IN THE AFTERMATH OF WAR… Central California Connects with Israel

On August 15^th, 2006, Selma, California surgeon Linda Halderman accompanied radio talk show host Inga Barks and Col. John Somerville (U.S.M.C., Ret.) on a mission to Israel. The purpose of the trip was to learn about the reality of the war which was brought to Israel by Hezbollah terrorists on July 12, 2006, to tell the story of the Israelis who suffered and survived the war, and to build bridges between Christian and Jewish supporters of Israel.

Here is a photo of our first hour in Israel, jet-lagged in Jerusalem but overall pleased at the landscape behind us.

From Right to Left (we are in Israel, after all):
1. Linda Halderman, a.k.a. Field Producer, The Inga Barks Show
2. Inga Barks, a.k.a. Honorary Swedish Jew
3. Can you guess which one is the Marine? Colonel Somerville reporting for duty.

Inga was deeply moved at her first view of Jerusalem. I share her emotional response to seeing this city, and remain awed by the strength and optimism of Israelis we have met thus far.

In an hour we will meet with the head of IDF public affairs, then off to the Ramat David Air Force Base in the North to meet with Israeli F-16 pilots. Dinner with kibbutzniks (members of a collective community) at Kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the Kinneret ("Sea of Galilee").

P.S. Brig. Gen. Nehemia Dagan (founder of the Palmachim Air Force Base and Cobra Helicopter program with 10,000 combat flying hours) is our guide.

As I write this, the Stand With Israel rally is being held 11,000 miles away in Fresno. I would love to be there with you, but I am on the eastern shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) at a kibbutz that escaped katyusha rocket damage. Much of the rest of this region did not. All suffered a major economic loss with the near total absence of tourism, and the cancellation of bookings through September. Last night, I sat with the kibbutz manager in the large dinner hall as one of only four guests dining. Of course, we were served enough food for the entire city of Clovis.

There is now an internal Israeli push to encourage citizens to spend the rest of their summer vacationing in the North, and this is hoped to salvage businesses hurt by the war. The locals are hopeful and without panic.

At Ramat David (the only Israeli Air Force Base in the North) yesterday, we met with the Base Commander. He showed us the torn metal hull of a katyusha that hit his base, but appeared angry when he described the "only" three attacks by Hezbollah terrorists (of a total of 4,000 throughout Northern Israel) sustained by the base during the 34-day war.

The Commander told us that Ramat David AFB sustained the loss of two Israeli pilots during the war (of EIGHT total who died during the conflict). This is a devastating loss for Israel's smallest base, and was reflected in the comments of every soldier we met. They grieve quietly.

After sunrise, we’re off to Kiryat Shmona to meet with the municipality leadership and survey the damage. Then the Golan Heights and Mt. Bental to show Inga Lebanon and Syria from a different vantage point.

I will write again soon, and keep all of you in my thoughts. Please keep Israel in your prayers.

Yesterday started with sunrise over the Kinneret. We headed to Kiryat Shmona to meet with Yariv Amiad, Special Assistant to the Mayor, to tour the damage.

Of the 4,000 katyushas launched at Israel during the last month, 1,000 directly hit Kiryat Shmona. The largest town in northern Israel, Kiryat Shmona has almost the same population as Selma, California--23,000. Damage was sustained by one quarter of all buildings in the city, though the evacuation of 11,000 residents diminished the casualty count.

But the impact of trauma on the civilian population, particularly the children, will likely be felt for decades. Yariv, our guide (a three-generation native of the city), described the horror of seeing a kindergartener's blank, expressionless face as the sirens sounded and the rockets fell. After days of panic followed by bomb shelters and waiting for the next attack, she had simply stopped reacting--no tears, no screaming...and no smiling. At age five, she was numb to life.

Our first stop was Danciger High School. Yariv and his wife of four weeks (!), Dariya, had graduated from the school several years earlier. He pointed at his classroom. The windows were blown out, covering the ruined desks with plaster and glass. The library floor was covered with glass shards, computer equipment and books destroyed by one of the three rockets which struck the school. There is no way that the school will be ready for students in time for the start of September's classes.

Inga was amazed by the beauty of the region, surprised at the lush green landscape and mild weather: "It's like Napa Valley!" But she wanted to know why Israelis chose to live here: "This seems like the front lines," she said. "Wouldn't it be safer to live somewhere else in Israel?"

"If Israelis are not safe here, we are not safe anywhere. We will stay here and we will survive. This is my country. If we cannot defend this part of Israel, the war will go to all Israel. And if we lose--the war will go to you."

A sobering thought from the front lines. I could not wrap my brain around 1,000 katyusha rockets fired on Selma.

Yesterday we drove to Peki'in, a village in the upper Galilee with the most spectacular view I've seen of this region. It is a mixed village of Druze, Israeli Arab Christians and Muslims--and one Jew.

The sole remaining Jew in this village is an elderly firecracker named Margalit Zinati. She is the last descendant of a family that is documented back EIGHTY generations to the Bar Kochba revolt (2nd cent. C.E.). History calls them the true Palestinians, Jews with a 1,900-year uninterrupted lineage in the land.

Margalit’s father was saved from the local Arab mob in Peki’in when a Muslim family intervened and rescued him from violence in the village square in 1948. Later, when the Israeli army threatened this same family, Margalit wrote a letter appealing on behalf of this family, which was then spared.

For nearly sixty years, Margalit and descendents of this family have daily met in front of the Peki’in town cafe (owned by the above-mentioned Muslim family) making traditional Iraqi pita, drinking Turkish coffee and gossiping. Margalit is also the guardian of the only local synagogue, itself an ancient testimony to her heritage and that of the Jewish Nation.

Inga and I sat on the mountainside with Margalit and Uda (of the Muslim family) making hand-fired pita. In my broken Arabic and Hebrew and their broken English, we chatted about families and children and husbands. They fed us (too well) and gave us homemade olive oil soap. Uda's husband brought us one of the 120 Katyushas that had fallen in the village during the last month. The ball bearings were wicked, but he seemed excited to make the spent rocket into lawn art.

I will send you a photo we took after sitting for hours with the women. The mix of ages and generations, languages and accents, religions and backgrounds, hair color and skin tone--sure, we could have been filming a Benetton commercial. But what was far more striking to me was the intense bond we felt to one another as women, and the photograph captured that perfectly. I believe Inga will never forget that moment, and I know I never will.

After visiting the grave of Naomi Shemer and teaching Inga to sing "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" in the car, we traveled to Haifa yesterday. Like the song, it was beautiful and painful. The Carmel Region of Magen David Adom (based in Haifa, covering 1,000,000 Israelis throughout the region) responded to 157 events during the month-long war, consisting of up to 8 separate simultaneous missile attacks. One of their dispatchers remains in critical condition at Rambam Hospital, both of her brothers killed when their street sustained a direct hit. The damage throughout the city is horrific, but this is Israel; the rebuilding has already begun.

People we met during our tour approached the paramedics who guided us, hugging them and thanking them profusely. The supervisor looked puzzled at this reception: "We didn't do anything, it's our job."

Magen David Adom is not only responsible for first response in trauma and mass casualty incidents. It is also the Blood Bank of Israel. We toured the lab and plasma storage facility, upon which Col. Somerville and Inga spoke up nearly simultaneously:

So the Christians lay down with their sleeves rolled up and donated life. I have the photos, and cannot express what significance this had to me in the wake of the destruction I witnessed in the city of my mother's birth. The paramedics there, who have seen pretty much everything there is to see, had the same reaction.

Today was also a dizzying experience, but not related to blood loss. We were welcomed for an hour-long one-on-one interview with Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. He accepted my invitation to piggyback Fresno onto his next visit to the West Coast "so you won't have to pay any airfare." This gracious and brilliant man allowed the interview to be taped by Inga for later broadcast--you won't want to miss it, though I suspect his future visit to Fresno will be equally riveting.

Lunch was at a cafe in the heart of Jerusalem with Caroline Glick, Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post. She extended personal greetings to her friends in Selma, California (!) and agreed to be interviewed live on one of Inga's shows this week. She plans to return to the Hoover Institution and agreed to stop in Fresno (I felt that this chutzpah-laden request would be forgiven, given the benefit to Israel). She was a powerful presence and offered a viewpoint not easily found in the international media.

Just minutes ago, we concluded a meeting with Member of Knesset, Otniel Schneller. He is a typical contradiction: 7 generations in Israel, a settler from the Samaria (northern "West Bank") town of Ma'ale Michnash, a religious Jew--and a Kadima Party member who drafted the Gaza disengagement plan with Ariel Sharon. My own reaction aside, it was an important contrast for Inga to truly see the complexities of Israeli political and social society. She will not likely make the mistake of most journalists in oversimplifying Israel's struggles with contempt prior to investigation.

An amazing day of many. Tomorrow we will go to the Old City and show her the heart of our faith--and her own. A glorious place to share.

Short update today from the holy sites of Jerusalem. There's nothing more to say that hasn't been said about the Old City, the Kotel (Western Wall), the Rabbinical tunnels and the opportunity to introduce a Christian to the heart of her faith. Inga, John and I sang together in St. Anne's Church (some of the best acoustics on the planet). We chose "Eli, Eli"("Oh, Lord, my G-d") by Hanna Senesh and the English translation of the VeAhavta ("Thou Shalt Love the Lord thy G-d"). She sang the Lord's Prayer. We were silent except for the singing and the echoes.

We then traveled to what was, from the outside, a beautiful white building on a tree-covered hill in Jerusalem. The bright primary colors and friendly animal shapes used to decorate the interior walls did their best to warm a place designed for children whose parents prayed they never needed to visit—Hadassah Ein Kerem’s Mother and Child Center.

On the 4th floor, we encountered a huge tropical fish tank, religious Jews and Israeli Arab Muslims sharing a Family Waiting Room, and the locked door of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. There we met the delightful Dr. Ido Yatsiv, Director of the Pediatric ICU. After enthusiastic introductions, he immediately sent loving good wishes to friends from the Fresno chapter of the Hadassah Medical Organization, which supports health care and medical research in Israel.

We toured the Pediatric ICU quietly to avoid disturbing rows of critically ill children and the nurses who lovingly cared for them. Gracious and accommodating, Dr. Yatsiv gently explained that things were "a bit busy" in the Unit that day. Our visit coincided with the first living donor partial liver transplantation ever done at Hadassah Ein Kerem. The recipient was a 4-year-old with a genetic disease that would take his life before kindergarten without the gift given by his 22-year-old brother.

Inga met with families of children in the Pediatric ICU, including burn victims and those who had undergone open-heart surgery. She was surprised to see the Palestinian and Arab Israeli women in shador (religious coverings) intently discussing their children's progress with Dr. Yatsiv. Cardiac defects and childhood malignancies do not pay attention to politics when they strike. Except for Hadassah Ein Kerem, there are no facilities in the Arab or Palestinian parts of the region that accept or are capable of handling such complex tiny patients. During our visit, Dr. Yatsiv received two phone calls from colleagues in Egypt and Gaza who wished to consult with him about newborn babies with congenital defects requiring surgical intervention.

Most of the families of these critically ill children have few resources for payment of massive medical expenses, so the cost is "absorbed" by Hadassah and the Israeli Government. [Author’s note: in the United States, a hospital stay including Pediatric open heart surgery runs upwards of $250,000.] Inga saw through the eyes of a mother of three rather than a journalist as she looked past the ventilator at the little toes and closed eyes of a 10-hour-old girl born with an abdominal tumor.

We brought with us a check for $3,000 donated on behalf of Bishop John-David Schofield, the recipient of the 2006 Republican Jewish Coalition of Central California’s Friend of Israel Award via the Fresno chapter of Hadassah (Award presentation in Fresno 10/29/06). When we sat with Bishop Schofield and asked him to where he’d like the donation in his honor to go, he answered without hesitation or prompting: "To that Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Help them take care of Israeli children."

The donation will purchase end-tidal CO2 monitors for the entire Pediatric ICU. These monitors are used during transport to protect critically ill children who require ventilators to breathe. This highly risky time (i.e. moving such children from the ICU to get MRIs and CT scans) will be made safer by a special device which allows real-time measurements of their respiration, preventing interruption of oxygen delivery BEFORE their sensitive systems are injured. Precious lives will benefit from this desperately needed but costly equipment.

See the photograph of Dr. Yatsiv and his colleague from Selma, California exchanging a brief embrace--and an understanding that transcends geography.

I found much to admire in this gentle soul who reassured us that his city was no longer the target of regular terrorist attacks, though he and his son still could not bring themselves to board an Egged bus. Apparently, some memories--like those of an Emergency Room filled with the remains of children after a suicide bus bombing--are particularly hard to erase. So, too, are the more pleasant images of a dedicated physician whose hands and heart are today saving the lives of small patients in Jerusalem.

Later today we'll observe the Army Reserve protests against the Israeli government in the rose gardens outside PM Olmert's offices. (Inga asked yesterday if discourse and dissent were as common in Israel as in the U.S.) Then to Yad Vashem, including the Valley of the Communities (where I will kiss the names of my grandparents' destroyed villages on the stone walls) and the Children's Memorial. I do not look forward to this visit, but I would not consider bringing a visitor to Israel without it. I cannot predict Inga's response, but she will be a witness--as are we all.

Our flexible schedule took us to the Holocaust Memorial, Yad Vashem. It isn't possible to know what someone else's heart holds when seeing it firsthand. I can only report that Inga's questions to our guide showed that this was an intense personal experience. She kept returning to the speech made by a Jewish collaborator with the Nazis who asked that his community surrender 20,000 of its children and old people to appease their demands for blood.

"But that would only mean the next price would be higher; you can't compromise like that," I overheard her say. "If we did it, we'd just get a little more time before they come for us."

She sat for a long time listening to the video of pre-war European children sing "Hatikvah," and again at the overlook outside of the memorial's final exhibit. This pleasantly chatty, always animated talk show host was quiet throughout most of the museum. During and after our walk through the candles of the memorial to the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust, she was silent.

I found myself looking around for the ghosts of the 150 members of my family (of blessed memory) who died in villages in Eastern Europe, in the camps and enabled by the hands of people who chose silence and tolerance of hatred. Our silence was very different. I pray that when righteous Jews and Christians choose to be quiet today, it is reserved for times of reverence and memorial, not when hands reach out to us, to anyone, for help.

Israel is a land of stories. The history is spectacular, but I think that it translates best when illustrated by the lives of those who live there.

We arrived at the protest yesterday in front of the offices in front of Prime Minister Olmert to learn that the group had been continuously there for three days, with no plans to leave. As civilians, the IDF Reservists were free to speak to us. They were clear that they felt obligated to also represent their brothers and sisters in arms, still serving, who did not have this privilege.

Boaz, age 26, is an IDF Reserve Paratrooper whose British-born mother gave him a beautifully nuanced Israeli accent. An art student when not called up to war in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, his early influences included the comic illustrators who drew Superman and Spiderman. He is angry and hurt, but for reasons that do not appear related to his self-described "Lefty" political leanings.

"This is not about politics, it is about soldiers betrayed by leadership outside our units," he said. "This crosses every line you can think of. People at this protest come from religious and secular, Labor [left-wing] and Likud [right-wing] and Kadima [centrist]--we are together to make sure it is better next time. Because there will be a next time."

He echoed one of his fellow soldier's comments about the support for the war, and the rage over its management.

"We were not allowed to win. In, out, push, pull, tank here, no--tank there...it's not a way to win," was the bitter comment from 30-year-old IDF Reserve Officer, Shai who returned from deployment 48 hours earlier. "This stupidity cost lives, and they [PM Olmert, Chief of Staff Halutz, Defense Minister Peretz] must resign. It is a matter of responsibility."

He expressed his philosophy that winning the war against Hezbollah ("this is the face the enemy wears, but we know we are fighting Syria and Iran") was critical, and mandated a change in Israel's leadership.

Inga asked Shai if his views on war and peace were influenced by--again--his self-described politically liberal viewpoint.

"Look, of course we don't want war, we prefer to sit and drink beer. But we fight from love, because we want to live and that's all."

The beautiful Israeli commando from Jerusalem then proposed marriage to one of those traveling in our group (she did not accept). Some truths are universal.

Today we are off to the Garden Tomb, to the Palmachim Air Force Base (where Inga hopes to pick up her IDF "wings"), and then a tour of their facility by our dear friends at the Holon branch of Magen David Adom. Many of the paramedics and volunteers served in the North during the war of the last month, relieving friends and colleagues working nonstop.

I am excited to show Inga the plaques and photos on the wall bearing names and faces from Fresno, which to this day is still the largest single donor to MADA Holon.

No photography was allowed at Palmachim Air Force Base on Israel’s coast, so you will have to imagine the faces of the young men and women wearing green flight suits and bearing responsibilities far beyond those of "average" teenagers and twenty-somethings.

Our guides on the Base were General Nehemia Dagan (decorated combat pilot, former Chief Education Officer of the IDF and founder of the Base) and a tall blue-eyed 23-year-old Cobra pilot named Stav who studied computer science while not flying missions.

We were shown declassified 10-day-old flight footage from the Israel-Hezbollah war. The precision targeting of rocket launch sites was breathtaking. Having disabled all of the low-precision rocket capabilities of the Cobra helicopters, the IDF air assault units now deploy missiles accurately into targets as small as 30 by 30 centimeters (one square foot). The accuracy of these strikes was evident as we watched real-time video recorded during Cobra sorties. A rocket aimed for the northern Israeli town we visited a week earlier was seen launched from the back of a truck. The truck then sped away into a terrorist hideout within an obviously civilian area. The Cobra’s missile was then launched. After the dust cleared, only the target had been demolished; surrounding homes were left intact, town residents on the nearby street moving away from the scene uninjured. These were combat videos directly from Cobra helicopter gunships, not PhotoShop images.

The next video we were shown provided a profound contrast. We were ushered into the Pilots’ Ready Room with a video cassette player and small screen. Surrounded by pilots (including a woman) who could be deployed at any moment and airborne within 7 minutes, we sat in a row on well-worn couches. I later learned that the dozen or so pilots and support personnel who filled the room--and stood along the walls when all seats were taken--had seen this film at least ten times each. None of them spoke to us or to one another. After the video finished playing, they filed quietly out of the room and returned to their duties.

The video was filmed in 2003 at a ceremony to commemorate the 85^th Anniversary of the Polish Air Force. Flight units from all over the world (including members of the Palmachim Air Force Base) converged with thousands of residents of the Polish community that had been occupied during WWII by the German Army. Pilots performed aerial displays and amazed the crowd with intricate flying formations and acrobatics. The mission of the visiting Israeli Air Force was different.

Before the event, the coordinates of a special flight route were carefully planned for Palmachim pilots in F-16 fighter jets to follow. THE ROUTE CHOSEN SHADOWED THE TRAIN TRACKS FROM COMMUNITIES IN POLAND TRANSPORTING JEWS TO THE AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP.

One of the Israeli F-16 pilots was the 34-year-old son of an Auschwitz survivor.

"This flight is the fulfillment of a life-long dream for me," he said. "Since I was a little boy, I wanted to be a pilot for the IDF. This mission is not only a fly-by of Auschwitz where they tried to murder my father, but of every place on Earth they tried to erase Jews. My wings are a promise that will never happen again."

I believe this is why the Israeli Air Force is among the best in the world. They know what they’re fighting for.

Tomorrow is our last day in Israel. Although the purpose of this trip was to educate and strengthen support for Israel during a time of the Hezbollah war and in its aftermath, I cannot leave without being a witness to "the other war."

We drove to Sderot, a town of 23,000 Israelis just north of the Gaza Strip. What I witnessed there has created a "soundtrack" in my head, like a song accidentally overheard that starts as a pleasant melody but hours later, won't stop playing.

Yossi Cohen, an assistant to the municipality, showed us his community's response to what has effectively been a terrorist war waged against civilians since April 2001. The first Qassam rocket hit Sderot, killing no one and leaving in its wake only an object of curiosity, a twisted homemade metal weapon that still bore evidence of what it was created from--a stolen Gaza street sign. Carefully painted on it was the Arabic word "Quds" (Holy).

Over the last five years, more than 4,000 rockets have assaulted on this pretty little town in the upland desert north of the Negev. Since the August 2005 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, 1,000 rockets exploded in the area. Unemployment has increased by 25%, post-traumatic stress reactions are epidemic (particularly among the 3,000 children under 18), and many of the city's residents, more than half of whom are over 65, cannot physically respond when the air raid announcement is made to get to shelters within 30 seconds.

The most recent air raid announcing an incoming Qassam was 1 hour and 10 minutes before we arrived. I photographed a pile of hundreds of spent weapons (collected just in the previous 6 months), vicious and without legitimate military applications. They are designed to kill, maim and terrorize civilians, to tear tissue and limbs and create the maximum number of human casualties. The targets are deliberately non-military.

We met Yossi's daughter outside a school where she will start kindergarten next year. The 4-year-old had beautiful chocolate brown eyes, and overcame her initial shyness to proudly show me the orange flower embroidered on the front of her cotton dress. I immediately understood why Yossi could not look at the little girl without planting a kiss on her nose. She rewarded her father with a giggle and a hug, raising her arms to be picked up. Once safely in his arms, she sang nursery rhymes to herself while we spoke with her father.

We asked Yossi how much the children were aware of regarding the Qassam rockets. He responded by asking her these questions:

Netta, in a high, sweet singsong voice: "Shahar Adom! Shahar Adom!" ("Red Dawn")

With that, a child explains life in a little town 1 kilometer from Gaza. Of course, a car on winding roads would have to travel 7 km. But a Qassam goes as a crow flies, a direct route into health clinics, homes--and kindergartens.

Thanks for posting this!

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MikeFromFR ~
There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Letter To The President In Support Of Israel ~
'Final Solution,' Phase 2 ~
Warnings ~

"The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets...."—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Holocaust Chronicle ~

" ... It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world."—FReeper Retief
"Palestine is the wrong name for their State. It should be called Anarchy."—FReeper sgtbono2002
"Then let's wait and see what the Arabs do after they take Gaza. There's nothing like Arab reality to break up a Jewish fantasy."—FReeper Noachian
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"—Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."
The Nature Of Bruce ~

Very nice and inspirational photos and text. Good to see fine Christians and Jews standing up for Israel and against Jihad. Israel is one of many world hot spots for Jihad. The hottest one but one of many. Jihad is eternal until the whole world is Muslim. So their unholy book teaches

The Koran also demands that the faithful Muslim emulates the life of Muhammad. He lead an evil life and the cover will be blown off it this October when Robert Spencer's book is published. His website is http://www.jihadwatch.com

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion (Hardcover)
by Robert Spencer

AMAZON LINK

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