As I wrapped my legs around my blankets and snuggled into my pillows last night, one thought kept gnawing at my psyche: If a rocket alert sounds, do I run outside in my boxer-briefs or waste precious seconds to throw on pants.
I am now in Ofaqim, one of the many towns in the Western Negev susceptible to the latest round of rocket attacks from Gaza after the end of the 6-month ceasefire on Dec. 19, 2008. In fact, on the way back to my host family’s house, the mother pointed to a house that a rocket recently gutted.
The valley below snakes all the way to the Dead Sea.
Although rocket fire has diminished since Israel’s unilateral ceasefire on Jan. 17, residents are pessimistic about a prolonged calm.
Other than this pervasive paranoia that I now share with the other million Israelis now in rocket range, my life here in Israel and the volunteering nature of my program is on track.
The operation in Gaza and the resulting dangerous climate in southern Israel delayed by a month my arrival to Ofaqim, the partnership city of northern New Jersey. During that month, as we waited for the situation to calm down, I rearranged storage rooms, mopped floors, and sorted clothes at an army base in northern Israel for two weeks and then moved to Rishon LeZion, where for a week I mingled with adolescent Ethiopian Jews at a community center, while living and socializing with Israelis doing a year of national service.
In Ofaqim, I am working three days a week at a high school, helping English teachers in their classrooms to tame the wild beasts they call students. In the afternoons, I host a weekly English group for boys in Yeshiva and volunteer at a coffee house with soldiers aimed at keeping kids off the street.
This past weekend, I had a seminar with my group on the “conflict.” We heard speakers from all sides of the political spectrum, spent Shabbat in a legal West Bank settlement called Tekoa and an afternoon in Sderot, Israel’s PR poster child for Hamas aggression. I somehow managed to weed through all the propaganda espoused by the speakers to hear new stories and angles at which to view this convoluted mess we call the Middle East.
The recent war — er, “operation” — coupled with the upcoming elections make it a fascinating time to be in Israel. I feel pressured to have an opinion about everything from my take on West Bank settlements to the war in Gaza to my favorite Israeli burger joint. But the journalist in me is just searching for facts to find some truth, even though my objectivity — which manifests itself sometimes in criticizing Israel — is often seen by my peers as Palestinian-loving, treacherous discourse. Agadir, by the way, gets my vote as best burger joint.
Thanks for reading!
Posted by brianfreedman 