Sunday, July 30, 2006
What a Waste
I was going to send this as part of my new Blog - but as I am the most technologically challenged person I know I am having trouble getting it all together - as it were. In the meantime, I have been getting phone calls asking where I've disappeared to - so I'll just continue on in this format until I straighten myself out.
My computer mumche was here again yesterday - he seems to be becoming a regular part of my household - and put in FIREFOX instead of INTERNET EXPLORER - so that should take care of some of my current problems for the moment. I don't really know what that means except one is orange and the other is blue - so I have to remember to hit the orange button. Also - and I'm almost embarrassed to admit this - yesterday my brother showed me how to do an "attachment'. And he showed me this little procedure over the telephone - cllick this - click that - done. And I sent an attachment for the first time. Idiot - you must be saying. Is she really part of the 21st Century?
I've been rambling on about everything because I can hardly bear to write - or even think about - the War. Yes - I've upgraded war to a capital "W". Woke up this morning - put on the TV immediately - and the first thing I heard was Nasrallah saying that no Israeli is safe anywhere in the country. There is always this great awareness that the pictures we see of Haifa could be us next. And that is a very sobering thought. Why am I knocking myself out worrying about my "shiputzim" (renovations to my flat), or my diet, or stopping smoking - again?
I look at the pictures on the TV - the people in the North - the innocent Lebanese - the soldiers who are giving their lives for us - and I say what a waste. A waste of lives. A waste of energy. A waste of money and resources.
And yet - while Israel has been told that our response to the kidnappings - and let's not forget that that's why this this all began - and the Katyushas and the Quassams has been "disproportionate" - what else are we to do? Call a ceasefire and let Hezbollah build themselves up again? Go back to the status quo and let the shelling continue in the North and in the South? Put ourselves in mortal danger every day of our lives? Cease to exist - "chas v'halilla" (G-d forbid)?
And someone said yesterday that we will be given ten days to two weeks more to rout Hezbollah - that should be enought time! What rubbish. America has been in Afghanistan and Iraq for years - and that story isn't over by a long shot (poor choice of words).
I received a beautiful and heart-wrenching letter this morning from my friend who has a son in Gaza. She knew that soldiers were killed there and that the names aren't published until the families are notified. She waited all night - with heart pounding and stomach churning - for the phone NOT to ring or there NOT to be a knock on the door. And finally this morning her son called - he is safe - and she cried and I cried - and we both prayed - and this is what life is like here at the moment.
Stay Safe.
Rena
