By Maryanna Gabriel..
T'is an eclipse, which generally indicates change, and what a wallop for the Middle East. When will we trade our swords for plowshares?
When I was twenty years old, I travelled with a friend to many places. One of them was working on a kibbutz in Israel in the Ha Nagev which was close to Gaza. Later, it would be given to the Palestinians in a peace treaty. Stricken by the recent news, I dug out my journal wondering what I would find. (Yes, I have been writing that long). It wasn't exactly relaxing.
"It was just another normal day in the kitchen of Nirim. I was filling up the vegetable cleaning machine with carrots when the air raid siren went off. I have heard the sound before at home (in Canada) and thought nothing of it. However, in Israel with the Gaza Strip so close, I believe my heart missed a beat. I watched the women pour out of the dining room, the granary, and the store, as I stood poised by the machine. Everything stopped as people gazed at the sky. Mother's thought instinctively of their children
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| Missile Drawing - Dream In Israel |
in the Etrog (nursery) and memories of the October war of '73 must have been present.
Then people began to move again. The spell was broken. It was an accident. Someone had pushed the button by mistake. I remember this country is surrounded on all sided by hostile neighbours. A fitful night as I go to sleep and the room crackles with light as if electrified. I dream I am wrestling with an unseen force and awaken cold with fear....A bomb went off in Jerusalem killing 16 people, and injuring 60 others."
Not what you would call vacation material. A new generation has forgotten violence begets same. A ghastly history repeats itself. My heart aches for the suffering.