Blog Carnival – Why I Love Israel

Not everyone agrees on Israel’s political stance, but there’s a whole different side of Israel that attracts people and makes them love it. This carnival is focused on highlighting the many different reasons why people love Israel that has been shared on numerous blogs throughout the Internet.

Much of the inspiration for this carnival comes from the I LOVE this country post which appeared here shortly after Israel’s Independence Day last May and which drew some newfound attention last week. 

The carnival begins… now.

In Benji Lovitt’s Independence Day post, What, You Thought We’d Turn 60 and Then Go Back to Our Normal Lives? on What War Zone??, he lists 60 reasons why he loves Israel from the commonplace to the unique. Two reasons on his list are living in a historical place and Israeli Facebook applications, such as IsraPoke.

Robin posted on her Around the Island blog an entry titled Life in Israel, which in honor of Independence Day gives 13 reasons why she loves Israel. Among her reasons are the Mediterranean weather, the beautiful parks with history, and Israelis genuine care for one another.

Reposted in honor of the blog carnival, 13  Things I Love About Israel, Phyllis Sommer of the Ima on (and off) the Bima, listed that she loves watching the faces of first-timers when they really do float in the Dead Sea and watching kids play in parks that are full of ancient artifacts.

In her post, Extraordinary, on Aliyah: It’s as easy as opening a bank account…, Rebecca Zibman discusses that she loves Israel for its everyday occurences that make for the extraordinary stories later on. 

Shelley Shafran on her blog Yifarach K’Shoshannah (Bloom Like A Rose), explains in the post Why I’m here, that she moved to Israel because she loves the passion that people in Israel have and the ability they have to accomplish anything, whether they be filmmakers, entrepreneurs, architects or anyone else. 

Another blogger, Sara Chertoff explains in a post, Rainbows, Rain and Oranges, on her blog Sarah’s Aliyah, that she loves the little things about Israel, like when it rains and how much it is needed and seeing fruits blossom.

Finally, in her Here in HP blog, Leora focuses on her love of art in Israel, in her post, Art in Israel. Her post includes pictures taken of various street art, pictures and drawings. 

Why do you love Israel? Share your reasons in the comments below. 

8 Dead, 7 Injured, No One Claims Responsibility (Yet)

It is 8 dead, there are still 7 injured. No one has actually claimed responsibility yet, though it will surely happen soon.

Several of the injured are still in surgery, one is still touch and go, the others are mostly going to be OK.

Also, it seems there was only one terrorist, not two.

The Unknown (and unimportant, by comparison) Side

I really really really need to go to the bathroom and I’m starving. More than anything, I REALLY need to go to the bathroom, but there’s only one of each of us, so there’s no one to switch with me. I’ve been on air for the past 4 hours straight – we’ve been on longer, but it doesn’t help my poor bladder.

It reminds me of the day when Saddam Hussein was caught. We had just finished the morning news (from 6-9 am) and as we were leaving the control room, the head producer said “it looks like they caught Saddam – we’re going on air.”

We literally went back to our seats and were on air for hours – it was one of the hardest shows I had done – and at around 1, the head director of the channel came to relieve the morning director. Since TECHNICALLY it wasn’t 1 yet, I literally pulled the director into my room, showed him what was going on (“Sadam archives on 1, Udai and Kusai dead on 2, We’ve got him! on 3, Sadam beard on 4!”) and RAN to the bathroom.

Except there was so much going on that there were “traffic jams” going on in the newsroom, all of which is visible from the newscast going on live. This in itself isn’t so much of an issue – people are used to it and it gives “a feel” or action – except I had about 3 seconds to go to the bathroom, so I had to sprint and, unfortunately, my sprint was caught on live TV.

I wouldn’t've known this had ALL my friends called to ask me if I was OK. Too funny. (Not so much, but the more I type, the less I realize my bladder is exploding).

Final Numbers: 7 Dead, 7 Injured, Arab-Israelis Claim Responsibility

The good news is that one less family that previously thought will be mourning their loved ones. Hopefully the injured will get well soon – hahlama mehira to all the injured.

An Arab-Israeli organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. In case you don’t know, Arab Israelis are 100% Israeli citizens who have the same rights as Israelis and vote in our elections. This would be like any faction of American citizens carrying out attacks in the US.

Security Officials Examining Yeshiva Building

Since an explosives belt that, thankfully, did not go off (thus preventing a MUCH worse event, considering there were 80 people in the dining hall at the time) was found, security officials are going through every single room and section of the building and surrounding areas to make sure there aren’t any more explosives anywhere.

It seems that a terrorist attack very similar to this one was averted last week, also at a yeshiva.

Hamas has NOT claimed responsibility for this event. An organization that has already claimed responsibility for previous attacks has claimed responsibility, but there is so much noise in the control room, and I have so much going on (which you wouldn’t know by my typing), that I couldn’t really hear.

By the way, the emergency number in Jerusalem right now is 125523106. I’m not sure how to dial from outside the country since I;m not even sure how to dial from here either.

Palestinians Dancing in the Streets

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.

It’s been 2.5 years for me

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).

8 dead, 7 injured

3 of the injured are critical.

Update: Seems that there are 2 critical, 1 lightly Injured

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.

6 injured, not 35

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.

6 dead?

It seems there are 6 dead, not 8, but there are rumors in the newsroom that it’s 12. I hope not. Maybe 10?

2 terrorists entered the school and opened fire on the students. They were both killed.

Terrorist Shot at Yeshiva Students; Explosives Belt Found

It seems the shooting was step one. The police found an explosives belt with an enormous amount of explosives nearby that would’ve ben one of the biggest bombings Israel would have seen in a long time.

There’s a lot of yelling going on in the news room so I’m off again. I’ll update more if there is more to reports. It seems there will be more.

It’s a good thing we have wireless in the control room (and no one can see me type).

Terrorist Attack in Jerusalem – Confusion Ensues

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.