Rebuilding The Broken - Part 2, or "I told you so!"

During the war I posted about how Hizzbolah pledged to rebuild the Lebanese houses that were detsroyed during the war, but our government wasn't rushing to rebuild our broken homes. See my original post here.

Well, guess what? I was right.

This is from today's JPost.

"The Hizbullah abused us for a month; but the property tax has been abusing us for three months already," said Eitan Davidi, head of the northern communities' forum. "The Israeli government has disconnected from us and is giving us the cold shoulder, and therefore we decided on these severe measures." Davidi added that the ministers were always saying how they were supporting the North, but instead of offering their "strength," they should bring money.

Davidi pointed out that the Hizbullah had already financed rebuilding the majority of the destroyed towns in southern Lebanon, but Israel had made no progress.

Read the rest of the article...

They Never Lose, We Never Win

I found this article by Rabbi Berel Wein about the latest war with Lebanon very enlightening.

Rebuilding the broken

Hizzbolah announced that they will pay for destroyed homes in Lebanon. What I thought was interesting that they didn't just promise to pay for it, but they actually specified exactly what they will do.

A Hizbullah official said that people whose homes were totally destroyed will get money for one year of rent as well as for new furniture. Those whose homes were damaged will either fix it themselves and then collect money, or Hizbullah will send workers to do the job.

I don't know if these are just empty promises or they really mean it, but from what I have heard about HIzzbolah, if they say it, they mean it. I know they are doing it for PR and to restablish their image in Lebanon, and not out of the goodness of their heart, but still.

Is our government going to pay for people's broken homes, pay their rent, or send workers? Or how about at least reimburse them for what they spent in order to flee the rockets? Probably not.

The View

As I was reading the article about how our Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, sold all of his stock shares right after the soldiers abduction (I guess in anticipation of a war and the market crashing), and his probable resignation over the disaster in Lebanon, I remembered the poem by a famous Russian-Jewish (apostate) author, Alexander Galich, which was shown to me for the first time by my late grandfather a"h.

The original Russian commentary and text appears on this site. I have pasted it below, as well. Excuse my crude English translation.


Alexander Galich – The View

In Serebryaniy Bor (a small town near Moscow), near the entrance to the Rest Home (Boarding House) of the Central Theater, there is a wooden pillar that is sticking out of the ground. On it there are painted on division lines with numbers, from one to seven. On top of the pole there is a pulley wheel through which passes a steel cable. From one side of the pole the cable goes into the ground and from the other there is hanging a heavy weight.

The guard of the house explained to me:

This is Alexander Arkadyevich is a shit-meter. The cable is connected to the outhouse pit. As the level of the crap in the pit goes up, the weight goes down. While it’s on two or three, it’s ok. But when it reaches five or six, that means it’s a problem, need to call the scoopers.

I thought that this creation of the Russian masters wasn’t only useful, but also very educational. Therefore I dedicated to it the following philosophical piece, which I humbly named:

The View

It was murky and grey
And the forest stood still
Just the shit-meter’s weight
Slightly swayed on the hill.
Not all is in vain in this world
Although it’s not worth a spit
As long as we have weights
And you see the level of shit.

---

А.Галич - Пейзаж

В Серебряном Боре, у въезда в Дом отдыха
артистов Большого театра,стоит,врытый в землю,
неуклюже-отесанный, деревянный столб. Малярной
кистью, небрежно и грубо, на столбе нанесены
деления с цифрами -- от единицы до семерки. К
верху столба прилажено колесико, через которое
пропущена довольно толстая проволока. С одной
стороны столба проволока уходит в землю, а с
другой -- к ней подвешена тяжелая гиря.
Сторож Дома отдыха объяснил мне:
-- А это, Александр Аркадьевич, говномер...
Проволока, она, стало быть, подведена к яме
ассенизационной! Уровень,значит, повышается --
гиря понижается... Пока она на двойке-тройке
качается -- ничего...
А как до пятерки-шестерки дойдет -- тогда
беда,тогда, значит, надо из города золотариков
вызывать...
Мне показалось это творение русского
умельца не только полезным, но и весьма
поучительным. И я посвятил ему философский
этюд, который назвал эпически-скромно:

ПЕЙЗАЖ

Все было пасмурно и серо,
И лес стоял, как неживой,
И только гиря говномера
Слегка качала головой.
Не все напрасно в этом мире,
(Хотя и грош ему цена !),
Покуда существуют гири
И виден уровень говна !

What's wrong with this picture?

This just showed up on Haaretz's front page. Look at the picture and look at the headline underneath it. See anything wrong with it? Why is that soldier engulfed in a ton of flames while crossing the Lebanese border back into Israel?


An IDF soldier atop an armored personnel carrier crossing back into Israel from southern Lebanon on Tuesday. (Nir Kafri)

Even the Lebanese wanted us to win

Even the Lebanese wanted us to beat Hizbolah. How sad? We failed everyone, even the enemy.

Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias Murr said the Lebanese army would send 15,000 troops to the north of the Litani River around the end of the week, ready to enter the southern border area.

But he said the army would not be disarming Hezbollah, who have controlled the area for six years. "The army is not going to the south to strip Hezbollah of weapons and do the work Israel did not," he told LBC Television.

And now we are maraudering?

This is insane. IDF general says that if IDF soldiers in Lebanon don't have enough food or water they can break into Lebanese stores and steal it. Read on.

Are they out of their minds? Do they realize what the world will say? Besides, the greatest army in the Middle East can't provide their soldiers stationed only a few miles away from the border with food and water??? What??? How low did we sink? We have stooped to become marauders like all the other plundering loser armies of the world.

What ever the outcome of this war is, but our government and IDF command has got to go. I know I voted for them just a few months ago, but this is crossing all the lines.

Update:
Jameel posted that it's ok to do this according to Geneva convention.
Well at least we are legally ok. But since when does the world care about what we do is legal? I sitll think this is not something IDF should trumpet, especially to the media.

What have we achieved?

As we are getting closer the so called cease-fire dead line I have been thinking about the status of what we have achieved in this war. So far we have not defeated Hezbollah, as today they pounded us with over 200 rockets, we have not brought our soldiers back, and we lost over 100 soldiers and even more civilians and over $1 billion. Close to a million people either left their homes or spent the last month in shelters.

So what is it all worth it? I don't know. I just feel like rambling at this point, because I got really upset today when over 24 soldiers have been killed in one day.

Our government has definitely screwed up big time and even if Olmert resigns or gets outvoted I don't see anyone else who is much better to take his place.

I kind of feel like Yirmiyah right now, depressed and frustrated.
אֲנִי הַגֶּבֶר רָאָה עֳנִי - איכה ג:א
I am the man who has seen affliction (Eicha 3:1)

A Letter from Zippori

This is an email I received today from an American Oleh who runs a Bed and Breakfast in the Galilee, in Moshav Zippori.

Dear friends,

Thanks to everyone who has written and expressed support and worried about us. We are fine! I'm sorry that I'm answering you back in a mass mail, but I figure this is the best way to let everyone know what is going on.
I came back yesterday after more than 2 weeks in reserve duty all over the north. I serve a spokesman to the foreign press, and was kept quite busy fighting off TV, radio and print journalists from all over the world. I've been taking journalists for many years on tours of the border with Hezbollah and I'm on record telling them all that when the war starts, the Hezb is going to rain thousands of missles all over the north and there isn't anything that we will be able to do to stop them. Still, no one failed to ask if we weren't surprised when it happened. We have been practicing a policy of restraint for years, hoping that the longer we put off the conflict, we might get lucky and history would catch up with the Hezbollah and they would disappear back down the hole they crawled out of. Unfortunately the Iranians never rose up to overthrow the facist towelheads that have been oppressing the Persian people since 1977. And the Lebanese, despite having an excellent chance fall in their laps, never took the opportunity to take their country back for themselves and instead chose to make a deal with Nassrullah.. The war was probably inevitable for a while now and it's outcome is also unavoidable.
Sorry to be pessimistic. I don't think it makes a difference whether we pound the shit out of Beirut or not, I hope we do because it will give Nasrullah something to fix when he starts running the place and something for the Iranians to piss money away on instead of new weapons. The loser of the whole mess is Lebanon and there isn't a people who deserve it more, they were stupid enough to dismantle their militias, which would have been their only defense against this bully. We had to go in there last time to throw out the PLO because they were too busy lying on the beach, and this time, why bother? Let the best and the brightest emigrate to South America and let the Iranians turn what's left into some kind of Shiite slum on the Mediteranean.
I'm sure we'll have no problem coming up with a mutual deterence pack with Hezbullah, we were never their real target to begin with and once Nassrullah is sitting in the palace in Ba'abda, he'll have bigger global jihad fish to fry.
The big question for us is what the Syrians will do. By the time anyone is reading this, we might be at war with Syria, it's that close. It all depends on what goes in that vast empty space between Bashar Assad's ears. Syria has no argument with Israel, the Golan Heights is bullshit, any Syrian leader prefers the IDF sitting up there instead of some ambitious Syrian General controlling a Division or two. For over 30 years we've been watching the back of the Father and the son, and it serves their strategic purposes that we stay there. No one in the Syrian govt gives a shit about "sacred Syrian soil" All they want is to perpetuate the regime and keep their heads attached to their necks. If they think that that it's a clever strategic decision getting their army destroyed for the sake of their buddy Nassrullah, wait till they see how it feels when the Iranians eat them for lunch.
Anyway, these are just some of what I feel like saying whenever I get asked "What do you think will happen next? I dunno, and I wouldn't express these thoughts in uniform, and I never went to the school where they taught strategic analysis. I can't even take credit for being a simple soldier. I saw plenty of real soldiers the last few weeks and they're big brave young guys who have a life in front of them that they plan to live. The Hezbollah takes the same type of kids and teaches them that dying is the best thing they could do for Allah and the kids swallow it whole. The truth be told, in Moslem shitholes like Lebanon and Iran, they wont have much of a life anyway.
I spent most of my days on the front line and got shelled regularly, twice it was close enough to knock me off my feet. And I learned a true thing they said in London during the V-1 bombings: If you heard it, that means that it missed, if you didn't hear it, then what difference does it make?
The B&B is pretty empty, it's not that we're close enought to get shelled (though at least 4 katyushas fell in this area) but no one is in the mood to go on vacation, we lost all our summer business and don't know how long it will be before things get better. But, thank God, we are all fine. The kids see it all as a big adventure and we watch the news every night and the boys have put up bumper stickers on their doors "WE WILL WIN" and "WE ARE STRONG' and I think we are. And with the experience that comes from getting this far, If we take it a day at a time, this too will pass, and things will return to be not much different from the way they were before, except of course, for the poor families of both soldiers and civilians who had the bad luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and soldiers who put themselves in between us and the bad guys.
Please remain in touch everybody, don't believe everything you read in the papers and have a good summer.

[Name Removed]
Moshav Zippori
www.zipori.com

Pictures speak a thousand words

An IDF soldier praying next to an artillery unit as it fires into southern Lebanon from near Kiryat Shmona on Monday. (Reuters)

Missing Seeing the Soldiers with Big Guns

Today my wife and I went shopping. Suddenly, she said to me. "Do you notice anything weird? There are no soldiers around."
It's funny how most visitors to Israel for the 1st time feel nervous when they see soldiers walking around (during their time off) with their huge guns over their sholders. But now I realize that time to worry is when none of them are around, because all of them have been called up to the front.
So next time you see a soldier in Israel, feel good about it, because it's the time of peace.

Feeling More Edgy

I just talked to my cousin's in Haifa. They said they hear the rockets fly and explode but because they are on the southern side ofHaifa their building doesn't shake. It seems that Hezbollah are using more powerful missiles now than Katyushas so they cause more damage.
We are pretty far south, but you never know. I guess if something would actually fly to Tel Aviv, we would be next in line.
For those who want to read what it's like to be on the front line of this, read Rock of Galilee Blog.

Feeling Edgy

As Hizbollah bombing Northern cities in Israel and IDF retaliating I am beginning to feel edgy. In Bet Shemesh it’s peaceful since we are too far away from the Lebanese border, but I am still feeling weird. It’s my first time in Israel during what looks like a real war.

Last night and this morning army planes were buzzing over our heads flying from southern bases to the North. Today I decided to call my great-uncle who is in his 80s and lives in the Qerayot near Haifa already for over 30 years. Here is what our conversation was like.

Me: How are you?
Him: Great to hear from you. How is your family in the US?
Me: Great. And you?
Him: Fine
Me: See any missiles out of your window?
Him: No. Do you?
Me: No. (smiling) Only hear planes flying above my head.
Him: Me too.
Me: Do you have a bunker to go too?
Him: No, I don’t have a bunker. I am staying in my living room.
Me: Sealed room?
Him: No.
Me: So what will you do if they bomb your town?
Him: Nothing. Continue sitting in my living room. What do you think it’s the first time this happened?
Me: Well, it’s the first for me.
Him: Ahhhhhh. OK. So how is your family in the US?

You get the idea.

And then I bumped into my Hareidi neighbors. I said to the wife, “Do you know they bombed Tzfat?” With a really surprised look on her face she called her husband and told him that. He replied: “Damn Zionists. They deserve it. What else do they expect?” I was standing there with my mouth open. This is someone who served in the IDF himself a while ago before he became a baal teshuva. I just said “You’re sick, you need help!” and closed my door.