"Pillar of Defense (Cloud)" - Israel & Hamas Agree to Gaza Cease Fire

Dear friends,

First, thanks to everyone who has expressed their concern for our safety. We live between Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi in a small kind of “village” for want of a better word (“yishuv” in Hebrew). This means that we get the sirens when rockets are sent in the direction of Kiryat Malachi and also hear Ashkelon and Ashdod sirens and booms from a distance.

Yesterday, there were seven sirens here and this morning two so far. In the cities, there are tens of sirens (and attacks or successful interceptions) per day and through the night. Families without fortified rooms have to run to a safe area. In Sderot, they have 15 seconds to do that, here we have 40 seconds.

Try and imagine: 2am – waking up, grabbing your children and running out of your front door down a few flights of stairs… or stopping your car and trying to release all the children’s safety belts (same children may be hysterical from the siren because they know to expect the explosion any second) and run to shelter. In 15 seconds. Or 40 seconds. How long should a country ask its civilians to put up with that? How long would you put up with that for?

Living under the threat of rocket fire is not a bowl of cherries by any means, it certainly runs havoc with any kind of routine or normal lifestyle, like, when can I dare go into the shower? where are our children at any given moment (especially people with young children)? dare I venture going in to my doctor’s appointment in Ashkelon or Ashdod? if there’s a siren on my way to the supermarket, will I stop the car and lie on the ground with my hands over my head – these are the instructions if you are nowhere near a building to take refuge in. These are times of stress, tension and confusion – but our situation is nowhere near as traumatic as that of our friends in Kibbutz Saad or Kibbutz Alumim on the border with Gaza or the cities : Sderot, Netivot (where Haim works), Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Malachi (where 3 people were killed by a direct hit on their way to a safe area yesterday: Aharon Smajda, 49, who was helping his neighbours down the stairs with their young children, Itzik Amsalem, 24, and Mirah Sharf, 27, who had returned to Israel from New Delhi where she and her husband were Chabad (Lubavitch) emissaries, in order to give birth in Israel. Her husband and other children are wounded). This news is heartbreaking for Israelis and a reason for celebration for our enemies. They rejoice in death and violence, we rejoice in life and saving life.

Who needs Jews as best friends? We’re the best enemy you could hope for! A new line they can use instead of “Some of my best friends are Jews, how about “Some of my best enemies are Jews” or “With enemies like Jews, who needs friends?” The terrorists can go to mosque and funerals of terrorist chiefs knowing they won’t be harmed even though we know exactly who they are and where they are. Did you know that the IDF made thousands of phone calls to Gaza households and dispatched thousands of fliers in Gaza warning people to stay away from where the terrorists are because we are targeting them?

Do people in the west realize that the Jewish enemy cares more about the welfare of the population of Gaza than the cynical, cruel terrorist entity who is supposedly meant to be taking care of them? Do people understand that if and when civilians are hurt in Gaza it is because all our attempts to protect them have been thwarted mainly by the insistence of their ‘protectors’ to act from densely populated areas and specifically mosques, kindergartens, schools, you get the picture? Do they understand that misrepresenting Israel in the world means strengthening the oppression of women in Gazan society and the abuse of children, being brought up with hatred 24/7 on TV, in schools, trained to be shahidim (martyrs – ie mass murderers of the Israeli or western enemy) as an ideal?

I see a demonstration of “Jewish Homosexuals and Lesbians for Gaza” and rub my eyes. Where is the only place in the Middle East where Jews / homosexuals / lesbians can live freely or live at all (let alone if you’re both!) ? Gaza perhaps?

Even after 12 years of living under fire, my friend, Esther, in Kibbutz Alumim on the border, says “Can’t we brainwash them with ‘All we are saying is give peace a chance’?” But the problem is that their aim is not for peace and quiet and a good education and future for their population but to keep their population ignorant , needy and resolute to anihilate us and cause us pain. havoc and despair. We are not talking about neighbours like Canada here, or New Zealand. We are talking about a fundamentalist Muslim terrorist entity.

Our aim is to stop the attacks on our civilians. In the west, people seem to preoccupy themselves with the numbers killed on each side. So I am stating the obvious,. and please do the same, state the obvious, when speaking with people who don’t understand: Israel is a sovereign state under attack by terrorists. The enlightened western world should be unshiftingly on Israel’s side and in awe at the wondrous brilliant way Israel is surgically attacking the root of evil there. Please make it clear to people that If not for the amazing Iron Dome missile interceptor and the safe rooms and safety zones, there would be hundreds of Israelis killed and thousands maimed from the hundreds of rockets over the past few days. That Hamas is committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. Israel’s retaliation is surgical, brilliantly avoiding civilian injuries, taking out the terrorist chief of staff and sending him to his 72 virgins. In 3 days of Israeli attacks, 19 Palestinians have been killed. All terrorists or people standing way too close to them.

Anyone who thinks the IDF is trying to kill civilians needs to wake up and smell the humus. The IDF must be an incredibly rotten army if in 3 days of air attacks, it only manages to kill 19 people! If our aim were to kill Palestinians, surely it would be more likely for there to be 19 left, rather than 19 killed.

Israel’s only ‘crime against humanity’ if any was the restraint she has shown time and time again so as not to ‘escalate violence in the region’, her only “crime” was against her own civilians. Which country in the world would (or should) tolerate 12000 rockets on their civilians and 12 years of trauma and fear for children in Sderot, in the kibbutzim and moshavim in the south and more recently, over a million Israelis hostages to the whims of the terrorist entity controlling Gaza? Percentage wise, that is like London being bombed for 12 years. or this area of NY.

Please pray for Israel, support Israel and stand up for Israel. We are not the Goliath in this story, we are David up against Islamic fundamentalist terror supported by Iran.

Love to all, Leonie

www.barenakedislam.com/2012/11/19/heart-wrenching-letter-from​-israel/

ok guys, get your fact straigth :

Hamas Roosters 1 - 0 Idf Missiles

gogogogo roosters im with you.

So Clinton reminds Morsi who owns him, tells Turkey to cool the rhetoric if they want any Patriots, and says the US supports a definitive solution in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile a couple of brigades of marines are cruising off the coast in amphibious assault ships to rescue Americans. US naval task forces are all over the region (not to mention air bases) just daring Iran to get involved, Syria is out of the picture, and Jordans King is happy to have American boots to keep him on the throne.

Hmm, sounds like Israel is free to do whatever they see fit. This sort of opportunity doesn't come around every day. Israel better take advantage and clean house in a big way.