Gush Katif blog

Walla (Israeli news / internet portal) is running a Gush Katif blog in Hebrew.

Translated from the entry from January 6th.

"5 a.m. - we're awakened by the sound of the telephone ringing. The Moshav's armed response team has an alert. The reason? Terrorists have broken in to the area of the greenhouses. Yoav goes out and I sit down to finish the accounts of the nursery customers. Time passes and I pray that the children will continue to sleep and won't wake up from the noise of the shooting which can be heard through the door. Generally I try to tell them the truth and not to cover it up. This time I'm happy not to have to. The terrorist is killed and we wait in the house until we receive instructions from security. In the meantime we get ourselves ready for the journey to Jerusalem...."

It's probably the most surreal posting that I've read in a long time, reported matter-of-factly as though it's just another day. To respond to gunfire outside one's front door by sitting down, doing the accounts and packing for a trip to Jerusalem is not rational behaviour. Whilst I have tremendous respect for the settlers for living according to their ideology, I simply can't comprehend a situation where I would live in a place where terrorist intrusions and my children waking to the sound of gunfire would be a regular occurence.

Gilly