Rachelle Bronfman's experience in Sderot this past week. Nowhere to Run...

In a message dated 3/4/2008 12:51:47 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, israelkaplan@yahoo.com writes:

Rachelle Bronfman who had an active roll behind the scenes in the planning of the UJA Sderot emergency campaign flew to Israel a day after the event in Toronto.    This is what happened to her on the way to Sderot.  Nowhere to Run

by Sara Yoheved Rigler

One woman's experience of Israel's national nightmare.

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You've come to Passaic, New Jersey for a meeting in a community center. You sit down around the table with a dozen other people. Suddenly you hear an air raid siren. Terror grips everyone's face. They jump up and dart out of the room. They yell to you, "Run! We have 15 seconds!" You dash after them, towards a safe room at the end of the corridor. Crowded inside, the people hold their breath, waiting for the rocket to land. Total silence. Then an explosion.

All the people frantically dial their cell phones, trying to locate their family members. It isn't safe to go out yet, they tell you, because often these attacks come in pairs. After several nerve-racking minutes, people file out and return to their jobs. Your meeting proceeds quickly, tensely. Twenty minutes later, the air raid siren goes off again, and the whole scene is repeated.

Could you live like this?

Would you wonder: "Why should I have to?"

This scene is the daily reality for the 22,000 Jews who live in Sderot, a town in Israel's western Negev desert. One mile away is the Gaza Strip, controlled for the last year by the democratically elected terrorist organization Hamas.

TRYING TO IGNORE

Toronto resident Rachelle Bronfman came to Israel last October for a vacation. Leaving behind her husband and three children, she came for a ten-day "Women's Mission." She had been to Israel many times before, but this time she just wanted to have a good time, without getting involved in any of Israel's sticky issues.

Then her cell phone rang. The caller identified himself as Alon Davidi and asked if Rachelle could come and look at his project. She didn't want to get involved. "Just fax me," she tried to brush him off. Alon insisted that his project was too big to describe by fax. He persuaded Rachelle to meet him in Jerusalem.

"I knew there would be rocket attacks into Israel's borders, but I didn't want to deal with it."

Alon explained that he is the head of the Sderot Defense Council, a NGO he started to help his fellow residents in the embattled town deal with the traumas of their children and themselves. He opened up his laptop and starting showing Rachelle pictures of what's happening in Sderot: wrecked living rooms with rocket-pierced holes in the ceilings, elderly people crouching for cover, children with the panicked faces Rachelle had seen only in movie theaters during a horror film.

"I knew in the back of my mind," recalls Rachelle, "that when Israel pulled out of Gush Katif there would be rocket attacks into Israel's borders, but I didn't want to deal with it and I tried to ignore it. As I talked to this person who lives in Sderot about the people and damages, it was hard to ignore it. He asked if I would come to Sderot. I said, 'Okay, I'll come. I owe it to these people at least to go.'"

Rachelle asked other women in her group to join her. Seven women agreed to forego shopping that day and instead go to Sderot. Alon sent a minivan for them. A mere hour and a half after leaving Jerusalem, they had crossed the width of the country and were on the battlefront.

Alon took them around to see his projects, all geared to give a psychological respite from the 24/7 tension of living under intermittent barrages of rocket fire. "People are terrified to come out of their apartments," Rachelle explains, "so Alon organizes local programs for the children. He also takes them to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for a day -- a day without having to worry for their lives. I decided then and there that I had to do something."

Rachelle returned to Toronto and organized, with help from the local UJA, a giant rally in support of Sderot. The rally, attended by 2500 people, featured a live hook up to Sderot, so people in Toronto could hear Sderot residents describing their trauma-filled lives. Keynote speaker Alan Dershowitz asserted that Sderot is one of the world's worst human rights disasters, as innocent people living within the internationally recognized borders of their own country are simply sitting ducks for enemy attacks.

Last Thursday Rachelle returned to Sderot to ascertain that the money she had raised was being properly used to alleviate the stress of the local residents. She arrived at 10 AM and went directly to a meeting at the community center. Suddenly the air raid siren went off. Fifteen seconds to get to safe shelter! Rachelle dashed after the others into the safe room.

"You have less than 15 seconds to get to safety. If you're walking in the street or taking a shower -- there's no place to go!"

"The worst part," recalls Rachelle, "was to see grown men with terror in their eyes. These are men who have served in the Israeli army. But they were terrified."

Every time Rachelle sat down for a meeting, the air raid siren shrieked again -- six times in less than four hours. "It was scary," she testifies. "You have less than 15 seconds to get to safety. If you're walking in the street, or driving in a car, or taking a shower -- there's no place to go! Then you hear the boom of the rocket exploding. And everyone dials their cell phones, desperately calling their children. Where are you? Are you safe? Looking at this scene, I couldn't believe it was real."

Finally someone told Rachelle that she had to leave -- it was too dangerous to stay in Sderot. Her hosts took her toward the minivan for her return to Jerusalem. Suddenly the siren went off. People glanced in all directions around the parking lot. Where to run? Someone located a shelter at the far corner. They ran as if their lives depended on it -- because they did.

This shelter was a concrete roof with two walls. Two sides were completely open for instant access to fleeing pedestrians. Rachelle was told to huddle down and put her arms over her head. If the rocket hit next to one of the open sides, the shrapnel would injure them all. She heard the rocket explode somewhere blocks away. They waited to make sure a second rocket was not on its way. Then they sprinted to the minivan.

Rachelle's hosts told her driver to drive very fast on the access road leading out of Sderot because there are no bomb shelters along that road. Rachelle and eight other people got in. The minivan careened out of town at top speed.

The driver floored it on the access road. Suddenly the siren went off. He screeched to a stop. Everyone leapt out of the vehicle and started to run. Rachelle glanced around. Only open fields. Nothing but dirt and rocks. There was no place to run. But she followed the others. Then someone shouted, "Drop down!" Rachelle dived down into the dirt, her hands a flimsy protection for her head. "I'm going to die here," she thought, shaking, as the faces of her family flashed before her. It was the most terrifying experience of her life.

It was the most terrifying experience of her life. And it's what these people live with every day, 24 hours a day.

The rocket exploded nearby, but not near enough to injure them. "That's when it hit me, what these people live with every day, 24 hours a day."

SURREAL REALITY

Israel evacuated Gaza in July, 2005, uprooting 9,000 Jews from the flourishing communities they had built there over two generations. The logic of the withdrawal, supported by a majority of Israelis and insisted upon by the world, was that once the settlements, the supposed "obstacle to peace," were destroyed, the Palestinians would direct their energies to building up their own state within their own borders. When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was asked what Israel would do if the Palestinians instead launched rockets over the border fence into Israel, he replied that the Israeli response would be swift and emphatic, and that the world would stand behind Israel in its legitimate steps to defend itself.

In the two and a half years since every last Israeli civilian and soldier left Gaza, the Palestinians have launched over 2053 Kassam rockets into communities on Israel's side of the international border. They have killed 12 people and wounded over a hundred. In the last two weeks, a ten-year-old boy lost his leg to a rocket attack and another youth almost lost his hand. Last Wednesday, Roni Yihye, a 47-year-old father of four from Moshav Bitcha, was killed by a Kassam rocket while attending classes at Sapir College.

No country in the world would put up with even one such attack on its territory. Can you imagine the United States sustaining a rocket attack on Passaic and not going to war? Can you imagine England sustaining a rocket attack on Brighton and "practicing restraint"?

Rather than "swift and emphatic," Israel's response has been half-hearted and restrained. Air strikes have targeted the rocket launch areas, as well as terrorist cells and their leaders. Yet even such limited counterattacks have elicited international ire. Can you imagine Switzerland condemning the United States and England for their aerial bombardments of German cities during WWII? Of course not!

How's this for a jaunt into the surreal?

• Months ago, the government of Israel declared Hamas-controlled Gaza "an enemy entity." Yet Israel -- along with Egypt -- continues to supply this "enemy entity" with 70% of its electric power.
• Israel supplies Gaza with gasoline for the vehicles that it uses to take Kassam rockets to their launch sites to be used to attack Israel.
• When Israel stopped supplying 1% (according to the BBC) of Gaza's electricity, the world denounced the move as a "humanitarian crisis."
• The UN Security Council has never condemned the attacks on Israel's sovereign territory. But this weekend, following Israel's stepped-up air and ground reprisals, the Security Council, meeting in emergency session, prepared a statement calling for an end to all violence in the Gaza area, both rocket attacks and Israel's military reprisals, thus equating the Palestinians' attacks and the Israeli defensive efforts.

Some 4,000 residents of Sderot have already fled the city. Rachelle Bronfman was asked why the 22,000 remaining residents don't also move to a safer city. She replied, "Most of them are too poor. Their apartments are worthless. But even if they had the money, where would they go? Eventually all of Israel will be within range of missiles from Gaza in the South, Hizbullah in the North and the PLO-held territories in the heartland."

Her words were strangely prophetic. Last Thursday, eight long-range Grad missiles from Gaza hit Ashkelon, Israel's port city of 100,000 residents. The Grad missiles originated in Iran and were smuggled into Gaza through the porous border with Egypt.

Soon there will be no place to run for any Israeli.

Photo credit: Yossi Shitrit

Published: Sunday,

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IZZY KAPLAN

416 824 2858

416 256 2858

Check out my new blog http://israelonisrael.blogspot.com

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Fwd: Pidion Shvuim Alert. Tzviza Sariel 18 yrs ol, 3 months high security prison

bs"d

 

Call the Israeli Embassy at  202-364-5500

 

March 2, 2008

Pidion Shvuim Alert:

Tzvia Sariel
Age: 18
Whereabouts: in Neve Tirza prison for three months
Charge: refusing to cooperate with police

    Tzvia Sariel has been in prison for three months without formal charges.
Her crime: She refuses to cooperate with police who arrested her at a
protest in her community of Elon Moreh in northern Samaria.
    The facts are quite simple. In December 2007, the army and police forced
Elon Moreh to allow Arabs to pick olives in the Jewish community. Tzvia and
two of her friends tried to stop the Arabs, and the girls were immediately
arrested. None of the Arabs were injured.
    Tzvia, disenchanted with the lack of civil rights to Jews who live in
Judea and Samaria, refused to identify herself. Still, she was forced to
give her fingerprints. Then, she was thrown into solitary confinement in a
cell without heat in the middle of the winter. She was also denied full
visitation rights and until recently, telephone rights. Authorities said she
would stay in prison indefinitely. Despite all this, she still refuses to
cooperate.
    On Feb. 27, Tzvia was brought to court where witnesses failed to
identify her as the girl accused of pushing three Arabs. Still, Kfar
Saba Magistrate Navah Bechor sent Tzvia back to jail until the next hearing
on March 5.
    The treatment of Tzvia is not exceptional. Since 2005, when the Israeli
government planned the expulsion of the nearly 10,000 Jews from the Gaza
Strip and northern Samaria, authorities drafted regulations that reserved
special penalties for Jewish protesters. More than 800 indictments, many of
them involving minors, were issued against those who protested the
government destruction of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza
Strip.
    When residents of Sderot blocked the Tel Aviv highway in February in
anger over the government's refusal to stop Hamas missile gunners, police
stood by respectfully. When Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria,
protesting the government's expulsion policy, tried to do the same, they
were beaten and thrown into prison.
    It is clear that Tzvia has been denied her civil rights, and we ask you
to help free her immediately. As a first step, we request that you
telephone -- rather than e-mail -- the Israeli Embassy at  202-364-5500 or the Israeli
consulate nearest you and demand to know why Tzvia is still in prison.
    Do not argue with the embassy or consulate staffers.. Instead, say that
as a devout supporter of Israel, you have been defending the Jewish state
from criticism by pro-Arabs who accuse Israel of violating human rights.
Therefore, you are shocked to hear about Tzvia's ordeal. You do not
understand why she is in prison and demand that she be released immediately.
    Stress, that as an American citizen, you realize that you cannot expect
any response or explanation from the Israeli government. But as an American
citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate what you feel is
clearly a human rights violation. Stay calm, but be very clear in your
message.
    Believe me, our message to the Israeli government is
something that we draft with great reluctance. Unfortunately, the Olmert
government, with an approval rating of near zero, has refused any
accountability to the Israeli people and fears only the Bush administration.
The mere threat that we will ask the administration or Congress for answers
regarding Tzvia or any other Jew imprisoned for protesting Olmert's drive to
destroy Jewish life in Judea and Samaria could bring swift results.
    If you agree with this, please act quickly. What could be more important
than winning the release of a Jewish child imprisoned for loving her country
and people?

With Love of Israel,
Datya Itzhaki

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Powerful letter to Rabbi Berman Director General OU Israel by Pesach Aceman

Dear Rabbi Avi Berman, Director-General OU Israel

Chessed United Program for Sderot

 Dear Sirs,

I have taken upon myself to write to you (as have others as noted in the letter to Mr. Diament immediately following this letter and that is followed by my own letter to OU USA) to point out a few hypocrisies that emanate from OU USA and OU Israel that will ultimately lead to the loss of kavod of your organization.

 As you know, the OU USA has aligned itself with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) which has come out for a two state solution???? to terrorism and the onset of 'peace in our time in our area of the world'!!!!  Despite all their words they still support the Americans who support such ideas as a two state solution – one Israel and the other Arab terrorists, that will lead to our destruction (and even if they are not aware of it, like the Judeenraat aided and abetted the destruction of Jews not too long ago, the American Jews will suffer a fate worse than us here in Israel).

 BUT WHERE IS OU ISRAEL IN ALL OF THIS???  To date I have not heard any rebuttal or separation of the OU Israel organization from such a stance and thereby by complicity, it too (OU Israel) becomes a TERROR SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION!!!

 What brought my attention to this HYPOCRISY is the advertisement/announcement in Torah Tidbits  802 titled "Chessed Unlimited" whereby you plan to "bring joy to the terrorized children of Sderot".

 What TOTAL HYPOCRISY this is!  One hand extended to the truly terrorized and frightened children (and you have other worthwhile programs going on in Sderot that provide support as well to other sectors of the city) AND THE OTHER HAND IS EXTENDED TO THE VERY TERRORISTS WHO HAVE CREATED THE SITUATION ALONG WITH OUR OWN HOME GROWN TRAITORS (OLMERT, BARAK, PERES, RAMON ETC ETC) BY SUPPORTING A TWO STATE SOLUTION!!!! ONE TO ALLOW THE ONGOING TERROR AND ANOTHER SO YOU CAN PROVIDE SUPPORT TO THE VICTIMS OF THAT TERROR!!!

 HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT???

What this goes to show is that politics and funding rule the air waves which makes your efforts totally hypocritical!!!

 BUT WHAT REALLY GETS ME PERSONALLY IS THE FEEDING OF LIES TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION BY EVEN EXTENDING YOUR HAND AND BEHIND THEIR BACKS YOU ARE DOING THE EXACT OPPOSITE BECAUSE YOU ARE SILENT ON THIS ISSUE !  

 EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR MULTIPLE PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH (WHICH ARE EXCELLENT IN INTENT) IS GIVING A DOUBLE MESSAGE TO THE YOUTH. ONE SPOKEN "YES WE WANT TO HELP AND WILL HELP YOU" AND THE SILENT MESSAGE UNKNOWN TO THEM BECAUSE OF YOUR SILENCE, IS THAT YOU ARE A TERROR SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION THROUGH YOU SILENCE.

 YES THAT IS WHAT SILENCE DOES WHETHER IT BE AT HOME, AT WORK, OR IN PUBLIC. IT REEKS HAVOC!!

The American wing of OU supports terror and by being supporters of the two state solution of so called 'Jews who support Israel' and not taking an independent stand. So too the OU Israel by its alignment with OU USA is taking the same stand NO MATTER WHAT WORD YOU SAY NOTHING WILL BE HONEST UNTIL A STAND IS TAKEN.

 WHICH DO YOU VALUE MORE, YOUR FUNDING OR YOUR TRUSTWORTHINESS AS AN ISRAELI ORGANIZATION THAT IS A SUPPORTER OF ZION, ENCOURAGING RETURN TO BELIEF IN HASHEM (WHICH BY YOUR SILENCE YOU NEGATE), SUPPORTS EFFORTS TO STOP THE CHILDREN OF Sderot and other places from being terrorized night and day by those very people that would live in the other state that you by your silence, are supporting.

 I PERSONALLY DETEST HYPOCRISY, ESPECIALLY TOWARDS THE YOUNGER GENERATION WHO ARE SO TRUSTING AND ESPECIALLY AFTER SUCH TRUST BREAKERS SUCH AS THE EXPULSION FROM GUSH KATIF AND THE ONSLAUGHT OF VIOLENCE IN AMONA, HAVE WREAKED HAVOC WITH THE VERY SPIRITUAL FIBER OF OUR NATION.  

 Sirs, I have said enough. I could say more but I hope you get the message. Our younger generation needs to know that there is TRUTH in those they believe in. You do not have the right to destroy that trust because what will follow will be loss of faith – the very antithesis of what you stand for.

  pesach aceman    ôñç àééñîï

yishuv bar yochai  éùåá áø éåçàé

d n merom hagalil  ã ð îøåí äâìéì

israel        13912  éùøàì       

e-mail   pashra@netvision.net.il ã''à

 

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Diament,

 

Please explain to me why the OU chose to abstain from voting instead of voting against the position taken by the JCPA last week?

 

Furthermore, how much longer will the OU continue to besmirch it's previously good name by its recent actions or inactions on behalf of Israel and Jews across the world, starting from it's silence before the expulsion of perhaps 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif, which DIRECTLY led to the current shelling in Sederot and Ashkelon?

 

It is about time that the OU does the RIGHT THING by acting the way an Orthodox Organization, which supposedly takes its guidance from the Torah, should be acting, instead of trying to please every one of its constituents or supporters, no matter how misguided they are. With the holiday of Purim coming up soon, I urge you to review the Megillah and see what Mordechai told Esther when she was initially reluctant to follow his advice. Our Sages teach us that there is a very good reason why this particular Megillah was canonized and even proclaimed to be read out loud in the Synagogue.

 

Finally, why is the OU even in this group of non-believing Jews? I don't see any other Orthodox group, such as the Nat Council of YI, etc there. Didn't the late, great Torah leader, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein FORBID such an association?

 

Sincerely,

 

Izzy Broker

Staten Island, NY

917-912-1029

 

 

 

 

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From: Pesach [mailto:pashra@netvision.net.il]
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 9:18 PM
To: 'ndiament@ou.org'; 'execthw@ou.org'; 'howieb@ou.org'
Cc: Rena Cohen (reco@isdn.net.il); 'hebron.mail@hebron.org.il'
Subject: Subject: CLARIFICATION: OU POSITION AND ROLE ON JCPA

 

RE:  CLARIFICATION: OU POSITION AND ROLE ON JCPA

http://www.ou.org/public_affairs/article/clarification_ou_position_and_role_on_jcpa_resolution/
February 28, 2008

The Orthodox Union is a member agency of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and participated in its annual conference this week.

As reported in the media, the JCPA debated and adopted a resolution with regard to the Israeli - Palestinian peace process. The media report, however, did not fully and accurately present the Orthodox Union's position and activities with regard to the resolution; we do so here.

The OU delegation engaged in the debate over this resolution by proposing and/or opposing provisions of or amendments to the resolution text. The following were the actions of the OU on this matter:

> The OU attempted to remove the resolution's text which would have, for the first time, put JCPA on record in support of the "two state solution" - but we were defeated by a vote of the delegates to the JCPA.

> The OU succeeded in inserting into the resolution's text the statement that "Israel's repeated offers to establish 'two democratic states living side by side in peace and security' have been met, time after time, by violence, incitement and terror."

> The OU attempted to remove the resolution's text calling for American Jewish support for any negotiations by the Israeli government over the re-division of Jerusalem - but we were defeated by a vote of the delegates to the JCPA.

> The OU succeeded in inserting into the resolution text which calls upon the American Jewish community to support Israel's insistence upon being recognized by the Palestinian Authority as a "Jewish state."

> The OU succeeded in defeating a proposed amendment to the resolution text which would have stated that the American Jewish community views the establishment or expansion of Israeli settlements as an "impediment to peace."

At the conclusion of the debate and amendment process, the OU delegation abstained from the vote on final passage of the resolution and informed the JCPA of our intention to file a formal, written dissent from the portions of the resolution with which the OU disagrees.

IS IT NOT TIME FOR THE OU TO TAKE A PRO ISRAEL STANCE IN SUCH MATTERS AND REMOVE THEMSELVES FROM ANY ASSOCIATION WITH SUCH ANTI- ISRAEL ORGANIZATIONS WHO CONTINUALLY LOOK OUT FOR THEIR OWN GOOD RATHER THAN WHAT IS BEST FOR THE JEWISH NATION/ISRAEL.  OR ARE YOU LIKE THE SHAS PARTY IN OUR COUNTRY AND OTHER HAREIDI PARTIES THAT CONSTANTLY CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN INTERESTS RATHER THAT ABOUT TORAH AND THE NATION/PEOPLE OF ISRAEL KNOWING FULL WELL THAT OUR GOVERNMENT IS BENT ON DESTROYING THE NATION FROM WITHIN.

 

ARE YOU TO DESTROY IT FROM WITHOUT?   

 

I SUGGEST YOU READ THE FOLLOWING TO BE INFORMED AND FULFILL YOUR OBLIGATIONS TO AM YISRAEL (THE JEWISH NATION) AND NOT THE AMERICAN JEWISH NATION.

 

www.vbm-torah.org/archive/kuzari/17kuzari.htm      IT WILL INFORM YOU OF WHAT EACH AND EVERY JEW'S OBLIGATION IS VIS A VIS ISRAEL

 

 

pesach aceman    ôñç àééñîï

yishuv bar yochai  éùåá áø éåçàé

d n merom hagalil  ã ð îøåí äâìéì

israel        13912  éùøàì       

e-mail   pashra@netvision.net.il ã''à

 

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Nadia Matar's response to the OU clarification.

And now, after the OU's "clarification" (it reminds me of the "clarifications" the Shas MK's are giving as to why they are still in Olmerts' criminal government) -

So now, after the OU's clarification:

 can we ask the one million dollar question:

Why is the OU still part of the JCPA?

Where is the OU's outrage? the geshrei?

Why are they not resigning from the JCPA  which has now officially become the "Jewish  Council for Palestinian Arabs"....

 

Are Shas and the OU going to be remembered in the history books as those who gave the "badatz hechsher" to the creation of a PLO State in Erets Israel which, as we know, will bring about the destruction of Israel?

 

Nadia Matar

Women in Green

nmatar@netvision.net.il

 

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Buddy Macy's response to the OU Clarification

My response to Yocheved Goldberg's email:

 

Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: I am appalled by your collusion with the enemies of Judaism & G-d!

 

Dear Yocheved,
 
Thank you for forwarding me a link to the OU's official clarification relative to the JCPA statement (see below). 
 
In the end (which could very well be, THE END OF ISRAEL), you will be remembered as having been a part of the coalition that called for the destruction of the Jewish State.  Since you have been unsuccessful in your efforts to bring sanity, reality and Jewishness to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs from within, it is more than time for you to officially resign from that morally, intellectually and religiously bankrupt body.
 
You will have the full support of reality-based, G-d loving Jews around the world, and we will help defeat the JCPA's obscene and gross distortion of Judaism from a position of strength, reason and Biblical authority.
 
Most sincerely,
 
Buddy Macy

973-785-0057

 

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