September 10, 2007
We drove down from the Galilee to Jerusalem. Our two busses of 85 people from America, Canada, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Peru stopped first for the magnificent view from Mount Scopus looking out over the Temple Mount. We took communion here.
We hurried to check into the hotel and make our meeting with General Ya'allon, former Chief of Staff of IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). He was in that position when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fired him, sending someone to his door in the middle of the night to do the task. I once asked him when both of us were speaking at an American Friends of Ariel dinner in Florida, "How did it feel when Sharon fired you?" He said, "When you work for someone and you do not agree with what they are doing and you tell them so, you are not surprised if they fire you." Then he said, "But for the first time in months I could sleep nights."
What he did not agree on was pushing the Jews out of Gaza. He did not want his soldiers to take part in such a thing. And he knew it would result in the terrorist haven that it is.
His address to us could have had a standing ovation on every sentence. His views are widely held here. The current government is weak. Olmert has only a single digit approval rating. But the coalition members will not pull out of the coalition because they know they cannot be reelected to the Knessett.
General Ya'alon voiced the sad truth that Israel lacks leaders of integrity and values.
September 11, 2007
Our program today began with a talk on Gaza by a military leader (now a reserve Colonel) whose career has been centered there. Our program was decided some time ago. But it so happened that he spoke with the voice of one who knows just after the military base was hit by Palestinian rockets just hours before.
The camp that was hit was one for new recruits. It was easy to picture it. When we were in Ariel, the young singers and dancers "For Zion's Sake" who always perform for us delighted us again with their singing and dancing. Through the years we have watched young people grow up and go into the compulsory army duty. Just days ago, we heard two of them say they would be going into the army in two weeks. So, the camp was filled with very young inductees. 59 were injured.
Our morning speaker doubted that the current government would go into Gaza to retaliate. He thought they would not have the strength to stick out a full fledged incursion.
Immediately after the talk, we boarded our busses and went to visit our dear friends who were pushed out of their homes in Gush Katif (Gaza) by the Sharon government. We visited a temporary housing settlement. It is sad to behold. Their lovely homes which some had built 30 and more years ago in Gush Katif have been flattened by their own government. And they live in very close quarters in temporary housing.
Our friend Rachel Sapperstein met us waving her hands as we pulled in to the place. She is remarkable. Though so misused by her own government she is looking with faith to the future and the possibility of building a new town. An artist, she has even designed the town. There is no concrete evidence that it will be built. But she has faith.
Her husband, Moshe, is not so optimistic. In fact, his mood is a blue one. He is a man of faith. But he has lost hope in his country's leadership, to say the least. And he has given so much for his country--an arm and an eye in the Yom Kippur war, a terrorist sniper shot him in the other hand and one leg, his daughter survived a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem. And in all this he never lost hope. Until--his own government pushed him and his neighbors from their homes in Gush Katif. And turned them over to the Hamas.
Dror Vanunu, a 31-year-old father of four said that his young daughter wants him to pray each night as he puts her to bed that those people who destroyed our homes, and the hotel, will not come and destroy this place. (The family of 6 lived for a while in a hotel room before being moved to the temporary housing unit they now have.) She thinks that the reason they had to leave the hotel was that the destroyers came.
Everywhere people prepare for the New Year--Rosh HaShanah. Millions of flowers have been sold to celebrate and everywhere one greets others with the wish "Shanah Tova." This means "Have a Good Year." We trust it will be so.
Shalom
Billye Brim
