Israel’s Quiet Nightmare: Words are Worth a Thousand Pictures.

Try to imagine sitting in a bomb shelter, shaking with terror, day after day, year after year. No, try to imagine having to run to get to that shelter; once the siren screams, you’ll have only one minute before the rocket will strike. Imagine that you’re elderly or disabled, imagine that you’re diabetic but have forgotten your insulin, imagine that your children are freaking out or that you can’t find them.

Imagine that you’re faced with a version of (the very fictional) Sophie’s Choice: Do you seek shelter yourself or do you keep looking for your children? Do you give up your job, keep your children at home and out of school? Do you scatter them among your relatives elsewhere in the country? How does a person resign herself to not being in control of ordinary life “for the duration?”

This has been the reality, year in, year out, for Israeli civilians who live in Sderot, and it is now the reality for those living in Ashkelon and Ber-Sheva. The media has not covered this: Not enough blood, too little death, the photo opportunities are not…sexy. Thus, the world did not open its heart to this nerve-wracking, soul-deadening suffering, only a handful of protests were ever held, international pressure never built, the UN presided over no urgent meetings…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>