| |
I've been writing these daily reports since the beginning of our war, and I'm well aware that they repeat themselves. I'm also sure that you know that they're written as much for myself as for you, so I assume you forgive me. But as our war drags on, and these reports become little more than a list of when we get alerts, even I'm bored of writing them. So even though we had a preliminary alert at 18:15 today, and another at about 20:15, and throughout the day (including as I write this) there have been missiles to other parts of the country, I'm not sure there's much reason for a play-by-play report. And now I remember that at 02:00 this morning, no more than 45 minutes after I'd finished reading a book review and turned out the light (Tzippi was already asleep), we were awakened by a preliminary alert. I quickly went to our safe room ... and only then did I realize that this was only a preliminary alert and that we really didn't have to even get out of bed. I returned to bed, and we slept until quite late, and it seems we've become so accustomed to this that I almost forgot this entire incident.
I'd planned to get to Tel Aviv this evening for an end-the-war demonstration, but in the end it became too difficult to get organized. The police and the home-front command had said that they wouldn't allow the demonstration (about 1000 were expected) but an appeal took place (on Shabbat, no less) and among other things the judges said that the beaches are closed, but the police don't disperse the hundreds of people who go to them, so there's no reason not to allow a political demonstration. Of course that didn't stop the police from breaking up the demonstration. There was an alert in Tel Aviv when it was being broken up, and this brought about the surreal scene of the demonstrators going down into the parking lot below where the demonstration was taking place for shelter.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was among the interviewees on this evening's Israeli version of Meet the Press. It's well known that Olmert's wife and at least two of his children are leftists, but for most of his political career he himself was a rightist who moved toward the middle. This evening he explained that creating a security border in southern Lebanon won't accomplish anything because our government well knows that Hezbollah has long range missiles of even fifty kilometers. He added that the Lebanese government, with aid from France, wants to discuss a peace agreement with Israel, but our government doesn't want to acknowledge this. He then asked to say one more thing, and said that what's happening in the west bank is war crimes that our army, as the sovereign there, is responsible for, and that it's not enough for our Chief of Staff to say what our hillside youth are doing there is unacceptable, he has to do something about or he's liable to be tried at the Hague. That's some pretty heavy talk for prime time Israeli television.
As is my custom, I'm now out of the shower, and I can report that the rest of our evening was basically uneventful. I still want to finish reading an article before going to sleep, but I can send off this report now, though I don't know if it's really the last of my daily reports. We'll see.
|
|