by
Bethe Schoenfeld, Ph.D.
The people who are interviewed in this book live on Kibbutz Gesher
Haziv in the Western Galilee of Israel, as does the author. This
kibbutz is just a few kilometers south of the Lebanese border. There
is a beautiful beach not far away, and the valley around the kibbutz
holds fields of wheat as well as groves of banana, avocado, and
persimmon trees. On a normal day you would think you had found the
Garden of Eden.
But, during the Second Lebanon War, which lasted just 33 days, dozen
of katyusha rockets rained down on Kibbutz Gesher Haziv. The families
refused to move and exemplified the unwavering spirit of the Israeli
people as they faced an unceasing barrage of missiles.
The author’s daily diary, and her interviews with the stalwarts
who stayed in the kibbutz during these fearful days, gives us an
awe-inspiring glimpse of the unwavering spirit of the Israeli people
as they faced an unstoppable barrage of missiles. It goes beyond
the war, into the days after the cease fire and the rebuilding of
the homes and lives of the members of this border kibbutz.
From The Routine Of War:
Miri ~ I remember the whole house was shaking from the intensity
of the rockets hitting. I called Ilan on the mobile and asked:
“Where are you.” And he said he was coming and would
be there in a minute. I was looking out of the window of the “mmad”
which faces the road so I could see who was arriving. And I don’t
see Ilan and he said he would be here in a minute. So I called
him again on the mobile phone: “Ilan, Ilan, where are you?”
It turns out that he stopped the car and went into the stairwell
of a building to wait until the barrage ended.
In the beginning I got mad at Ilan for driving to work. How do
you know that the rocket won’t fall on you when you’re
driving? Maybe it will fall on the road and not on you? So if
you decided that you’re driving – so if that’s
your decision.
Who has the right to call him from the bank to tell him that he
has to open a branch? I want to see that same individual come
from Tel Aviv and open the branch. That they will come and open
the branch!
Micha ~ The second katyusha that fell not far from our house,
I was not in the house. I was at Effie’s house. But we were
also about 30 meters from the katyusha. I remember, we heard it;
we ducked down, waited a few seconds but didn’t hear anything
more, so we ran out, Effie and I and started looking for where
it fell because we knew it was very close. First we thought it
was further south, but then I saw smoke and dust coming from a
bit north from Effie’s house.
We started running towards there to see if anyone was hurt. The
people who live right next to the house I saw they were already
outside, so I knew they were okay. So then we started looking
around, going from house to house, checking to see if everybody
is okay. Lucky for us, no one was hurt, except from the dog. What
I remember also from there is that I could hear a gas leak from
somewhere because one of the shrapnel hit the gas regulator at
Haggai and Ruti Givon’s house. I went to turn off the gas
cylinder. Then we split between us and we did a round of the houses
close by and knocked on doors to check that everyone was okay
and not in shock, quite a few elderly people live in the area
and we wanted to make sure that everyone is okay.
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