Under Fire, part 34

I stand corrected: Well, actually, I'm sort of squatting right now, as a too-close-for-comfort barrage makes me duck reflexively. Point is, in a previous post (part 31), I listed Kristalnacht as one of the many tragedies that have befallen us on Tisha b'Av. Not so; I should have remembered that Kristalnacht was in the fall, not summer. Hey, I admit when I make a mistake. BBC? CNN? You guys listening out there? Hint, hint?!?

Eizeh gever! (What a macho guy!) Gill, having grown up on a kibbutz that endured endless bombardment from Syria and Jordan, sleeps through over an hour of heavy rocket fire, waking only at the last barrage, which, by the way, turns out to be deadly. Three people are killed right across the highway from us: one in Madj el Krum and two in Deir el Asad.

We head out to the kibbutz for Shabbat dinner with Gill's father. As we approach Tiveria (aka Tiberius), I roll the window down and listen for sirens. In the dining room, we sit with one of Gill's uncles and a few of his cousins. One, who just finished a rather arduous military service, looks at me and says, "Karmiel, eh? Kasheh, kasheh." A big strapping kid who was in a combat unit, telling me that my situation is tough?

Time on the kibbutz is always time to reconnect with all of my special friends: Katya, the pig-shaped dog who barks hysterically unless you say her name and tell her that she is beautiful; Sally, the hyperactive pug; Mega, the obese Labrador who has long since given up any claim to a neck; various and assorted cats and dogs whose names I don't know. I pat them all.

We start collecting and swapping stories of near misses and miraculous survivals. Someone tells us of a family sleeping in their meimad; the house takes a direct hit, and the family wakes up (safely) to discover that the rest of the house is gone. Hmmm. Maybe I'll be sleeping in the meimad tonight...

Another former student calls to check up on us. Are we OK? Are we coping? How is Nadine? (Note that no one is worried about Gill, because they know that he is such a gever!)

On our way home, we get a call from a friend who reports that rockets have just fallen on Hadera, which is quite a bit further south than any previous hits. It looks like Hezbullah is starting to use their longer range rockets.

With what looks like an interesting night ahead of us, Gill rushes to polish off the last piece of his birthday cheesecake. Maybe that is the secret to his serenity.