To our Partnership 2000 (P2K) friends in Southern New England:

Operation Defensive Shield has officially ended. In its aftermath, it does seem a bit easier to breathe and move about. We remain acutely conscious of the fact that the Palestinian terrorists will continue to murder as they did on Shabbat, April 27, 2002, as they shot and killed children and adults as they sleep in their beds.

It has been overwhelmingly difficult to write about the events of the past two months. I wrote down some of my personal feelings and sent them in preparation for the Hartford Israeli Solidarity Rally which was held on March 24, 2002. I have been struggling on how to express what has been taking place and how it affects us in our lives.

In general, I can say that it was terrible, this has been the worst time I have lived through in Israel since the Yom Kippur War. The escalation of the terrorist suicide bombings combined together with the increased randomness of the locations of the bombings made life totally impossible. I personally felt as though I was living through a hell of death and destruction which was all encompassing, and I was trying to pass through a narrow tunnel of light. I went to sleep with the faces of the victims before me and woke up with them. My daughter and I had made plans to go shopping together for her 18th birthday, but we were paralyzed with fear and uncertainty as to how to choose a shopping mall which had the least risk of being blown up by a suicide terrorist bomber. Concentrating on anything was difficult as the constant bombardment of the information of the death of acquaintances, friends of friends, children our children's age and even ones with the same name were murdered day after day.

The Jerusalem Post of March 29, 2002 had a complete page of passport-size pictures of the terrorist victims just for the month of March. The first entire row were pictures of babies and children who were brutally murdered.

Operation Defensive Shield came as a relief to the feelings of fear and helplessness. The predominant mood of the country was that of another battle for our very existence needed to be fought.

The most horrible period of this time for me, was the two weeks, from Passover Seder night and into the second week of Operation Defensive Shield when the 13 soldiers were killed in the fighting in Jenin. It was such a heavy feeling of having to choose between the lives of civilians and the lives of our soldiers (and I have a son in the army right now). The information that was given to us that the soldiers died because they were fighting in a methodically careful manner so as to keep the civilian Palestinian casualties to a minimum came while at the same time we in Israel were being publicly accused world-wide for conducting a massacre. And this was all happening on the backdrop of Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Afula-Gilboa region is in close proximity to Jenin -- a radius of 10 kilometers -- the sounds of the fighting could be heard by all in their homes.

Army bases were set up in various settlements in the Taanach area as well as in Gan Ner. In a separate email, I will send pictures that were taken of the army base set up on Moshav Magen Shaul. (For an on-line map of the area around Jenin in the Gilboa region go to http://www.gemsinisrael.com/gilboamap.htm . the entrance to Jenin is in the bottom left hand corner of the map past the Israeli Arab village of Sandale).

People in the Gilboa Region organized to take care of the soldiers fighting in Jenin. Families adopted fighting units, including the unit to which the thirteen soldiers who were killed in the house-to-house battle belonged.

Residents in the settlements housed soldiers in their homes, some of the residents of Moshav Magen Shaul had up to 18 soldiers sleeping in their homes. Soldiers were brought to private homes so they could take showers. Families in the area prepared home cooked food for the soldiers and the food was brought daily to the point where the army trucks took ammunition into Jenin, the pots of food were delivered to the soldiers together with the ammunition. Every Friday cakes and packages of tasty snacks were brought to the soldiers by the kibbutzim and moshavim in the area. Collections of money were made by schools and factories as well as individuals to buy the soldiers socks, underpants, mineral water and cigarettes and whatever else they needed. The soldiers who were stationed outside Jenin before the Passover holiday were hosted in Seders in Moshav Ram On and Magen Shaul. Several evenings of entertainment were organized for the soldiers during the military operation.

With the completion of this military operation, and with the knowledge of its limitations, we hope and pray that positive diplomatic energy will bring about a serious change for the better in the direction of the events here in Israel.

  Sivan 5762 - May 2002