Borders

Unlike in the U.S. where we have friendly Canada to the north and Mexico in the south, Israel is surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. The Jordanian border on the east is the quietest, and some Israelis have even been traveling there. But what you see here is a Hizbullah flag (circled in purple), very close to an Israeli guard station (circled in orange). Just two years ago the North was the scene of an ugly war. My friend who lives in Ma’alot lived in a bomb shelter for a while, but then she and the younger members of her family went down to Beit Shemesh in the center of the country for the remainder of the war.

Now the war is in the South… Hamas, which was elected by the people of Gaza, has chosen to spend the millions it receives in aid to stock weapons and attack southern Israel. While Hizbullah was created by Iran, Hamas now receives much of its weaponry and funding from Iran.

This isn’t supposed to be a political blog, so I won’t be telling who to vote for in the next election. But as I can’t seem to concentrate on what I was thinking of writing about (I thought about writing about how to get my daughter to pick her jacket up from the floor, see what a contrast?).

So I leave you with some links:

• War written by the Sandman, an anesthesiologist in Israel
• Israeli News Ricki’s mom strays from her usual topic of her daughter Ricki, a spunky 14-year-old with Down Syndrome.
• Video: Do You Know How People Live in Sderot from Carl in Jerusalem
• Understanding the Geographical Perspective of Israel (Westbankmama explains how close together everything is in tiny Israel)
• Conflict In Gaza: Primary Sources (Daniel Saunders quotes the Hamas Covenant, which makes it clear Hamas is against Jews, as opposed to saying ‘Zionists’)
• Jack is continuing with his Gaza Round Up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (many, many more links…)
• A blog by some youth in Ashkelon, under fire (Hebrew)

And then one more pic, so you can enjoy the lush greenery outside the winery: