Crossing the Yarden

By Yarden Frankl

An Hour Away…

Another Shabbat, another wonderful moment of peace in Neve Daniel. A nice walk to shul, kiddush with good friends, a relaxing lunch. The kids were playing in the street, everyone smiles as they walk by. “Shabbat Shalom” over and over again.

An hour away, there is war.

An hour away, rockets slam into houses and shuls, and sometimes people. An hour away, kids cannot go out and play. An hour away, a women going to the store in her car was killed by a Kassam. They danced in the streets of Gaza at the news.

An hour away is a police station. Behind the station they have collected the kassams which fell on Sderot. They keep running out of room. There are now hundreds and hundreds of them. Does anyone remember which Prime Minister boldly announced that after Jews were removed from Gaza, “the rules have changed. Not a single rocket will be tolerated.” Look at the heaps of twisted metal. Looks like a heap of toleration.

The red alert siren only gives a fifteen second warning that a Kassam is coming. The siren sounds several times a day. Fifteen seconds is all the time you have to take cover and wonder if you will ever see your children alive.

Fifteen seconds. Count them. OH MY G-D, A KASSAM IS COMING. GET DOWN GET DOWN. WHERE ARE YOU MOMMY? NO TIME, QUICK BY THE WALL. WHERE'S MY SON??? DID ANYONE SEE YONI? GET DOWN NOW!! MOMMY, I'M SCARED. HELP ME MOMMY. WHERE ARE YOU??? YONI GET DOWN NOW!!!

BOOM. The blast. The sounds of shattered glass. Concrete blown into dust. Sirens. Ambulances. Children crying, people screaming. Where did it hit? Was anyone hurt?

We read the newspaper. “Today four rockets were fired at Sderot. Several people were treated at the scene and released. Several houses were damaged.”

It's a lie. Some children will never recover from the trauma of sitting through countless rocket attacks. They are “released at the scene” because they cannot be helped. The tiny mental health crew in Sderot cannot begin to cope with the people who need help. Are you a kid who has nightmares about kassams? Too bad. No one will help you. You still have to go to a school which you know would collapse if hit. You still see the pictures of Israel’s leaders on the wall of your unprotected school. The same leaders who won’t help you.

The principal of a school told me he decides every night which classes will meet. Not every classroom is protected. He won’t have classes meet in vulnerable places. In another school, the classes for first through third grade have protection. Fourth graders and above literally have to run for their lives when they hear the red alert siren. School will soon be ending for the year. Third graders don’t want to move up to the fourth grade.

I coached baseball yesterday in Efrat. A dozen kids threw balls and ran around the bases getting ready for the game. They had fun playing in the open field on the green grass. Afterward some had Bnei Akiva, others continued playing outside with friends.

Meanwhile, the children of Sderot can’t play ball. They must always know where the nearest shelter is. Those who go to school hurry home afterward. They have no social life. They have been abandoned by their government. Some of their fathers were called to fight in last summer’s war in Lebanon. Yet no one is fighting for them. It’s a twenty-four hour a day nightmare.

And now I know why a few of the teenagers from Neve Daniel have been spending so much time in Sderot, trying to help. They know what so much of our nation and our leadership seem to ignore:

That almost wherever you are in Israel: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, even here in peaceful Neve Daniel…the nightmare is only about an hour away.

Shabbat Shalom from our blessed nation to our brothers and sisters in Sderot. You are in our thoughts and our prayers. For more on the situation in Sderot, visit: www.sderotmedia.com.

© 2007 Yarden Frankl