth) "shahids" - their term for Moslems who die as martyrs in the Moslem jihad (holy war).
We cry with the families of soldiers who have lost their lives protecting us.
Our hearts also contract seeing the destruction Israel is wreaking in Lebanon. The Hizbollah stockpile weapons in villages and do not allow the villagers to flee when the Israeli airforce gives fair warning before an attack.
What they do not show you on TV, is that when Israelis are killed or bombs land in our population centres they dance on the roof tops and give out candy in the streets of Lebanon and Gaza.
I think that one of the most frightening thoughts, as it became clear how much advanced weaponry Iran and Syria have supplied to Hizbollah, is that all these weapons were amassed with only one target in mind - Israeli citizens, Jews, Arabs, Druze.
God grant us a speedy resolve to the current conflict. And, God willing, the aftermath should simply be peace and prosperity for Israel and our neighbouring countries.
Shalom.
Shabbat shalom.
Leah
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