This Too is Israel

This Too Is Israel
from Judy Lash Balint, Jeruslaem:

Sunday, 6:45 a.m outside Jerusalem's Central Bus Station. I'm with a
bleary-eyed friend as we try to elbow our way past dozens of soldiers
hauling gigantic backpacks as they hurry to make their way back to
base after a weekend of momma's cooking and caring. I run into an
anxious neighbor kissing her 18 year-old soldier daughter goodbye.

The beautiful, slim, blond soldier nonchalantly picks up her backpack,
adjusts her hipster khaki pants and is off into the crowd. "She's
stationed at Kissufim," her mother tells me. This week it'll be a
breeze--monitoring the moving trucks trundling out of Gush Katif with
the possessions of 1500 families on board, bound for storage in
Beersheva. No more pesky protestors or pushy journalists to monitor.

We finally squeeze ourselves in past the security guard, haul our bags
onto the X-Ray machine and finally make our way up toward the bus to
Eilat.

My friend is a veteran tour guide and we have a gig updating the
Fodor's Guidebook to Israel--our luck, we get to do Eilat in the
middle of August. Why not the Golan, or Jerusalem?? Still, it's work,
and there are evicted families being housed in Eilat too that I plan
on visiting.

This Sunday morning there are four full buses making the 4 hour
journey past the Dead Sea, through the Negev and on into Eilat. The
Eilat Jazz Festival is happening this week, plus it's the last gasp of
the summer vacation before school starts on September 1.

Still, we are unprepared for the teenage hoodlums that made the
journey with us. Their behavior is reminiscent of Animal House with a
Middle Eastern accent. Suffice it to say that we're very glad to see
the Gulf of Eilat come into view.

My last visit to Eilat was a VERY long time ago--when the only place
to stay was the Youth Hostel or the beach. Today, the resort that's
just yards away from the Jordanian and Egyptian borders, is exactly
that--a real resort filled with luxury hotels and fancy restaurants
and upscale tourists.

French and Hebrew are the predominant languages heard in Eilat today.
Almost all the charter flights that used to arrive from Europe and
Scandinavia in the good old pre--2000 war days stopped coming long
ago. Today there are just six charter flights per week from overseas.

We go about our business checking on all the hotels and as many
restaurants and tourist sites as we could take in in two days--it IS
work, believe me, when it's 97 degrees outside. Neither of us even
bother to bring swimsuits, since we know we will never have the time
to use them..

Anyway--we check out the minimal damage caused by the Katyusha rocket
sent over by some Al Quaida maniac last Friday that landed on the road
just next to the Eilat airport, and peer over into Aqaba a few hundred
yards away in Jordan.

On the promenade by the beach we spot several of the pained refugee
families, looking quite incongruous amongst the holiday revelers.

Traveling back to Jerusalem, the bus stops at a rest stop at Ein
Hazeva slap bang in the middle of nowhere in the far eastern part of
the Negev desert. Along with the 7-11 style store, a new Cafe
belonging to the Aroma chain has just opened. Never one to miss a
latte opportunity, I make a bee-line for the counter. I'm stunned to
see the barrista from my neighborhood Aroma cafe in Jerusalem standing
behind the counter.

She laughs when I greet her--several of her Jeruslaem customers have
done a double take when they see her there out of context, she says.
The company sent her down to the desert for three months to train the
staff of the new branch and make sure things are running smoothly
before she gets to go home. "Work and sleep," she tells me--that's
all there is to do here, she adds.

Back in Jerusalem, the craziness continues. I stop in for another
visit with Moshe and Rachel Saperstein, formerly of Neve Dekalim, now
of the Jerusalem Gold hotel. We share a laugh as I point out that the
hokey picture on their cramped hotel room of waves crashing is just
like the view of the Mediterranean from their former home.

The latenight TV news update announces that two 21 year old yeshiva
students have been stabbed near Jaffa Gate in the Old City. An hour
later, Shmuel Matt, a British citizen and student at the Mir Yeshiva
who was to be married 11 days from now has died of his wounds.

The next morning a Katyusha landed in a community in the Galilee
causing little damage and no injuries and a Kassam rocket slammed into
the southern town of Sderot. Today, a Jewish worshiper was attacked at
the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Welcome to the post-disengagement country of Israel.
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EDITOR'S NOTE:
As promised, here's a list of three reputable established
organizations that are channeling funds to the Gush Katif families:
-------------------------------
The families evicted from Gush Katif need your
help . They have been uprooted from their homes and many left their
communities with only the clothes they were wearing. Many of these
families have been temporarily placed in hotels throughout Israel for
the past 10 days. We all know that a hotel is not a home and is only a
temporary solution. Children have been separated from their toys, pets
and familiar surroundings. This situation is a human tragedy which
also effects every Jewish family.

Volunteers from "Paamonin" are directly
helping these displaced families. They are collecting and
purchasing needed clothing, toys, toiletries,and other items for basic
humane living. This organization is in urgent need of addition funds to
supply these needed items.The refugees from Gush Katif are particularly
in need of new underwear, sweaters and other warm clothing.

U.S. Tax Deductible contributions may be sent to either
of the following funds:

(1) Please make check payable to
"Young Israel Charity Fund"
with a memo on the check saying the contribution is for "Paamonim Gush
Katif"
Please mail to:
National Council of Young Israel
3 West 16th Street
New York, N.Y 10011

Attention: Rabbi Pesach Lerner

or send checks to:
(2) The Central Fund For Israel
c/o Marcus Brothers Textiles
980 Ave. of the Americas
New York, N.Y. 10018
Attention: Arthur Marcus
Make check payable to The Central Fund For
Israel , with a memo on the check that it is
for "Paamonim Gush Katif." (Central Fund is Approved by Rabbi
Shlomo Riskin of Efrat)

In Israel send donations to: Paamonim
22 Rabbi Akiva ST.
Bnei Brak 51272
Checks payable to Paamonim/Gush Katif
Credit card donations in Israel only at 1-800-35-10-12
1-800-772-2921
-----------------------------------------
Additionally, the ten year old One Israel Fund is serving as a conduit
of funds to the displaced families:

www.oneisraelfund.org

366 Pearsall Ave.
Suite One
Cedarhurst NY 11516

Tel: 516-239-9292