They are celebrating the deaths of innocent civilians. They’ll probably begin handing out candy soon like they usually do when Israelis are killed (Americans too, BTW – don’t be disillusioned).
You will NEVER and have NEVER seen a single Israeli or Jew dancing in the streets and handing out candy to celebrate the death of people. ANYONE.
It’s a disgrace to humankind in my opinion.
Since I have worked through a terrorist attack. Other than the sadness that this has happened, I am amazed at how easily I slipped back into what used to be “usual.” I’m working on automatic pilot again (clearly since I am updating my blog as I am working), which is just scary.
Er, it seems there are 8 injured now, not 7. Still three are in bad condition (not quite critical, but I am still paying attention to my work so I can’t remember how to say the word in English).
It’s a good thing we can loop visuals, so I have a few minutes to update every now and again. The posts are taking longer than they technically should because I can only type a few words at a time.
News is very mixed. No one has precise details – it’s always like this in the first hour, just if you’re not watching it on TV (or worse, if you’re not at the news station), it’s difficult to see what the confusion is like.
The official word is that there are no more injured people left in the Yeshiva. So the injured list is correct. Hopefully the two criticals will make it.
That’s good. 3 are categorized as having “light” injuries, and the other 3 as having serious ones.
Makes me think of MyShrapnel. I can’t find the link right now, but I will link to it later.
I used to work at a news station in Israel. I still sort of do. I am actually at the news now. This is going to be a very short post because we are about to go on air.
There has been a terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
The reason we aren’t on air yet is because of the confusion about what happened. The Maccabi Tel Aviv game is on our channel right now (against Olympiacis or however you write it), so we are trying to figure out if there are dead or only injured.
It seems only the terrorist is dead, and others are injured. Other reports say there are 4 or 5 dead. It looks like it’s only the terrorist who is dead and quite a few injured. I’ll update more later. I have to go on air.
Israel will open more crossings and borders to allow 160 trucks containing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
Approximately 20 trucks are supposed to carry humanitarian aid, while an additional 60 are supposed to carry equipment, medication, and basic food products. 80 trucks carrying grains are expected to enter through the Suffra crossing.
A Qassam hit an empty house in Sderot early this morning, destroying the house almost completely. Thankfully, the homeowners were away on a visit in Givatayim (near Tel Aviv).
Additionally, around 10 am, two Qassams were launched into Southern Israel and two mortal shells landed near the border fence. In all incidents there were no injuries.
Apparently, the couple’s children had been trying to convince the couple to leave Sderot for years. Last night their son was finally able to convince them to leave.
Two rockets landed in Ashkelon this morning, one directly hitting an 8-story building and another landing in a playground. 28 people were evacuated to a nearby hospital. The IDF has pulled out of Gaza, so clearly the rocket fire has nothing to do with our actions there (nor did it stop anything).
A short time later, 3 Qassams landed in Sderot and just south of Ashkelon. Another rocket landed by a kindergarten in Ashkelon where the kindergarten teachers claim they did not even hear the Tzeva Adom (Color Red) warning.
Sunday saw dozens of Qassam, Grad rockets and mortar shell fired at the western Negev: Two rockets landed in Sderot – one hit a house and caused several people to suffer shock; and the other hit a power transformer, which caught on fire, causing a temporary blackout in the area.
A Grad rocket fired at Ashkelon on Sunday hit a house in the city’s center. One girl suffered mild shrapnel injuries. Three children were in the house at the time of the Color Red alert – all three rushed to their secure room, thus avoiding any serious injury.
Several rockets fired Sunday landed at Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira’s (the Baba Sali) gravesite in Netivot.
Recognizing the impending humanitarian crisis facing Gaza, Israel allowed 62 trucks carrying medical supplies and humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip.
Among other things, the supplies included thousands of blood units, one million gauzes, and basic food.
Israel also allowed 7 trucks carrying oil, 7 trucks carrying sugar, and 9 trucks of dairy products, and four trucks with fish and meat.
Israeli security forces have made it clear that in spite of the fighting going on in the Gaza strip, there is no intention of allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold, and medical and humanitarian aid will continue to be delivered to Gaza.
I’m happy to read that in the midst of the warfare, Israel has not lost site of the fact that those who are attacking us (close to 30 rockets have been launched today at Sderot, Ashkelon, and other towns in the Negev) are the minority in their community: Just like the innocent people of the Negev, one can assume that the majority of the Palestinians just want to live their lives.
One would hope, at least.
No, this isn’t a repeat of the post from last week. More rockets landed in Ashkelon, with direct hits in private homes (children hurt).
Today over 20 rockets have been launched towards the Negev, and it’s only 1 pm.
Check out this blog post. It gives a glimpse into 36 hours of constant rocket attacks from the point of view of Laura Bialis, an independent filmmaker whose documentary, Refusnik, will be premiering in the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. Bialis has been living in Sderot. Here is a shortened account of this past weekend. You can read the entire entry here.
Friday, 3:00AM:
Tzeva Adom (Color Red Alert) does not go off, but there is a weird alarm going off– its the thing that goes off after there are several Tzeva Adoms in a row. It wakes us all up, and we don’t know what to do– do we run to the shelter? Maybe it is a mistake. I make a mental note to try and interview someone about the Tzeva Adom system.
Over 40 rockets were launched at Israel yesterday from Gaza. One of them hit Sapir College and killed a student, Roni Yechiah, a father of four who underwent kidney transplant surgery several years ago. Several more were treated for wounds.
Earlier yesterday, a rocket hit a poultry factory and later a rocket fell just outside of a Carlsberg beer factory. Several rockets also landed in Ashkelon, one of them landing near a hospital’s helicopter pad.
Hamas – yes, yes, Palestinian government Hamas – claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks.
You’ve gotta love messed up governments. MK Silvan “Steve” Shalom proposed a new bill that would grant small businesses in Sderot and other towns close to Gaza that have been hit by Qassams several benefits. These include various tax benefits, monetary compensation, and permission to receive extra credit (not the school kind) for businesses who have lost much of their income due to the present situation.
Sounds good, right? Not so much, apparently. The official government position was against it – but the Knesset passed the bill in the first round (of three to get a bill approved in Israel). Even some of the MKs who are in the coalition voted for the bill. Many abstained. 34 voted for the legislation, and 22 voted against. Which means that 64 (!!!) MKs either abstained or did not show up to vote on the bill. In case you don’t know, there are 120 Mks.
I guess they were too busy accompanying former MK Omri Sharon to jail, where he will be serving a 7-month sentence for corruption and fraud connected to his father’s election bid (former PM Ariel Sharon, whose 80th birthday was yesterday).
Humanitarian organizations and Israeli artists join forces in a rock concert for the benefit of rape victims and their families in East Congo.
To sponsor aid, leading Israeli artists including Aviv Gefen, Ehud Banai, Ahinoam Nini (Noa), and Idan Reichel, will perform in a joint rock concert on Friday, May 27, in Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv. Revenue from the concert will be donated for the building of medical clinics, medical equipment, and training professionals to help rehabilitate the rape victims and their children.
This concert is led by journalist Itay Engel who visited East Congo in 2006. This an excerpt from a column he wrote upon his return:
On the whole planet, there is no place more terrible at the moment than eastern Congo. In a six-year war, close to four million people have died. This fact is so terrifying that the phenomenon of women being raped seems insignificant. If I chose to be a journalist, and I try to tell the stories most important for the world to hear, then Bukavu in east Congo is a place I have sworn to come to for years.
Except now, after arriving and taking pictures, I am completely frustrated at the thought that maybe you can’t even hear this story. Everything here is just too much. I mean, six women who have been raped, their lives shattered, is a tragedy. Thirty rape victims is madness. Hundreds of thousands is incomprehensible. You cannot process it. You cannot relate to it.
Read the rest of the letter and the article here on Ynet.
I try every week to give you some positive info about Israel as well – sports achievements (no one getting hurt at a soccer game sounds like a win to me!), international relations, cooperations, medical breakthroughs, etc. Many of these come from the Good News newsletter which you can read in its entirety here. So let’s get to it:
There’s a program at Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach Tikva that performs life-saving heart surgery on children from all over the world, all expenses paid. And now five children from Iraq are here in Israel with various life-threatening problems and they will be attended to at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The country has done all it can to get them into surgery as soon as they can. This isn’t the first time Israel has treated Iraqis. Back in 2005, an Iraqi man came to Israel to get a birth defect in his heart fixed.
In medical news, Dr Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion in Haifa has been chosen by “Scientific American” as one of the worlds fifty leading scientists. Basicall she has produced muscle tissue in the laboratory that is not rejected when implanted in the body. This is an enormous step forward in effectively replacing damaged or injured tissue.
I will continue to update about other cool stuff as it happens when I have more info to give. Have a wonderful week!
Update: Mark Cohen of Good News Israel updates me that the oeprations took place at Rambam hospital in Haifa, and not at Schneider where the program takes place. Thanks!
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