A Phone Call: Last Week's Divine Providence

Received from a friend. Actual names were removed from this post.

A neighbor who is our age, is studying towards Smicha at Merkaz HaRav. He was supposed be there the night of the shooting, last Thursday evening. He is a doctor and got a call from his hospital saying that he must go in. He is not a 'regular' doctor - he either reads x-rays or is an anesthesiologist.

He was annoyed because he knew he didn't really have to be at the hospital and that he would get to yeshiva late. In the end, he pulled up in front of Merkaz a little after 8:30 PM and found the ambulances there. He called his Chevruta who told him that there was shooting going on and they were all on the floor in the dark and he should get out of there.

The next morning he spoke to this friend. Because our neighbor was not there, they did not have a minyan. They were waiting around for one more person when the shooting started. They closed the lights and hit the floor. If he had gotten there on time, they would have finished Maariv and been down in the room where the shooting happened.

10 men were saved because of that call from the hospital.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Despite It All: Rejoicing in Adar

Several years ago during the "height" of the current Intifada, my settlement was not spared the horror of a terror attack.

Shootings on the roads, infiltrations into settlements, bombers on buses, attacks on yeshivot and high schools were the norm. Families would borrow bullet proof vests from the "Gemach" (free loan organization) just to drive around on the roads. All the school buses were quickly bulletproofed and our roads were pock marked by the heavy treads of IDF APCs.

Difficult times.

Our kitat konenut (Rapid Response CTU) was on alert alot those days, and we were all still reeling from the terror attack at home.

And then, one Friday night as we were sitting around the Shabbat dinner table (I believe we were in the middle of soup) there was a knock at the door.

One of our children went to the door to open it, and his eyes widened unexpectedly as the Rav of our community was at the door. Walking through the door, he started singing "misheh, misheh, misheh", the ubiquitous song heralding the start of the joyous Adar month. Trailing after him were about 30 neighbors; men, women, children, all dancing and singing into our home on Friday night...circling our dining room table, they sang and danced. I quickly grabbed our youngest, plopped him on my shoulders, and joined in the dancing, as did all our children, around the dining room table and living room.

After a few minutes, our Rav led the group to the next home on his list, and we joined in.

For close to an hour, we would go from home to home (as our group of dancers grew to close to 80 people), knocking at doors and dancing in -- as our Rav tried to heal some of the sadness and tragedy that affected our community.

That was a few years back; but the tradition continues.

Despite the awful terror attack on Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav this past Thursday night, the ongoing Katyusha rockets, and the bittersweet times we are experiencing these days in Israel, this past Friday night there came the same knock at the door, and dozens came in singing and dancing.

The soup was already cold when we returned home, as our group had grown to almost a hundred people as we continued to make house after house "smile" as we danced around their dining rooms.

I heard on the radio this morning one of the rabbanim from the Merkaz HaRav high school who said, "human beings were created to endure pain...death and mourning is part of life."

No one ignores the pain of the terror, no one forgets the mourning.

But we can't forget the message of Adar. We survived our enemies back then on Purim and we will continue to survive and flourish, today, and in the future.

A Joyous Month of Adar to all of Israel.

Jameel

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Haveil Havalim #157 is Live

The "Live From the Fleshpots of Tel Aviv" Edition is at My Shrapnel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Not Coincidental

Cross-post on JoeSettler

It is unfortunately not coincidental that what I was doing yesterday evening was directly related to the massacre at the Mercaz Harav high school.

Two weeks ago, terrorists attempted to commit a massacre at a high school in Gush Etzion.

Those terrorists were killed by people at the school who had undergone training for these situations.

Over the past few weeks there have been roadside bombs in Gush Etzion. Major stonings, and firebombs at passing Jewish cars. Shootings. Murders. Infiltrations into Settlements.

This past week we saw the attempted lynch by the Arabs in Jerusalem, the attacks on soldiers and police officers in Jerusalem, and the general escalation.


Last night, before the massacre, we were training in one of the local schools.

Specifically, we were working on the various techniques, protocols, and procedures for handling different situations where a terrorist has entered a school.

As we trained, we laughed and joked.

Yes, its serious training, but you can’t hang around for hours with a bunch of armed (unloaded) guys (most of us with serious combat training and experience) and not joke around.

Some local high school kids were invited to participate with us for the color.

When it was my turn to play the terrorist, I grabbed one high-schoolers and used him as a human shield while I mowed down the first rescue squad - until they figured out how to effectively neutralize me.

But then it came in, we got notice over our radios that there was a major attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Maybe dozens dead and injured. The attack and shooting was still going on as we listened to one side of the report.

Our training session ended immediately. We quickly did a summation while the security chiefs checked to see how things were on our own perimeters. We went home to listen to the news.

An hour after we got home, we got a full-scale, emergency drill call-up.

It was decided that we needed to finish the entire session that was planned for the evening.

In that session (as we were to find out), a group of terrorist had entered a high school dormitory and were shooting away – a scenario far too similar to that evenings events.

A scenario that is expected.

We all drove/ran to get there.

Students and dorm counselors from the school lay “dead” and “injured” on the floor as we began combing the building for the terrorists. One terrorist had been killed at the beginning by a dorm counselor. We quickly engaged the others and “killed” them (of course “confirming our kill”).

For obvious reasons I’m not going to go into details, but the students all undergo drills on how to act and respond to a terrorist infiltration.

Unlike the earlier training session, this drill had the taste of reality lingering over it.

This time there was no joking, no humor.

Just pure professionalism as we quickly took the building and “saved” these high school kids from the Arab terrorists.


People like to say think that this stuff only happens in the Yishuvim (settlements) which is why we need to train like that all the time, and perhaps as an excuse to say we don't belong in this part of Eretz Yisrael.

But last night’s massacre occurred in Jerusalem.

The terrorist was the school’s bus driver. The guy who took these kids to and from school. The guy who was making a decent living from the Yeshiva. The guy who saw these kids every day. The good Arab, who isn’t like “them”, the ones who want to kill Jews. He was someone they trusted. (The police and Yeshiva are saying that this is not true).

And this guy was prepared. He was well armed. He was obviously trained well enough to use his weapons and multiple magazines effectively. This was an operation that was thought out and organized.

It is not coincidental that we do these training sessions and drills regularly, and why they should be expanded to other schools around the country.


The Arabs have no compunctions about going into schools, be they nursery schools or high-schools, and killing all the little children they can find.

And that’s not coincidental either.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Anatomy of a Terror Attack

Trying to listen to each other over the music, we were sitting around the table this evening at a friend's simcha. 8:38 PM. The person opposite me gets a phone call on his cellphone, looks at me and says, "there's a terrorist right now shooting in Yeshiva Merkaz Harav."

My reply, "Why is he still shooting? How is it still going on? Why doesn't someone shoot him?"

Person to my left says, "Jameel, how can there be an attack going on and you don't know about it?"

I thought about that for a second and checked my beeper. Nothing.

Checked my cellphone. Nothing.

Checked my Hatzala radio..."Message Received" was blinking ominously. I hadn't heard the message come in over the din of the music.

Seconds are wasted in frustration, flipping to the SMS menu.

"ARAN ARAN ARAN (Mass Casualty Event) in Jerusalem, switch to channel 1"

I'm not in Jerusalem but in the Shomron, yet all EMTs switches to channel 1 to hear how bad it is. There have events before so bad that EMTs have left the Shomron and Central Israel regions to help.

The chaos of a terror attack blares through on my emergency radio's Channel 1.

Sirens and confusion are the backdrop to the voices reporting over my radio, as the forcedly calm voice, directs volunteer EMTs to the scene.

I call my friend Lurker in Jerusalem and tell him to get on the internet to see whats going on. He says the news sites have nothing; I tell him which site to go to. Its all there, reports coming in. Killed. Wounded. Terrorists in the Yeshiva.

Outside the simcha hall I'm getting phone calls from people; some walk over. I don't want to say how bad it is. JoeSettler calls me up with his report. Lurker calls me back with another report. Hatzala keeps yelling at its volunteers that there might be another live terrorist still there.

And then, there's a family at the simcha who have a son in the yeshiva. Another couple frantically tries to reach that son, hoping, praying he's ok. He's found. The parents are gently told about the attack, but their son is ok. The walk away in shock.

Everyone receives conflicting reports; my MDA beeper keeps going off. The IDF sends an update. Our whole Shomron region has gone to higher alert; our counter terror unit (kitat konenut) goes on alert for Shabbat.

Arab rocks are thrown at car outside our settlement.

Lurker calls. Another Qassam missile in Sedeort - a house is hit. More wounded.

As of now in Jerusalem's attack at 11:26 PM: 8 Dead. 7 Wounded.

Chodesh tov. Shabbat Shalom.

Jameel

I'm about to press publish when an incoming email from our community list catches my eye:

Please say tehillim immediately for my nephew, יהונתן בן אביטל who was wounded tonight in the terror attack. He's going into emergency surgery now.
He was niftar last night. Hashem Yikom Damo.

After thought: The location of tonight's terror attack was at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem -- founded by Rav Avraham HaCohen Kook. In 1929, when the news of the progrom in Hevron was relayed to Rav Kook, he fainted. After rousing him, he was asked if he was ok. He replied, "How can a Jew not faint when hearing such terrible news."

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Mercaz Harav

As I am writing this, there is a terrorist attack going on in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Details are unclear. Possibly 10 8 people killed and dozens 30 wounded. Possible bomb belt used.

When will this country defend itself?

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Clock

A Blogjacking- Haveil Havalim

Click here for a list of past and future sponsors of Haveil Havalim.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Intifada 3 on the way?

Friendly Neighborhood Rock attack the car of two 2 Jerusalem city inspectors.



Where's Captain Joe when we need him?

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד