Tag Archives: Israel

More on the loss of Eldad & Udi

Israel, ,

Today the Jewish world continued to mourn the deaths of Eldad and Udi.  I hope that more than the Jewish world care and are thinking of them.

This is one of the days when I accutely feel far away from Israel.  I wish my aliyah was already complete and I could have been there today.  Reading accounts of the funerals helps, yet doing so increases my saddness.

Some links:

– Ha’aretz on the funerals including some quotes from the eulogies and families

– JPost on the funerals

– JPost story, including a heartbreaking story about how Udi was nearly released from his miluyim (reserve duty).

Heartbroken

Israel, Terrorism, , ,

Udi & Eldad are dead.  My heart breaks.  I can’t get Karnit Goldwasser (Udi’s [z”l] wife) out of my mind.  It seems like yesterday that she asked me and a room full of people to raise awareness, write letters and pray for her husband, for Eldad and for Gilad along with all of Israel’s kidnapped soldiers. Since the day that I met Karnit I wore a dogtag with the names of the 3 missing soldiers on it.  I rarely took it off.  She asked us to wear it until her husband came home.  When I woke up yesterday morning, the chain had broken.  How symbolic.

[A few links about the return of their bodies: Ha’aretz,  JPost story with reactions from the families, blogger Aussie Dave]

Update: I’ve been listening to Galgalatz all day today (thank you Israel Radio Toolbar!) with the sad songs resonating through me, pulling at my heart strings and raising tears.

More blogs (with varying viewpoints) on this sad sad day:

Gila’s Big Adventure Treppenwitz, Expat Egghead,  Not a Fish, Simply Jews, Aliyah! Step-by-Step: Making a Life in Israel,

Another Israeli Hero

Israel, Social Justice/Tezedek, ,

Here is another bit of good news about Israel on a difficult day.  An Israeli medic travelling in  Morocco saved the life of a Moroccan girl injured in a jeep accident.

An excerpt from the story:

“He found a pair of jeeps, one upright and the second crumpled off the side of a nearly indiscernible path. Huddled in the minimal shade provided by the mangled jeep were three young children. One of the children’s legs was at an awkward angle, and her clothing was soaked with blood.

The Israeli medic quickly diagnosed an open fracture at the femur complicated by a rupture of the femoral artery. He staunched the bleeding, stabilized the fracture and, with the young girl not yet out of danger, advised the frantic father on how to maintain pressure on the artery and avoid moving the leg for the four-hour ride to the nearest hospital.”

Find out what happened to the girl when you read the full story by the Jerusalem Post.

Two Heroes Stop the Bulldozer in Today's Terror Attack

Israel, Terrorism, , ,

A Golani Brigade off-duty soldier was one of the heroes who jumped onto the bulldozer to try to stop today’s attack in Jerusalem.

Here are the details of the actions of the Golani soldier and an off-duty police officer according to Connections Israel. (Connections Israel sends emails with the day’s news from Israel.  To subscribe try this link.)

“BROTHERS-IN-LAW ARE HEROES

IDF Golani Brigade soldier Private Moshe Plasser is the soldier in the blue tee shirt seen on a BBC video around the world. He eliminated the threat by climbing into the driver’s cabin of the bulldozer, shooting the terrorist in the head. Yassam police commando Eli Mizrachi “verified the kill” by firing addition shots at the terrorist at point blank range. Glaser just finished basic training for the elite Egoz reconnaissance unit within Golani three days earlier.

Plasser explained that he was on his motor scooter and saw the bulldozer flip the bus, immediately realizing it was a terror attack.

“I dumped my scooter and began running to the scene, looking for someone with a weapon. Then I saw Oren Ben-Shimon, who had a handgun, and together we tried at least to hit his legs to remove them from the gas pedal.

“He shouted ‘Ala Akhbar’ and then, I took the weapon and fired three shots at him, followed by the policeman verifying the kill.”

Plasser is a brother-in-law of Captain David Shapiro, the off-duty IDF officer who eliminated the terrorist in the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva attack.

Plasser stated “I did what was expected of me, nothing more”.”

A New Kind of Terrorist Attack in Israel

Israel, Terrorism,

Terror has again struck central Jerusalem. This time it appears that a terrorist used (it is still unknown if the terrorist stole the tractor or worked on a construction site or how he got it) a buldozer as his terrorist weapon.  As the story is coming out now (it is only an hour or so since it happened) he plowed the buldozer into the back of an Israeli bus and other vehicles on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem.

Since I have been writing this post, the death toll from this terrorist attack has gone from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 (update) with some news agencies reporting 3.  At least 66 are injured.

News stories:

JPost (English), Haaretz (English), and Walla (Hebrew), Pictures from the JPost, Ma’ariv story with emergency contact numbers (Hebrew),

More later. May G-d be with those injured, those murdered, all the families and the first responders.

Update: According to the Jerusalem Post, the terrorist in the bulldozer was armed and shot one of the police who trying to stop him. The terroist was killed. The policeman was only lightly injured. The terrorist was apparently from East Jerusalem and carried an Israeli identity card.

They think that the bulldozer was from the rail construction project in Jerusalem.

Give tzedakah, help injured kids and push Gila

Israel, Social Justice/Tezedek, ,

I’ve been reading Gila Weiss’s blog My Shrapnel for some time now.  I found her blog through a link (sorry, don’t remember where) and was so inspired by what I read that I went back and read every post.  She is a gifted writer and an interesting woman. The tag line to her blog is “Life as a “Poor, Sad, Heroic, Victim of Terror”®” Take a look and read, you won’t be disappointed.

Gila is riding in the Alyn Wheels of Love Charity Bike Ride this summer and she needs sponsors. So, go do some good, sponsor her and cheer her on.

Here are the directions she gives on her blog post about the ride:

Here is how to sponsor me:
1) Go to the donate online page
2) Follow the instructions on the page. There are options for US, Canadian and Israeli tax receipts.
3) Please make sure to note that you are sponsoring me: Gila Weiss
4) Drop me a line to let me know so that I can make sure it was properly credited to my “account”. (Of course 100% of the money raised is for Alyn).

Good luck to Gila

[As one who did a 5-day 350 mile ride for MS years ago I say – “you go girl”. Of course, I didn’t have to deal with Israeli riders drivers when I trained :-) ]