Tuesday, December 17

Soup, anyone?

The yishuvim in Yehuda and the Shomron take a lot of flak.  Literally.  The people there are targets for terrorists, with no walls to keep out the murderers from Shechem, Jenin etc.   There have been carjackings, as well as shooting as cars and lethal "stone-throwing", with "stones" large enough to crack bullet-proof bus windows.  In the name of "human rights," neighbours and relatives of the butchers who massacred the Fogel family are still allowed into Itamar to pick olives (and thereby allowed to check out the yishuv, as their cousins had done in preparation).   And world pressure, even within-Israel pressure, always blames the "settlers" for the fact that the Arab world is determined to destroy the Jewish State.  As if the PLO was created after the yishuv movement.  As if the Jewish presence hurt the Arabs in the area.  Perhaps they resent having better health , jobs and a 20-year increase in life expectancy?)

Being high in the mountains is what makes the Jewish presence there so important from a security standpoint. But it also makes it harder to live there.  Walking to shul is harder.   200 metres to a friend's house is always uphill, as is the way home.   The winter winds are strong.  And when it snows...

In my 27 winters here, there was never this much snow south of the Hermon.   Over two feet in Gush Etzion, 3 feet, almost a metre, in Har Beracha.  The roads were closed , leaving hundreds of  families under a "natural" siege.  Army half-tracks (and even helicopters) took out those who lives were at risk.   Power was for days.   Water mains burst,  so that, by the fourth day, those who were stuck at home had to melt snow to drink.

But as soon as the roads to the worst-hit yishuvim were partially cleared and passable, people came from other yishuvim with portable gas cookers, and served hot soup to those who could finally get out of their homes to wait out the electric and water repairs.