With the IDF poised to begin ground action in Gaza, our Israeli correspondent MC posts his seventh daily report from his ringside seat in Sderot.
Is it really day 7?
by MC
So we seem to be at the edge. We expect them to go in at any moment. Today we have had missiles over at hourly intervals, with some spectacular Iron Dome intercepts (see previous).
Do I detect a toning-down of our international critics? Has somebody remembered at last that Hamas is a designated terrorist group of long standing? Are my spectacles turning pink too?
Hamas either have something up their sleevies or a knot in their panties.
If it is the former, then we will take casualties; if it is the latter, then Hamas may well cease to exist for a while (they will be resurrected by the international community very quickly, as was the PLO when they were defeated a few years back).
Some members of our little anglo community visited some of the bivouacked troops on the border today. They took supplies of cool drink and bamba (an Israeli peanut snack). They were intercepted by police before they got there, but when they explained their purpose they were allowed through.
The troops were happy to see them and they made appointments for pizza tomorrow, our pizza parlour has said they will supply them at half price (If you want to donate then go to www.israel-handsofmercy.org and send an email with the donation saying “Pizza for the boys”) and we will take them in tomorrow morning. We hope those boys will still be there in the morning — anything is possible at the moment. If not, we will find the second wave troops.
I am 62, and these men are one third of my age. This time tomorrow where will they be? I really hate it that they have to take the risks. Hamas know they are coming. I am sure the booby traps are in place, and the children are marshalled into the right places to be human shields. There are going to be some very hard decisions and a lot of bleatings from armchair critics who hold themselves as morally superior.
MC lives in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. For his previous essays, see the MC Archives.
MC, from this my point in my space and time my hand and my heart are all that I can offer you and the boys and girls who have to go in and do what is necessary. Having several times, under different but similar circumstances, been to that place and those manic yet slow motion moments, I do know what it entails. Give them all of the love and support that you can – it will help them in the times ahead and they will remember you and yours and cherish your empathy down all of their days.
I so wish I could do more than that. S III.
Seneca III – None of us has much money to spare these days, but that is one more thing we can do for Sderot, the poor of Israel. Please scroll down – way down – our sidebar to see Sderot’s Donate Button.
Abbas’ Fatah security forces in Gaza are themselves responsible for firing (perhaps) 50 rockets into Israel. Didn’t Bibi Netanyahu say at the time of the Fatah-Hamas conciliation-coalition agreement last month that he would hold the PA responsible for rocket fire from Gaza?
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4396/fatah-rockets
Peace and Comfort to our Chaverim in Sderot!!!
” Hamas may well cease to exist for a while (they will be resurrected by the international community very quickly.”
Oh yes, my friend, only those who suffer know what’s the cause, where to find it, and how to cure it. And the whole world opposes that and the justice that goes with it. A world without a sense of justice. But a voracious appetite for petrodollars without any consideration to honor.
Is this the reward for the people who gave us: Thou shalt not steal, or kill. Or be kind to strangers because you were a stranger in the land of Egypt?
Today everyone is doing his part to destroy Israel either by reporting, writing, lecturing, boycotting, BDS. Only a few days ago another very pious church did its inimical part. Over the last 2000 years all the popes should have invited a rabbi on each Sunday to the Vatican and read together parts of the Old Testament. Not to convert this to that but just to show the very important vital roots we have together and to show love to the Jews as we have always claimed that Gospel is love. Why humans don’t know how to love, except in the case of deep, fearful love shown to muslims by the British and the civilized extremely humanist Scandinavians.
Those same churches are also hostile to bible based Christianity, which they call ‘fundamentalist’ and group with the Muslim fundamentalists. Anybody who holds the scriptures dear, is today an ‘anarchist’, for the modern bourgeois and proletariat both, salvation is in Big Brother, and an iPhone!
Those wannabe aristos that believe themselfves to be intellectually and morally superior would never read the bible…..
Very sad my friend and very worrying! Surrounded by knowledge and we are empty-headed and arrogant. Arrogance is one of the modern since because no one preaches against it. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and then misunderstanding. Today those with PhDs don’t even understand social axioms. They may have knowledge in other areas, but socially, and dealing with Islam, they are disastrous. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, which is so hated in the west. “fear” here means to pay attention to and consider with reverence the wisdom and lessons that are in the bible and connect them to our own life experience, and see how valid they are.
If a Christian is fundamentalist he supposedly must pray, be kind to his family, society and country, and humanity, has to think about his behaviour whether he is hurting others unwittingly, be industrious, tutor his kids, respect his parents, be conscientious, keep the Ten Commandments as much as he can, pray, fast, not swear at all, defend himself if he, his family, house, property are attacked. It is an honor to defend one’s family and country. That’s why borders are vitally important.
On the other hand if a muslim is fundamentalist he prays, and fasts, and gets a sharper sword and more lethal weapons. His prayers and fasting are not to reform him but actually have a different goal: to murder any nonmuslim and loot their property and enslave them. If they give charity nonmuslims are not included because from islam’s point of view they are empowering their enemy, which allah, the cruel, does not like. If muslims feel they can’t stand this church or that synagogue, then allah feels the same.
“Is this the reward for the people who gave us: Thou shalt not steal, or kill.”
It is GOD who gave us the 10 Commandments.
We just donated. Thanks to MC in Sderot for keeping us so well informed. Prayers for all from Canada. Hope the pizza cheers them up for what they are about to go through.
To MC in Sderot
Many Bible-believing Christians stand with Israel and support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself. I know many are praying. Shalom
One of Israel’s demands/objectives in concluding this latest war against Hamas is the removal of UNRWA Headquarters from Gaza. Ultimately, it is necessary to both destroy Hamas and dismantle the UNRWA. But, Israel appears currently to lack (again) the political will and capital to undertake either objective. Instead, address the financial basis of Hamas’ ability to maintain control in Gaza–and that is the direct support of the UNRWA. Call for them to relocate to Ramallah…or Amman.
(Although 5+ years old, this article by Claudia Rosett still speaks relevantly to the the role of the UNRWA in supporting a terrorist ‘society’ in Gaza): http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/07/gaza-hamas-unrwa-oped-cx_cr_0108rosett.html
MC, I am reading the reports from Israel and my heart bleeds for the dear land, and I am a Catholic, btw. Israel is the ONLY decomocracy in the middle east and for that reason alone, I would always support it. But there is the other reason and this the enormous sin committed by Germany and her cohorts in trying to eliminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. The people of the Bible, the people who have given us our own religion — yes, I’m blathering, but I’m writing a check to United for Israel in about 5 minutes, as soon as I balance my checkbook and see how much I can afford. If, MC, you have a better place to put my money, do let me know. In the meantime, Shalom and God bless you all.