Notes from a Congregant

from our long-time congregant, Gerry Flanzbaum. Gerry and his wife, Marylin, were active members of many of the local synagogues before they made aliyah to Israel. They also continue to be leaders in our Jewish Federation, where Gerry helps to manage the Mack Ness Fund (explained below).

WARNING - This account is raw and real, and contains difficult details of violent acts. - WARNING

Saturday, October 7 - 

Thank you very much for your thoughts and concerns. As long as Hezbollah does not enter the conflict, we'll be okay I think, up here in Hadera. If they enter, we're ground zero, a km from the main power plant in Israel. We have already lost several friends in the Gaza area, among them the mayor of Hashar Hanegev Regional Council, with whom the Mack Ness Fund has worked on mutual projects for the last decade. He was killed in his kibbutz in the first hour of fighting. L and I were supposed to be in Arad tonight and in Beer Sheva tomorrow for a 150 person Ness meeting where proposals for this year's grants were to be made. I was due back there again on Wednesday for a meeting of the Ness Loan Fund, our other arm of Ness. Cancelled. Kibbutz Erez, where our Federation headquarters is located, is still in the hands of Hamas as I write and our representative is WhatsApping from her safe room at her home. She knows the kibbutz is burning and that there have been deaths there. The videos I am receiving are gut wrenching and ones I hope never to see again.

I implore you, be steadfast in support of Israel--of us--I know the current government is an anathema to you as to many of us, and for now, so long we are the ones being killed, we have nearly universal support. When we are finally able to respond and Palestinians are being killed, that support and understanding will shift as you well know. The news, as you are receiving it, as I am following it here, on CNN, Fox , and etc. and is terribly distorted. There has already been  an offer from Lapid to join a unity government but no response from Bibi yet. Please, be with us, and stay with us,  because we are you and the entire congregation....

Warmly,    Gerry

Just as I have finished this, we are hearing bombs falling close, supposedly from Lebanon .

later that day

Didn't mean to leave you hanging, but the bombs we heard were Iron Dome interceptions over Ra'anana, Kfar Saba and nearby Gan Shmuel. So far so good, however. Unfortunately, the news coming over the local stations is still pretty grim. 

Tuesday, October 10 - we were copied on a letter to a friend of Gerry's

...Today is already mid day Tuesday as I start this, and things keep happening by the hour. Just a moment ago O, our  grandson turning 30 at the end of the month, called to tell me he will probably be heading North as soon as they can go through the technicalities of switching him from one unit (paratroop logistics) to another (engineering/mechanical support) but still on a volunteer basis. As you know, he (along with just about everyone else in the family) has inherited my epilepsy, so he is not allowed to even touch a firearm. He had already been told by the army "if you don't have a gun, don't come" and he has impatiently  been trying to find a way to serve. For the last few days he has been driving other men and women to their bases as they are called up and bringing them what they need. He has been pestering the army twice a day and has now apparently convinced them that his skills as a mechanic (he is an incredible motorcycle mechanic) will allow him to fix tanks as well. And more likely, the trucks that transport them. So he has called to tell me he's in the supermarket stocking up on cat food for the cat he will leave behind with L.  M's doctor who visits us once a week has been called up and his replacement has already called to check on things.

First of all, we are still safe. The closest the rockets from Gaza have come has been to Netanya and Ra'anana which are about fifteen and twenty minutes away. You can locate them on a map relative to Hadera and nearby Caesarea. We have been hearing, periodically, loud bomb like sounding booms, but these are from successful intercepts of these rockets by the Iron Dome system. So far, so good. As we live not far from a Northern air base, jets and helicopters are crossing back and forth from dawn to dusk--the jets too high to see, but their sonic booms rattling the windows as they pass over the sea in front of us. It's only 63 miles from here to mid Gaza, a long two hours by car, a short 5 or 6 minutes for them.

Our greater concern is from the North where Hezbollah has an array of rockets and missiles which we estimate there  to be 150,000 (despite UN Resolution 1559 calling for their disarmament) and despite our ongoing attempts to stop Iran from sending more, hence our strikes in Syria you read about. So far, Hezbollah has stayed out of it except for some isolated shelling of Israeli border positions. Nevertheless, the eight communities along the Lebanese border have all been evacuated which has a two fold purpose. One, to get them away from the range of the smaller rockets and two, to allow the IDF greater freedom of movement in any offensive, the same thing now happening in the South.  Our neighborhood, new in the past 7 years, consists of some two dozen high rises. We sit 3 kms from Israel's largest electrical power station, supplying 24% of Israel's power daily. This, along with the Leviathan gas field structure, 10 miles out to sea, will be Hezbollah's  first targets. They have precision guided missiles now, (from Iran) but they will come in a barrage that will be designed to overwhelm Iron Dome and whatever other  extensive protections may be in place for these targets. The last few days have weakened  Israeli confidence in any vaunted "protections" so for now we feel we are close to ground zero if not in it.  Our safe room faces north but I have already stocked it with water, canned goods, Ensure for M, ready for use at the sound of the first siren. We'll have, we are told, 60-75 seconds to take cover--a lifetime  compared to the border communities who get 10-15 seconds at best. So that's our story for now.

As what has happened, it has been only 85 hours ago as I write. I  need to take a break for the first of two meetings by Zoom today, one here and one coming from NJ, both dealing with our Mack Ness Fund, the fund I've told you about, the millions bequeathed to us from the curmudgeon farmer in our community. I'll get to that. 

-------

[J]ust a sentence of two of background. When the old farmer Ness died and left us his millions, we  decided we would limit our geographic focus to the Negev, which Ben Gurion saw as the future of Israel. You and I have talked about that.  We took the first million we received and set a small loan fund for farmers and new entrepreneurs to establish businesses and were joined by the Miami federation with a million from them.We now leverage that money 7 to 1 with Bank Leumi. We act like a mini SBA, guaranteeing loans the bank would not make otherwise. The rest of the money, invested of course, is used to make grants of a million annually which at today's rates gives us about a 12 to 13 year window before our "sunset."

So, that first meeting, just concluded, was with a remarkable young woman named Od, who is our Director of Ness Operations. It was to prepare for meeting which will take place an hour from now with our entire board, the second meeting of the board since Saturday. She lives in Beer Sheva where rockets are still, now, falling in the neighborhood adjacent to hers, and told me the bad news--that the dead now exceed 900--but that two of the kibbutzim we thought to have been destroyed have not been and the stories we heard were not true. As I write this, at this moment, the IDF has invited the foreign press to see for themselves what Hamas has done, so you will be reading and hearing their reactions probably before you see the end of this e mail.

The stories are coming out--a woman and her husband were held captive in their home for 16 and a half hours by 5 Hamas members who kept guns to their heads and under their chins. She kept calm, told them to go into her kitchen and take cake and cookies that they were planning to use for Shabbat and talked to them. The told her they all knew they were "shaheeds"-martyrs and would eventually be killed and that is what happened, the army was able to kill all five and rescue the woman and her husband safely. Kibbutz Nir Am was saved by one woman, who saw what Hamas was trying to do before they got through, called for weapons and help from the town of Sderot which is just across the highway and enough reinforcements arrived to keep the terrorists out. Unfortunately, as you have already read, there was a huge concert being held at the time this time in another border kibbutz, Kibbutz Reim, where Hamas broke through and killed what has now been confirmed 262 people in fifteen minutes and took many more hostages, ripped from the hands and arms of boyfriends, parents etc. and brought back to Gaza and shown on TV, many of the young women stripped to their underwear. A six month old little girl, taken from a mother who was then shot, the baby now a hostage, shown on TV. Randy, 9 months ago we sat in a kibbutz  in a circle on the lawn with 23 young college kids from all over the world in a work-study program we were supporting with a $35,000 grant. Last Saturday those same 23 were all caught out in the open and slaughtered except for two women who were later seen on a Hamas video--we knew them, we listened to their short lived life stories, heard their hope and plans,... videos sent from Hamas, only parts of which have been shown on TV with some parts blurred, but I've seen them unfiltered, people being dragged out of cars, shot, stomped on, a male hostage, hands tied behind his back, shoved into a car as five Hamas men take turns shooting him in the back seat, each one dancing and celebrating afterward, continuing streams of bodies lying in pools of blood in the street, on the sidewalks, along shot up cars and motorcycles....when I say to you that these last three days have been the worst thing that has ever happened to me here you may begin to understand why typing all this out helps me get it out but I'm not sure it isn't already indelible in my brain. It has been said that not since the Holocaust were more Jews killed in a single day, last Saturday.

I just learned that my son in law, D, has organized friends he had when he was still working at Eged (the bus company) and they are now locating and transporting the big rigs that carry tanks to the front to points where the army can load them. We are all involved in this together.   Coming up on 3 pm so a second break. I will  stop here and continue anew later.

...

I'll try to pick off where I left you. The 3pm meeting of the Ness board was emotional, as expected, but depending on the timing of any offensive, I hope to get down there as soon as they open the roads to civilian traffic and with Od, visit some of our impacted sites, speak with those of the various committees who have survived and start mapping out our new priorities for funding relief. I suspect the Loan Fund will be meeting weekly once travel will be permitted. 

There apparently will be a unity government formed, perhaps as early as tomorrow. It will include Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, also a former chief of staff like Gantz and less likely Lieberman who has also offered to join. I've lost a lot of respect for Lapid, the official opposition  head. He is insisting that his party be given the biggest two portfolios, Defense and Foreign Affairs, which has disgusted the public. This isn't the time for that kind of petty politics. The "unity" government means only that Gantz and the others will have a voice in decision making without any portfolios--exactly like Begin was invited to join a unity labor led  government on the eve of the 1967 war. There is talk of a very small 5 or 6 person war cabinet which would exclude the two right wing maniacs we currently suffer.

We are awaiting to hear Biden's remarks at this time, now over an hour late. We are being told he is talking privately with Netanyahu at this time. Just now, it has been reported that 15 rockets from Hezbollah have landed, one on a Palestinian town about 20 kms from here. Hezbollah managed to infiltrate the border half an hour ago, killed three of our soldiers, including a lt. colonel. Whether these are face saving probes or the beginning of something bigger is what we're waiting to learn. A siren tonight might give us an answer.

They have also reported that entry was finally gained into Kibbutz Kfar Aza this afternoon after a furious fire fight. So how much control we have down there is questionable. There have just been reports of new incursions from Gaza. They have now counted 200 dead at Kfar Aza, many beheaded, including 40 children who the report says "appear to have been butchered." That brings the total dead above a thousand. News like this lands on numb ears. 

An hour ago, D came over with my car which he has been repairing and took back one of theirs for O to take as he reports to his base in the North tonight. Pride. Fear. Anger. Tears. He just called me to tell me that his base is next to Zippori, where S's bar mitzvah took place. My Saints are just that, trying everything they know to keep me on an even keel right now while they keep M comfortable. Her Alzheimer's is at least sparing her all of this.

What might sound like sarcasm is decidedly not.  Reporters and commentators have been referring to the Hamas terrorist as "animals" and two animal rights groups have gone on social media, stating that they are absolutely serious when they are urging not to call Hamas "animals"  because "we know that animals have feelings and these terrorists do not."  You want to laugh but what they say appears to be right.

When I parked my car,  the radio was still on. D had been listening to a pop music station and I heard what I remember hearing during our last war with Gaza: the music is interrupted ever so briefly with a naming of one, two or three or more cities or towns, and the listener knows that a red alert has just sounded for those places so  drivers and passengers know to stop in place and seek shelter or lie flat as far away from the car as possible...and then the music continues.  As much as the army says they have retaken  control in the South, there are repeated reports of another terrorist found and killed so people down there are still afraid to go out.

There's too much coming in with emails, WhatsApps and some calls I've missed, so I will end this again and get back to you as soon as I can.

Understand, please, there is no "other side of the table" at this time.  

Just listened to Joe Biden--the best I have ever seen him. More tears from me. He has said everything I've just written, but said it better. I think he honestly gets it, feels it. I only hope he will be saying the same thing, with the same conviction in the weeks ahead. I  heard him hint that he he might want to get our Delta force working with us to address the 11 Americans being held hostage, something  which may complicate the timing of the offensive  which needs to start now, as soon as we have everyone in place. 

Now I'll go!

G