Say a Prayer for Our Brave Defenders
July 27, 2006
Hi,What are the butcher's daughter and the shoemaker's son from Worcester, Massachusetts doing in the north of Israel?
I find myself and the Mrs. observing our thirteenth year at home in Karmiel between Acco and Safed, about 25 miles south of the Lebanese border, when our friends and mishpocha say we should leave and stay with them far away from the "action". I'm in a room with an outside wall, when the General Home Command says that's a no-no. I'm sitting at the computer next to the window, when the GHC says that's a no-no.
We have learned to know when we can stay at home in a room without outside walls and when to scramble down to our miklat, shelter......WHEN WE HEAR THE ONE-MINUTE SIRENS, about the time it takes the Hisballah missiles to arrive. Usually the missiles land far off target away from residences, but we did have a number of homes and factories hit with several injuries.
Nobody we know.
Sadly, we have buried a sailor and soldier with other of our brave boys hospitalized, in addition to the local man killed with seven co-workers at the Haifa Israel Railways shop. You can draw a line from the area of the heavy fighting in Lebanon to Rambam Hospital in Haifa, and we hear the helicopters passing over Karmiel throughout the day and night. The less seriously wounded are taken to the hospitals in Safed and Nahariya.
This morning the first wail of sirens came at 07:15. Down to the miklat.
"Don't forget the bag!" The bag contains the Jerusalem Post, pens and pencils for the puzzles, books, magazines, water and sometimes snacks. My
favorite snack is mish-mish, dried apricots. Together with our neighbors,
we pass around fruit, candy, cookies and BAMBA! Many of our Karmielites
with young children have sent or taken their families south.
After an hour of quiet, we returned to our apartment. At 10:05 the sirens wailed again. Down we go again. Before it was time to return home, the sirens blared yet again, prolonging our stay. As I was typing "BAMBA" in the previous paragraph.......YES!!!......
SIRENS......and "away we go" again! Only noontime! Looks like one of those days.
We had lunch and as I was wiping the dishes....another siren!.....Down we go ........... ...........We're back. It's now twenty to four.....Back down a few more times, sirens and boom-booms. I'm back at the keyboard again......it's now 6:15 in the evening. At last count we had the sirens NINE times today. Number Eight was followed with a very loud BOOM in our maariv neighborhood a mile away. That BOOM really filled our miklat!!!
Late comers reported missile landing in the street with no injuries, Thank G-d.
It has been an exhausting day. Sorry you had to go down and up and down and up so many times with us. But thanks for listening. And please say a prayer for our heroic soldiers, sailors and airmen.
Shabbat Shalom
Bill Epstein
Karmiel, Israel
