Why don't I keep my big mouth closed?????

What did I call the last posting? "The last war blog"???? Mmmm - not quite, it seems....

Today, we were all set for a pleasant family celebration. It is our niece Noga's birthday and my brother-in-law Erez has a couple of days leave from the army. They had invited both sides of the family for a lunch on their moshav, five minutes from Qiryat Gat. Just as we were on the point of leaving, the sirens began. Usual rush, everyone into the shelter. Yonatan, it appears, has to add colour to every alert that we have. This time he was in the middle of brushing his teeth, and had mouth-wash in his mouth. Instead of getting rid of it, he came to the shelter as he was, so as the siren continued to wail, we had a lovely game of charades trying to guess why he wouldn't open his mouth... We heard the 'boom' waited for a few more seconds in case there was another blast (in fact there was but we didn't hear it) and then carried on with our preparations for the birthday party.

It turned out that two rockets landed in the town (we've made the headlines at last!). In yesterday's post, I was a little cynical about the 'luck' aspect of the way the rockets fall - well, today I eat my hat and take my words (and cynicism) back. Since the place where the rocket fell is there for all to see on the Internet, I don't think I'll be breaking any censorship rules by referring to the location. First of all, it landed some twenty metres short of a petrol station which could have been really nasty. Three people were injured and two people were traumatised. A considerable amount of damage was caused. And here's an additional luck aspect. It landed in the car park which serves both a very busy health centre and a wedding hall. Had this happened on a normal working day, I'm sure we would have been talking about a number of fatalities. Call it miracle, luck or whatever you like, but Qiryat Gat should breathe a sigh of relief today.

We then went to the moshav for the birthday party. Funnily enough, the kids were the least affected - they seem to be pretty resilient beings, unlike the adults. A few were rather edgy for the rest of the day, especially those who came from the centre of the country. Yet, everything is relative. My sister-in-law's sister lives on Netiv Ha'asara which is literally on the border with Gaza. They have had and are still having a rought time of it. They have been ordered not to go anywhere that is further than fifteen seconds from the 'protected area' in their houses. Their children are taken out of the moshav every day and are not even allowed to congregate in one spot to catch the bus - the bus comes and picks each one up individually. Helps us put things into perspective!

It was interesting to look on from the side today. There were people who were either born in, or their parents came from, India, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Romania, Poland, South Africa and (of course) Scotland. Among them, the men (and some women) had fought in every major military confrontation that Israel has had from the War of Independence in 1948 until the last war in Lebanon. It made me wonder when we will finally have a generation that will not have to send its sons to fight our neighbours.

So, today's lesson is not to count your chickens before they're hatched (or not to count your Grads before they land...?).

Shabbat shalom to all...