The Rockets of Summer

The Rockets of Summer

(Photo: Oren Nahshon)

In the past week, two terrorist rocket attacks have already been launched at Israel. At The Jerusalem Post, Fellowship Senior Vice President Yael Eckstein writes of the recent wars waged against Israel, most of which have occurred during the summer, and of the Israeli people’s resilience:

Last week, summer arrived in the Holy Land.

Unlike most places in the world, Israelis welcome summer somewhat reluctantly. Most of the recent wars waged against Israel have occurred in the summer, which has left many people associating warm weather with memories of sweating in a bomb shelter.

Yet, there is a divine resilience that the people of Israel possess, which enables us to move on with life.

So as the sun peaked out from behind the winter clouds, we left our fears in the secured rooms and headed for the beach.

When the summer flowers bloom and fill the air with a sweet perfume, the people of Israel go out to smell the roses. Two weeks ago the warm weather moved in, and you could practically feel the celebration and happiness in the air.

Children joyfully licked chocolate-banana popsicles, and laughed with excitement as it melted over their fingers.

Teenagers hit the beach with their iPods, and had picnics to celebrate the end of the school year.

Elderly people took the long-awaited journey outside to get some fresh air and defrost from the chilly winter.

And just as we all started to finally relax and feel confident in the carefree summer joy, the code red siren sounded and the rockets struck. When this happened, all Israelis – whether in southern Israel or Tel Aviv – were violently brought back into the fragile and sometimes terrifying reality we live with every day.

The sobering reality is that we can go to the beach, roam the malls, fly kites, and have summer picnics like the rest of the Western world. But we’re not like the rest of the Western world. Here in Israel we live from war to war. We have terrorists on every one of our borders. Our summers – just like the winters and springs – are unpredictable at best.

Yet, it’s specifically at times like this that the resilience, faith, hope, and beauty of my people shine the brightest. After millennia of suffering and hardship, the Jewish people has learned how to make lemonade out of lemons, and use hardship to build our hope and strength.

In the past 10 years of living in Israel, I have learned that everyone here lives a life of paradox – a balance of many emotions and realities. My experience last Thursday night at Comedy for Koby summed this up perfectly.

I was speechless, and yet so deeply inspired, as I watched Seth and Sheri Mandell stand on a stage – mourning parents in deep pain over the brutal killing of their beloved son Koby – and telling jokes rather than talking about politics or Israel’s many enemies. Their 13-year-old child was stoned to death by terrorists. But this holy family consciously chose to honor his memory through spreading positivity and laughter.

And the people of Sderot are just like Seth and Sheri, who refused to let the darkness win – refused to be defeated, but chose to produce light and hope from a devastating and incomprehensible situation.

When I visited Sderot last week I saw basketball courts under huge bomb shelter structures, rocket remnants transformed into the shape of flowers as a poetic prayer for peace, and playgrounds with bombproof tunnels decorated as colorful caterpillars.

Just one week after a rocket attack struck southern Israel, vibrant life filled the streets of Sderot. I saw exuberant children play ball in the street, with mobile shelters every couple hundreds of feet lingering in the backdrop – as if that were normal. Like all of the cities in Israel, Sderot has built the infrastructure needed to go on with life in midst of the threats. They have learned to live in the paradox of being both slave and free; slaves to the ongoing terrorism, and free in their decisions to continue on with life.

Read more: http://www.blog.standforisrael.org/articles/the-rockets-of-summer#ixzz3cn9Bs8eN 
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