COMMENTARY
Israel — in the eyes of someone who grew up in Hawai'i
By Yaffa Landis
For starters, life in Israel is nothing like my life growing up in Hawai'i.
Associated Press
Yes, I have friends from many different countries — Yemen, Morocco, France, Russia, Poland, Spain, etc. Some people have been here for 10 generations and others are returning to Israel after being exiled for 1,000 years.
Israeli viewers of U.S. broadcasts will see tanks rolling but hear only in passing that it was in response to a bloody bombing by terrorists.
Nonetheless, this creates a nice cultural mix expressed through our foods, music and dress, although we all have one common thread — we are Jews who live in Israel and support, with all of our hearts, the continued existence of the state of Israel.
I find myself in a conflict that is hard to describe to the casual observer. Most people watch CNN and see the Arab children throw stones, watch the Arab mothers cry over their sons who have been killed, watch Israeli tanks roll into Nablus for no apparent reason.
I'm not here to talk about why I believe that Israel is right and will win this war. I'm here to tell you a little bit about my daily life.
For starters, I don't really take buses when I don't need to. The inherent nature of buses is that they carry many people from one location to another — the key words here are "many people." This attracts terrorists, so I stay away.
I work in a technology park on the southern edge of Jerusalem near the largest mall in the Middle East. The office I work in is very modern and is similar to a high-tech office in Silicon Valley.
The only difference here is that Israelis wear jeans with sandals instead of Nikes.
In general, we go to the mall for lunch. Malls also are big targets for terrorist attacks, especially the entrances. The entrances are equipped with metal scanners. These were around way before 9/11 and are pretty similar to the scanners found in some of the inner-city schools in Los Angeles and New York.
Two days before Passover, the police cornered some terrorists driving toward the mall right outside my office. We closed our windows and watched the soldiers spread out over the hills to prevent the terrorists from escaping.
Within 10 minutes, the two terrorists from Bethlehem realized that there was no way out and blew themselves up. The authorities later found guns and hand grenades and other explosives in the car.
The terrorists were targeting the mall and were using the back route, which runs next to my office.
Nonetheless, a good number of people from my office went to the mall for lunch. Life goes on.
Associated Press
Then came Passover. I went out to a friend's home in Modiin, which is halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We had a nice Seder and then heard the news about the bombing in Netanya: 24 killed, 130 injured.
Riah Abu el-Assal, Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, tries to persuade an Israeli security officer to allow Christians to enter Bethlehem, which was cut off last week when Palestinian militants sought shelter in the Church of the Holy Nativity.
We saw photos of them mopping the blood off the floor of the hotel. It reminded me of squeegeeing the tennis courts at Punahou after a good rain. That's how much blood there was on the floor.
The rest of the first day of Passover was spent discussing where to renew our gas masks and which bomb shelters to go to when the United States starts up its war with Iraq.
Everyone in Israel believes that after Vice President Dick Cheney's visit, the United States will bomb Iraq — which means Israel will be hit by Iraq. My friends in Modiin have a bomb shelter in their home, and I believe I will go there, if I make it.
For Shabbat (Sabbath) I went to a co-worker's place just outside of Jerusalem. Roadblocks caused traffic jams and made my traveling laborious.
When I got to my friend's home, I found out that 20,000 soldiers were being called up and wondered which of my co-workers would not be at the office after the Passover holiday.
After Shabbat, I came home and found out about three more terrorist attacks, one in a village called Alon Moreh. Terrorists knocked on the door of a home and proceeded to kill its occupants.
The next day, a woman walks into a supermarket here in Jerusalem and kills herself and the guard and injures 20 more.
Then tonight, three more attacks: one at a guard post, one in a cafe in Tel Aviv and one in a discotheque in Tel Aviv.
In short, we don't go out anymore.
Everyone is at home, online, watching TV, waiting for another attack or, God forbid, news that a friend was injured or killed.
Thank God for cell phones. I am calling my friends twice a day now, after every attack, to make sure everyone is OK.
Something interesting about the use of cell phones after an attack: The army and police often kill cell phone use for about 30 minutes after an attack. The idea is to prevent terrorists from further communicating with each other in case they were planning a double hit.
Associated Press
Once the lines open up, it's a mad rush. Phone lines are busy for two hours afterwards. It creates a panic and fear that you cannot understand until you yourself hear the phone ringing and not being picked up by a loved one.
Israeli soldiers on patrol in Bethlehem warn journalists to leave as tanks, gunships and troops were preparing to move in on the church.The assault Thursday failed to break the standoff at what Christians regard as one of their holiest sites.
The Israeli news is frustrating because all we see are pictures of the latest booby-trapped car or photos of the latest soldier to be killed.
I have numerous friends who have lost family and friends over the past year. How many funerals can you go to? I just stopped going because we all need to live our lives and cannot be in a perpetual state of depression.
The closest I ever got (and hopefully will ever get) to losing a person who was an integral part of my life was back in 1995 when a classmate of mine from Brandeis was blown up on a bus down south. Her name was Aliza Flatow.
Although this sounds frustrating and painful, what is more painful is to watch CNN or to open the New York Times and see their coverage of what is going on here — to see them showing Israel sending tanks into Ramallah, mentioning eight paragraphs into the article that this was in response to a terrorist bombing in which 24 people were killed.
Bottom line: People here in Israel are surviving.
Having friends makes a world of a difference. The other night, we heard bombing from Bethlehem from 4 to 5 a.m. My friend Keren called and just talked on the phone with me until the bombing stopped. Thank God for friends.
I love living in Israel.
I love the country and the people and I love Israel for everything it is, including its strengths and its weaknesses.
I believe with all my heart that we will pull through, although it will be a painful period for a long time.
Decisions need to be made, people need to start facing up to the reality and do things that we were not prepared to do two years ago.
Food for thought.
Yaffa Landis , who grew up in Hawai'i and graduated from Punahou School, lives in Jerusalem. Landis is quality assurance manager for Atomica Corp.
