Embassy of France in Vienna

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Flags at half-mast this morning at the French embassy in Vienna.

Many Austrian police at the gate.

"Je suis Paris" and hand-written letters were being brought by citizens.
(Photos can be much enlarged with a click or two.)

This afternoon I passed the embassy again.  More flowers.  More people standing in silence, in shock and in sympathy.

What a sad day for France and for the civilized world.
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Feeling linked

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Israel feels   linked  to France on this day of the historic Paris solidarity rally.
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End of innocence

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Sydney through the ferry window

As Ambassador Dan Shapiro so well said, "We share the pain of Australians for those they tragically lost today, and send condolences to the families. May they know no more sorrow."

My family in Sydney thought they live far away from such Mideast-type madness. 

This morning I'm afraid they are waking up to a new reality. 

I wish for a return of safety, confidence, and good life for the fair city of Sydney. 

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The Sydney Morning Herald has been live-blogging the events. 

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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

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The trip from hell

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Sorry to burden you, gentle reader, with three difficult posts in a row.
But I have to get it off my chest,  memories of my short jump back to Jerusalem Nov. 5-7.
Next post will be a happier one, inshallah.

Jerusalemites are on edge now, at the beginning of what some want to call the Car Intifada. 
 Do see the link!

Plus, I was trying to get home to the quiet Negev on a Friday afternoon--and you must keep in mind that public transportation stops for the Sabbath, from mid- or late Friday afternoon until Saturday night.

When my bus from the Jerusalem Hills reached Mt. Herzl light rail terminus, I saw we were in trouble.
Hundreds of passengers were waiting for the tram that normally comes every five minutes.
The sign was saying "Vehicle stopped, there will be a delay."
Of course everyone starts imagining the worst: maybe there was another car-ramming terrorist attack that stopped the tram on the east side of the city?

Finally, after half an hour, a security guard told us the tram had been stopped at Denmark Square station because of a "suspicious object,"  i.e. a bomb scare. 
That was a relief; we are used to that.
 But everyone was nervously looking at their watch, praying they would get home in time (especially the observant Jews, who do not use mechanized transportation on Shabbat).

When the tram finally came, everyone crammed inside like sardines.
At the next station, another crowd was waiting and our driver had to shut the doors before everyone could get on.
One soldier in a hurry was infuriated that the driver did not let him on, and apparently he "punished" the driver and all of us passengers by standing on the track in front of the train.

The driver got on the P.A. system and said to the insulted young man: "What you are doing is not very nice, move aside or I'll have to call the police."
Meanwhile the driver turned off the power!  It is that moment I dread when it suddenly goes all quiet and the ventilation stops, the moment when my claustrophobia kicks in, when the collective memory of Jews squished together in cattle cars arises.
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine green pastures.

When the way cleared, we finally made it to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station where I was now late for my bus to Beer Sheva.
I finally got to Beer Sheva but of course was late for the connection to Meitar that I had planned and had to sit in the BS Central Bus Station for an hour.

But you know what?   When I finally shlepped my heavy backpack into the last bus to Meitar and slumped into the plush seat, the mood inside the bus was totally different from the tense Jerusalem mood.
The bus driver was singing and whistling along to the good old Israeli pioneer songs on the radio.
I even hummed along.
A crazy old man in the back of the bus started shouting complaints about something to the driver.
The driver carried on driving and answering the man with humor and patience, looking at him in the rearview mirror.  And singing.
I secretly gave him a thumbs-up and he winked back to me.  God bless him.

After five hours on the way I came home, so happy to be home in the desert!
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Will ugly dragon's teeth save our lives?

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So in the previous post I was telling you that I made a short trip back to my old place in the Jerusalem Hills.
And that I arrived Wednesday (Nov. 5) evening, shortly after yet another case of a Palestinian driving onto a tram platform and running over  people. (See the video if you dare.)

I was thinking as I waited for my bus: why doesn't the Jerusalem Municipality set out some dragon's teeth like the British did for blockading Jerusalem streets during the British Mandate.
(BTW, if you follow the link to dragon's teeth, that is one of my photos contributed to Wiki under my username DiggerDina.)
And here is a 1946 photo of British dragon's teeth in actual use in Jerusalem. 

Forty hours later, when I returned to Mt. Herzl tram and bus station to start traveling back to the Negev,  big concrete blocks had indeed materialized!

The new betonadot were strategically placed to prevent any terrorist ramming-car from driving full speed up onto the people platform.

Well, at least they are apparently  good to lean on while you check your cell phone.
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Jerusalem Jerusalem, I cry for you, my beloved city.
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Tension at the tram station

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For SkyWatch Friday watch a twilight sky over the Jerusalem Hills change color.

The Calder statue, Homage to Jerusalem--Stabile, sits high atop Mt. Herzl where the artist intended it to be.

Half an hour later, at 5:26, it was almost night.

I was still standing at the tram and bus station, waiting for my connection, for way too long on that bloody November 5.
A white police van, blue lights flashing, was sitting half on the platform.
Just a few hours earlier, a terrorist had killed several people by plowing into them with his white van at another light rail station on the east side of Jerusalem.
We the public, dependent on public transportation, felt nervous, like sitting ducks, wondering if we would be the next targets in the wave of vehicular terrorism sweeping over Jerusalem's tram stations.
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Tragic irony

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Our tour of Shaare Zedek Medical Center ended on a sad note when our guide showed us this photo at the entrance.
Dr. David Applebaum was director of the hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine.
On the night before his daughter Naava's wedding, father and daughter went out for coffee together in Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel for a heart-to-heart talk.
A suicide bomber entered and blew them up.
Five others were killed and 50 wounded.
That was in 2002, in the awful days of the Second Intifada.

Read about the great contributions Dr. Applebaum made in the twenty years after his aliyah from the USA, including these:

He founded the Terem Immediate Care Center, which revolutionized emergency care in Jerusalem by treating relatively minor injuries and ailments in a freestanding clinic, freeing up hospital emergency rooms to deal with more serious cases.
In 1986, Dr. Applebaum was presented with an award by the Knesset after treating terror victims at the scene of an attack on King George Street in Jerusalem while still under fire.
In 2002, Dr. Applebaum was appointed head of Shaare Zedek Medical Center's Department of Emergency Medicine and was viewed in Israel's medical community as one of the country's leaders in the field.
He introduced a number of groundbreaking changes to improve efficiency, and had extensive plans to continue this process following the completion of the new Weinstock Department of Emergency Medicine, which is now under construction.
He began to staff the department with emergency medicine specialists, rather than relying on specialists in the various departments of the hospital. He also introduced the computer tracking of patients, and was insistent on cutting waiting time to an absolute minimum.
When he was out of the hospital, he continued to monitor the treatment of each patient via a computer connection, even when he was abroad.

And here is another  article about him in the New York Times emphasizing the tragic irony, entitled "A Healer of Terror Victims Becomes One."
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(Linking M for murder to ABC Wednesday.)

In case of chemical or biological attack . . .

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This parking area and roadway is where ambulances race in, where Shaare Zedek Hospital's emergency room doors open.

But it can also double as the decontamination area--see those water hoses above?
This being a religious hospital where modesty is respected, those green tarps can be unrolled to give a modicum of privacy, separating the naked men from the naked women. 

In the event (God forbid) of non-conventional warfare or terrorist attacks, victims must be washed off  before they enter the hospital, using water under pressure, to prevent chemical or biological agents from spreading to other patients.
The area can be converted in less than 30 minutes to a fully functional decontamination facility that can treat hundreds of victims per hour.
Shaare Zedek acts as the on-call facility for the entire Jerusalem area to respond to chemical warfare attacks.
 The decontamination area is the largest in Israel and is believed to be the largest in the world.

 Staff members have carried out a number of simulation exercises with the IDF's  Home Front Command.
Many foreign delegations also come to witness and to learn from these drills.
Our guide said such a demonstration can cost the hospital 20,000 shekels, but they are seldom reimbursed;  he shrugged his shoulders, meaning something like  "We do it as a mitsvah, a good and holy deed." 

 

Photo: Agencies

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2014-09/16/content_18604628.htm

On September 15 some 20 senior Chinese officials took part in one of Shaare Zedek's drills, part of a disaster management workshop organised by the Emergency Medicine department at Ben Gurion University.
This is the first of many such workshops planned for the coming years, a statement from the university said.

See 3 more photos of the Chinese visitors at the ChinaDaily.
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Oi, may we never know such actual troubles.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

The sad and so difficult day

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An unusual tombstone, made from our local stone, in Meitar cemetery

After 18 long days of hoping and praying, waiting and searching, the bodies of Israel's three kidnapped boys were found yesterday.
The funeral services will begin soon for 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach  at the synagogue in the family's home community of Elad;   of 16-year-old Naftali Frenkel will depart from the synagogue in his home town of Nof Ayalon;  and  of 16-year-old Gil-Ad Shaer will depart from the central synagogue in his home town of Talmon.

Everyone will then come together at the cemetery in Modiin where the boys will be laid to rest side by side. 

 May God somehow console their parents and families. 
A whole nation comes together in mourning. 
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Live coverage now of the very moving funerals. Watch even if you don't know Hebrew.
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Follow the liveblog at The Times of Israel for full information.
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Not good

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Shalom friends.
Sorry that I just can't get into blogging now while all Israel is worrying about the three teenage boys who were kidnapped by terrorists on Thursday night.

You can follow the developments in the Israeli papers:
http://www.jpost.com/
http://www.haaretz.com/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-3083,00.html

Let us hope and pray for the best, and soon.
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Two teens

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The military section of Meitar's small cemetery has "only" four graves.
We are just a small community, begun in 1984, with a present population of about 7,500.

But then, perhaps other sons and daughters of Meitar are buried on Mount Herzl, the national military cemetery in Jerusalem.   I don't know.   I hope not.
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Yesterday a young soldier, Private Eden Attias, was buried in Upper Nazareth, his home town.
He was only 18 or 19  and the teenager who stabbed him was even younger.
Eden was asleep in the bus when the bus made a pit  stop at Afula when fellow bus passenger  Hussein Rawarda from Jenin knifed him.

 http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.557753
 and
 http://www.idfblog.com/2013/11/13/terrorist-stabs-idf-soldier-to-death-on-israeli-bus/
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A hard week is over

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The bad news: a bomb went off in a Tel Aviv bus today.
The good news: the bus was not crowded, the bomb was small, no one was killed.

The best news: a ceasefire went into effect at 9:00 pm tonight.
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UPDATE:  I should clarify that "no one was killed" does not mean that no one on the bus was injured; more than 20  people were taken to the nearby hospital. 
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Thursday night update: Police is now announcing that the suspects were caught within a few hours of the bombing.
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"Aiming words like arrows"

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Happy Shavuot and happy Pentecost!
The holiday posts will be coming, but first here is our weekly contribution to Robert's Psalm Challenge.

Psalm 64
For the leader. A psalm. Of David.

1 Hear my voice, O God, as I plead; from terror of the enemy, guard my life.

² Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
from the scheming of evildoers,
³ who whet their tongues like swords,
who aim bitter words like arrows,
⁴ shooting from ambush at the blameless;
they shoot suddenly and without fear.

⁵ They hold fast to their evil purpose;
they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, ‘Who can see us?
⁶ Who can search out our crimes?
We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.’
For the human heart and mind are deep.

⁷ But God will shoot his arrow at them;
they will be wounded suddenly.
⁸ Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake with horror.
⁹ Then everyone will fear;
they will tell what God has brought about,
and ponder what he has done.

¹⁰ Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright in heart glory.

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Photos
1. There are official plaques all over Jerusalem, at the sites of terrorist attacks, naming the victims.
This one is an unofficial plaque, in the German Colony.
2. Ancient arrow heads and a sword. Israel Museum.
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Peace and solitude in the valley

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Is it a mourning dove?
This sweet bird didn't fly away when she saw me on my evening walk in the valley.
Maybe she knew we were birds of a feather.

Can you see her above the summer dryness of the Jerusalem Hills?
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The dove is for Camera Critters and the dry grasses are for Summer Stock Sunday.
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It is a big and sad contrast. Just a few hours drive to the south and west of here, missiles and rockets from Gaza are falling on Beersheba and communities of the Western Negev and on the Mediterranean coast cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon since yesterday.
This is the Palestinian reaction to Israel's retaliation on Gaza terrorist centers.
Our Air Force strikes came after Thursday's deadly terror strikes on the road to Eilat.
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For Norway

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We in Israel are feeling very close to the people of Norway, who have lost so many and so much.
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Norwegian blog-friends Runee of Visual Norway and Spiderdama are much in my heart.
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A day to remember

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Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is being observed in Israel, from yesterday's sunset until sunset tonight.

Yad Vashem has built a new cantilevered museum.
The skylight roof of the museum sheds light on the dark history of the Shoah exhibited in the long, mostly underground building.

After walking through the chilling exhibits, silent visitors come out of the tunnel-like structure into the fresh warm air of an open porch overlooking the living Jerusalem Hills.
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Only 208,000 Holocaust survivors are left in Israel, and an average of 35 of them die every day.
This makes it even more important to listen carefully to their story today, while we still have living witnesses.
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Explosion

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Just after 3:00 pm a bomb exploded next to one of the many bus stops on this big road between Jerusalem's Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma convention center.
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One woman has died and over 40 were injured, 3 very seriously, from the flying shrapnel.
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All the windows on the right side of bus 74 were broken by the blast and bus 14 was also damaged.
Terrorists fill their bombs with nails and screws and ballbearings.
So, between flying glass and flying metal, many were physically hurt or else in shock.
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More at the Jerusalem Post.
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For several years Jerusalem has been spared these terrorist bombings and we got used to a more quiet life. Now . . . ?
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It has been a bad 24 hours in southern Israel too, with 4 Grad missiles being fired from Gaza into the cities of Beersheva and Ashdod and dozens of mortars landing in kibbutzim and rural areas.
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Lurking like a lion

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For Daily Athens' Psalm Challenge, Psalm 10.
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1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
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2 In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor— let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.
3 For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart, those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord.
4 In the pride of their countenance the wicked say, "God will not seek it out"; all their thoughts are, "There is no God."
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5 Their ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of their sight; as for their foes, they scoff at them.
6 They think in their heart, "We shall not be moved; throughout all generations we shall not meet adversity."
7 Their mouths are filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under their tongues are mischief and iniquity.
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8 They sit in ambush in the villages; in hiding places they murder the innocent. Their eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

9 they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert; they lurk that they may seize the poor; they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.

10 They stoop, they crouch, and the helpless fall by their might.
11 They think in their heart, "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it."
12 Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed.
13 Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, "You will not call us to account"?
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14 But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.
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15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoers; seek out their wickedness until you find none.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations shall perish from his land.
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17 O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear

18 to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed,

so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

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Photos:
1. Lion at Beit HaChayal (the Soldier's House), Jerusalem.

2. Memorial naming victims of terrorism in Israel, grouped by years, from 1860 to present. On Mt. Herzl, the mount of remembrance.

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Remembering with flowers

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Today I saw bunches of flowers stuck into the plaque on the wall of the Generali Building on Jaffa Road.
I looked more closely and found the date 3.3.1996.
So, today is the 15th anniversary of the death of the 19 people named on the plaque.
A terrorist's bomb exploded on their bus.
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There are many such memorial signs all around Jerusalem that list victims' names and the number of the bus route.
Most are from the bad old days of suicide bombers during the first and second intifadas.
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Jerusalem's September 11 memorial

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I like this Mother and Child Center at Hadassah Medical Center mostly because of the flags.
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We in Israel are especially united in memory with the people of the United States today.
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I urge you to watch a 4-minute video of the dedication of the September 11 memorial sculpture and plaza in the Jerusalem Hills.
Its plaque reads

"A REMINDER OF SHARED LOSS AND A CALL FOR PEACE AMONG NATIONS."
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The names of the 9/11 victims are written there, in the Jerusalem Forest, that we may remember.
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