08/02/2006
Yesterday I drove up north. It is a short drive from where life gos on, to where life was abruptly stopped so many days ago.
I drove through the highway stuck behind a long convoy of military trucks slowly advancing to the battlefields. I felt sick. Then two f-16 planes cruised low above me probably on route also. I felt I am driving through a scene from a movie. Traffic slowly disappeared as I drove, leaving beautiful roads empty and frighteningly quite.
I went up north to visit the kibbutz I lived in during my military service with a group of friends practicing communal living. It seems funny now but this was a part of my service. Most of it was spent in the infantry, but parts of the service were spent with a group of 40 people gathered during the last year of high school. We were building a community, friendship. Love and bitter arguments were common. Every member of our group was "adopted" by an older member of the Kibbutz. My adopting mother passed away and I went up north.
It was moving to meet some of my old friends. One shared the small tent with me in the first days of basic training. I hated the army. I hated military service. It was so hard physically and mentally. It was dirty and I was tired and angry all the time. Giving me a gun was not smart back then but who said armies are smart? The kibbutz up north was like a dream during the bad days.
While driving back in the middle of the night I stopped at a gas station. A bus filled with Israeli Arabs from Nazareth stopped there too. The bus left with one of the passengers forgotten in the gas station bathroom. I picked him up and we drove together for two hours. His small child was sleeping in the bus that was driving to Eilat and from there further south to the Sinai desert. They were all refugees. Running away to a forced vacation down south. If you want to live these days you need to go south. Nazareth was hit by rockets last week and two children killed. Muslims. It is funny that missiles or "smart" bombs kill people from every religion. My passenger is a jeweler. He also fixes watches but said that since the war started he is not able to create or work. He had to get away. In Beer-Sheva we found the bus. hand shake.
On the last section of the drive I listened to the audiobook the Kite runner. Afghanistan. War. Words in Pharsic. Muslims, occupation, devestation.
The desert is so quite, and so many stars are shining. The 48 hours cease-fire ended when the moon rose over the mountains. I heard the sound of fighter jets and helicopters in the air. Going north to destroy.
While working today I heard that the "war record" was broken. The new war record - 250 rockets and missiles landed in Israel. Two landed in the Palestinian Authority . Again, smart bombs, stupid people shooting.
I drove through the highway stuck behind a long convoy of military trucks slowly advancing to the battlefields. I felt sick. Then two f-16 planes cruised low above me probably on route also. I felt I am driving through a scene from a movie. Traffic slowly disappeared as I drove, leaving beautiful roads empty and frighteningly quite.
I went up north to visit the kibbutz I lived in during my military service with a group of friends practicing communal living. It seems funny now but this was a part of my service. Most of it was spent in the infantry, but parts of the service were spent with a group of 40 people gathered during the last year of high school. We were building a community, friendship. Love and bitter arguments were common. Every member of our group was "adopted" by an older member of the Kibbutz. My adopting mother passed away and I went up north.
It was moving to meet some of my old friends. One shared the small tent with me in the first days of basic training. I hated the army. I hated military service. It was so hard physically and mentally. It was dirty and I was tired and angry all the time. Giving me a gun was not smart back then but who said armies are smart? The kibbutz up north was like a dream during the bad days.
While driving back in the middle of the night I stopped at a gas station. A bus filled with Israeli Arabs from Nazareth stopped there too. The bus left with one of the passengers forgotten in the gas station bathroom. I picked him up and we drove together for two hours. His small child was sleeping in the bus that was driving to Eilat and from there further south to the Sinai desert. They were all refugees. Running away to a forced vacation down south. If you want to live these days you need to go south. Nazareth was hit by rockets last week and two children killed. Muslims. It is funny that missiles or "smart" bombs kill people from every religion. My passenger is a jeweler. He also fixes watches but said that since the war started he is not able to create or work. He had to get away. In Beer-Sheva we found the bus. hand shake.
On the last section of the drive I listened to the audiobook the Kite runner. Afghanistan. War. Words in Pharsic. Muslims, occupation, devestation.
The desert is so quite, and so many stars are shining. The 48 hours cease-fire ended when the moon rose over the mountains. I heard the sound of fighter jets and helicopters in the air. Going north to destroy.
While working today I heard that the "war record" was broken. The new war record - 250 rockets and missiles landed in Israel. Two landed in the Palestinian Authority . Again, smart bombs, stupid people shooting.
posted by docurel | 1:04 AM
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