 |
Stan Goodenough is an experienced journalist who has written about politics in South Africa and the Middle East for such organizations as The Daily Dispatch of East London, South Africa, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post, and the Virtual HolyLand website. He has been a South African gentile resident in Israel for 12 years. Stan is editor of and .
|
|
| Previous views |
|
|
 |
Kadima will bring Kassams to Tel Aviv |
|
|
|
I never thought to see it here |
|
|
|
The Most High rules the kingdom of men |
|
|
|
To stop Kassams, Take back Katif |
|
|
|
White House to Israel: 'Get moving!' |
|
|
|
A Christian laments: So, Jews, you'll let the goyim win after all? |
|
|
|
For the Sake of the United States |
|
|
|
Turn the tables on Sharon |
|
|
|
Why we, as Christians, wear Orange |
|
|
|
Meaningless mantra |
|
|
|
No surprise in Sinai |
|
|
|
A twisted corpse, a severed leg |
|
|
|
What, in heaven's name, should Israel do? |
|
|
|
Strategic slyness of the Geneva Accord |
|
|
|
This is 'full scale war'? |
|
|
|
Arafat gave the green light |
|
|
|
Bush's 'snaking wall' |
|
|
|
The siren's wail |
|
|
|
The danger, Israel, is to the West |
|
|
By Stan Goodenough
July 19, 2006
Today I watched a man being killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon.
I did not see him die, but from where I stood watching, as sirens wailed like banshees around me high on a hillside overlooking Haifa Bay, I heard and saw the explosion that snuffed out the life of 30-year-old Andre Zilensky. A Jew who had immigrated to his ancient homeland from Russia a few years ago, Andre was killed as he rushed to get his family into a bomb shelter near their home.
He lived in Nahariya, the coastal town that has been bombarded repeatedly by missiles fired by men determined to sow fear into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people in the northern reaches of the Jewish state.
Today is the seventh straight day of this rocket war. More than 1,000 missiles have been fired into Israel in the past week. More than 80 fell today, wounding about 60 more Israelis across the north of the country and rendering the streets of cities, towns and farming communities empty of life.
Rockets are continuing to fall as I write this report from the Kibbutz Hagoshrim guesthouse near Kiryat Shemona, two miles from the Lebanon border.
About 30 have slammed into the hills around us in the last 90 minutes. The slopes of the hills nearby are on fire, pouring thick smoke into the air.
I decided to come back to the north after three days of chewing my fingernails in Jerusalem. I just had to be here, to get a feel for the situation a week into this conflict, see how the people were holding out and gauge the intensity of the rocket fire.
Certainly it has tapered off a little after the weekend. Apparently intensive diplomatic efforts are underway, headed up by a United Nations almost frantic to get some kind of ceasefire in place.
Thankfully Israel is resisting those efforts. The government in Jerusalem believes it is essential that the Hizb'allah is disarmed and its power to terrorize Israel is smashed beyond the ability to recover within the coming months. IDF sources reported today that more than 1,000 Hizb'allah targets had been attacked by the IAF since last Wednesday.
Before the first barrage hit Haifa this afternoon, my companion, Don Cobble, and I lunched in a deserted pub in the deserted streets of downtown Haifa.
We were served by Gil, a 40-year-old second-generation Israeli, son of a Holocaust survivor. His father had been in Auschwitz during the war, emigrating to Israel shortly after the Allies liberated the death camps. After serving as a chef on an early Israeli cruise ship, he opened The Anchor Pub, situated just behind the docks that constitute one of the country?s busiest ports -- a port that today stands virtually unused.
"I don't know what happened to us Israelis," Gil complained, waving his hand at the empty seats around him. "Somewhere we lost the Israelite inside."
Answering my quizzical look he explained. "So many people have left Haifa and fled south. We did not used to be this way. In the Yom Kippur War the streets were exploding outside but the pub was full. When the bombs came in we all went down into the cellar, then returned to our beers and sandwiches as soon as it was over."
I wondered aloud whether Israelis' resilience had not been eroded by the increasing liberalization of the society and its willingness to relinquish its land in pursuit of the peace phantom. Gil felt the problem lay with "capitalism." Whatever the reason, he said, "I believe, or I hope, that all will be okay in the end."
For the next 20 minutes he regaled us with alternatively pessimistic and cheerful forecasts for the future of his country. We agreed that it was essential that Israel not end the campaign to crush the Hizb'allah until it had achieved its goal.
How was it possible, I wanted to know, that some Israelis are considering returning to the "peace process" as soon as this fight with Hizb'allah is over? "After all these years of negotiating and conceding to the Arab side, only to receive more violence and hatred in return, what will it take to get you Israelis to realize that there is no answer down that road, and no peace waiting at the end of it?"
"I think we have finally arrived at that realization," he answered. We hoped fervently that it was so, I said. But inside I doubted it.
It?s the frustrating irony. Miraculously, God protects his people as the rockets rain down. Relatively speaking, just one of the 1,000 that have fallen could have taken more lives than all that have been lost in the barrage. But because the price is not greater (not that one would ever wish it was) the Israelis are easily pressured to go back to the negotiating table. If the death toll was higher Israel's resistance would be greater. As it is, it is crumbling already as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sputters about the half-a-million Lebanese civilians that have fled their homes to escape Israel?s attacks on the Hizb'allah.
What about all the Israelis who have been driven from theirs? Despite the suffering they are experiencing, fully two-thirds of Israelis are fully supportive of their government's actions in this war.
Before we left Gil I told him that we were in Israel because we believed in the future of his nation. I reminded him that what the prophets had written millennia ago concerning the scattering and ingathering of Israel had come to pass. We had no doubts that all the rest of the promises made to the Jewish people would be kept too. "because there is a God in heaven," I said, as he nodded his agreement -- or perhaps just his hope.
From there we wove our way up the side of Mt. Carmel, past the magnificent Bahai Temple and gardens (their beliefs are way out there but they sure have great green thumbs) -- to the Dan Panorama with its stunning view of the bay.
All the news networks' crews were there, including my friend Chris Mitchell and his team from CBN. The Fox News boys were next to us. As we chatted the sirens started up. Cameramen rushed to point their recorders out over the city and we waited.
What an eerie feeling that was, standing there, feeling like the bull's eye on a dartboard, knowing that deadly missiles were flying through the air in my direction and that if they were going to hit anywhere near me I would know nothing about it until it happened. My emotions told me I was nuts to stand there, but a more logical thought was -- what are the chances of them hitting here? More importantly, I trusted in God to keep me safe. I was not being reckless, I argued inside. I was here to see what was going on so I could report it firsthand to people who wanted to know, and to pray.
The sirens died down without any explosions heard near us. Twenty minutes later, we heard dull thuds from the far north side of the bay. Once again it was that sound of rolling thunder; no sharp cracks, just the vibrations we could feel through the air 15 miles away from where the rockets were hitting. The sirens started up again. We could see the smoke and hear the missiles pounding the earth. That was Nahariya. In one of those explosions, before the eyes of his horrified wife, Andre Zilensky lost his life.
Then three came in closer to us, in Haifa. They made a sharper sound, and the ground shook. Seconds later it was over. In a little while the third round would begin.
Leaving Haifa we drove north to Akko (Acre) then crossed over to Tzfat (Safed) where we stopped by a shelled house to dig ball-bearing Syrian shrapnel from the pitted wall. From there we dropped down into the Hulah Valley, completing the rest of the journey to our hotel without incident.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will try and meet with some more local people and talk to them about their thoughts and fears, before returning to Jerusalem later in the day.
Please, as you pray into this situation, ask the Lord to comfort the family who lost a husband and father today. Pray for all those who have been wounded, and for all who have fled their homes in fear. Pray for wisdom and more courage for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet. He has shown remarkably strong leadership in these past few days, and will need wisdom and more strength to resist the international pressure to agree to a ceasefire until the terrorist threat has been neutralized.
For those of you thinking of Donny and me, and keeping us in your prayers, we thank you and pray the Lord will bless you in return.
And may God keep Israel, and bless her with His peace.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
