Plant a free tree for Gilad

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Want to plant a tree in Israel, for FREE, in honor of Gilad Shalit and his family?!

Just click here and write a few personal words to the family. It's easy.

Be quick--the offer expires on Sunday.

The Keren Kayemet / Jewish National Fund is offering one free tree per person to be planted in celebration of Gilad's release.

For over a hundred years the KKL/JNF has worked to make Israel green with forests.
But today they do much more.
The seven action areas are Forestry & Ecology, Water, Community Development, Security, Education, Research & Development, and Tourism & Recreation.

Keren Kayemet workers call themselves "Caretakers of the land and people of Israel."

This blog has shown other examples of their good work.
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I hope thousands of people around the world will respond to this free tree offer.
(Normally one tree is purchased for $18.)
I'm hoping there will be a Shalit grove or wood or even a whole forest!

And YOU will enjoy having your own baby tree growing up in Israel!
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Welcome home

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Not a dry eye in Israel today.
Noam and Aviva Schalit can fold up their protest tent.

Now our boy is home.

"N" is for nachat.
Nachat in Hebrew means contentment.
But if you say it the Yiddish way, nachas, it becomes more a feeling of pride in the achievements of your children or even in your own doing good by helping someone or some organization.

I watched the Israel TV coverage of Gilad's return today from 7 am to 9 pm, and there were many times I was filled with nachas--from Gilad and all who worked to bring him home.
When my laptop screen showed our first glimpse of Gilad, I instinctively reached for his cheek and cried out "Oi, Neshama!!!" with tears of joy.

Noam said tonight that they have experienced the rebirth of a son.
Gilad is everybody's son; yours too.

Watching the step by step process of the prisoner exchange all day has been emotionally exhausting.
Now I can go to sleep, knowing the boy is safely home with his family, in his own bed, in their home in the Galilee.

Baruch matir asurim, blessed is he who frees the captives.
Baruch podeh umatsil, blessed is he who redeems and saves.
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(The Ns here are shared with the friends at ABC Wednesday.)

A perfect psalm for Gilad Schalit

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The genius of the Psalms is that at least one of them speaks to one of us at just the one right moment in our life; and so it has been down through the generations.
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Today's Psalm 30 for Robert's PsalmChallenge, for instance.
I started thinking about it last Monday; then on Tuesday it took on a whole new meaning.
After the news broke about Gilad Schalit's imminent release, I suddenly saw Psalm 30 as Gilad's psalm.

1 A Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the Temple.
I will extol thee, O LORD, for thou hast drawn me up, and hast not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me. 3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved."

7 By thy favor, O LORD, thou hadst established me as a strong mountain; thou didst hide thy face, I was dismayed.


8 To thee, O LORD, I cried; and to the LORD I made supplication: 9 "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be thou my helper!"

11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 that my soul may praise thee and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever.
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Translation: RSV
Hebrew original text at Mechon Mamre
Photos:
Stickers at the Gilad Schalit protest tent, Jerusalem
Spontaneous dancing at the Jerusalem Hug a few years ago
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M is for maybe, MAYBE Gilad is coming home!

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With great excitement our news media are right now beginning to announce that Gilad Schalit might soon be released!

Apparently Egypt has finally succeeded in negotiating a prisoner exchange deal.

Israel will release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for our kidnapped soldier.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu has summoned his ministers to Jerusalem for a government meeting this evening, within the hour.

Let's hope and pray it really happens!

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The photo shows Noam Schalit, Gilad's father, last May. He and Gilad's mother have been sitting in their protest tent on the busy street corner next to the Prime Minister's residence for the past year.
Israel Television is right now showing the parents with the first traces of little smiles, with guarded optimism. The first time in five years that we have seen a smile on their worried faces.
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(This M for MAYBE! is for ABC Wednesday.)

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How many unhappy birthdays more?

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Gilad Schalit turned 25 today, somewhere in the Gaza Strip.

It is his 6th birthday in captivity, since being kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in 2006.
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How long, O Lord?

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During the difficult and dark days of my life, PSALM 13 was my most-prayed psalm.
God answered me, in his own time. And indeed, "He has dealt bountifully with me."
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Now there are others who must ask "How long, O Lord?"
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1. For the leader. A psalm. Of David.
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2. How long, O LORD?!
Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
3. How long will I have cares in my soul, grief in my heart all day?
How long will my enemy loom over me?
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4. Look, answer me, O LORD, my God!
Light up my eyes, lest I sleep death;
5. lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” my foes exult when I stumble.
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6. But I trust in Your faithfulness.

My heart will exult in Your deliverance, I will sing to the LORD, for He has dealt bountifully with me.

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The Hebrew-English of Psalm 13 is here.

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Several other bloggers have taken up Robert's PsalmChallenge. Please join us over at Daily Athens.

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Gilad's "cell" is next to his parents' tent which is set up on the sidewalk near Prime Minister Netanyahu's official residence. His parents sit vigil day and night.

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Today's nationwide grass roots demonstrations

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Translation of the poster:

A 5-MINUTE DEMONSTRATION FOR

GILAD SCHALIT

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Just 5 minutes -- but ALL of us!!!

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On March 15 at 11:00 the whole country

will go out to the street for 5 minutes

to insist that the Government get the boy back!

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Citizen Kobi Sidi -- kobisidi@gmail.com

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Some said it was supposed to be a silent demonstration, one minute of silence for each of the almost five years that our young soldier has been held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Chief Rabbi recommended praying and reading Psalms, especially the 27th.
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But I got off the bus just before 11:00 next to a big school in Jerusalem.
All the kids and their teachers were out chanting slogans for Gilad, even with a bullhorn.

The banners say "GILAD IS STILL ALIVE -- http://www.gilad.org/"

The boys held the posters right up to the bus windows to remind the passengers what was happening.
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When the first bus driver thought he could keep driving through the busy Yad Sarah junction, the young people sat down on the street.

Good for them!

Traffic was backed up back to Mount Herzl, but no one beeped. Some drivers got out and stood to identify with the cause.
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Even private houses had the yellow ribbon and handmade signs to remind us, "Five minutes for Gilad Schalit."

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This whole idea for a popular demonstration was the initiative of one private citizen, Kobi Sidi.

Ynet has interesting details about how he started the idea on Facebook and how he was surprised how quickly support swelled.

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The Jerusalem Post has a video of Gilad's father (interviewed in English) at another demonstration gathering place, Jerusalem's Paris Square.

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My own blog has four earlier posts about the work being done by his parents and by the people to free Gilad.

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Wouldn't it be wonderful if Gilad could be home in time for THIS year's Passover seder . . . .

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I wonder as I wander

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These Ws are for ABC Wednesday.

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We photo bloggers are prone to wanderlust.

While wandering around the Swiss Alps, I was always relieved to find a yellow Wanderweg sign and know I was actually still on the trail.

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Now that Israel is getting some long trails (like the Israel Trail and the Jesus Trail), we are also getting some standardized signage.

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Last month I found a new (I think not quite official) sign added.

The writing under the yellow arrow says "The Gilad Schalit Trail (temporary name)."

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Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been holding our young soldier prisoner for the last four and a half years.

More information about this in my previous posts.

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The pensive, sung in a minor key, Christmas carol comes to mind--"I Wonder as I Wander."

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I hope that everyone walking these renamed paths will wonder about Gilad, wonder when he will be freed to return to his family, free to hike the peaceful hills.

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Lo bseder

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On my way to the Great Synagogue seder yesterday, I passed this.
Just beyond the wall is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Israel.

The protest tent has been there for a long time. I myself have been posting, here and here, about the movement for too long a time. There seems to be no end to Gilad Schalit's captivity.
As the sign says, our young kidnapped soldier has been held prisoner for 1,373 days and nights.
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Activists fighting for the release Gilad held a mock seder on Sunday night (one night before the actual holiday of Passover). This is the fourth year that they have held the seder to protest what they call government inaction at securing Schalit's release from the Hamas militants who have kept him captive since their 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

The all-too-realistic cutout of Gilad wears a sign asking the traditional question from the Hagadah of Pesach: What makes this night different from all other nights? Literally the sign asks: What has changed? The answer is sad in his case; the sign says: Nothing.
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The seder plate at a real seder has several symbolic foods. Gilad's table has only maror, the bitter herb.
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Two other worrying changes:
Once the signs and stickers (which appear all over the country) said "Gilad is still alive." Now a question mark appears at the end.

And the face of Ron Arad has been added to the banners. The Israel Air Force navigator was captured in southern Lebanon in 1986, held prisoner for two years, and then disappeared. The new signs suggest that Schalit may also go missing unless a deal is quickly struck with Hamas.
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Gilad Schalit's parents asked that everyone leave an empty chair and plate at their seder table.
That's how it is in a little country where everyone feels like family.

For That's My World, that is my world, in joy and in sorrow, always mixed together.

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Gilad Awareness Day

Exactly three years ago our soldier Gilad Schalit was kidnapped when Hamas made a cross-border raid from Gaza into southern Israel. He was 19 then.

Support for his family and public pressure for his release take many forms, like this motorcyclist's banner.
For the story on the protest tent in Jerusalem please see my earlier post.

At the tender age of eleven, Gilad wrote a story in Hebrew about a shark and a fish who strike up an unlikely friendship and learn to live together despite their differences. When the Shark and the Fish First Met has been published as a book.
Do you have three minutes? Then you can hear the whole book, with its message of peace, being read by children around the world, in many languages. On YouTube.
And please hope and/or pray that Gilad will soon be returned, alive, to his family, before another year passes . . . .
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On the horns of a dilemma

It is 994 days that Gilad has been in captivity, the sign says.
In July 2006 he was kidnapped in a cross-border raid by terrorists. They took the young soldier, only 19 then, back into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. He has not been seen since.

I was in Jerusalem today and I saw the protest tent that his parents have been sitting in for the past eight days, just outside Prime Minister Olmert's residence. Noam and Aviva Schalit are quiet good people who have been pushing in a non-theatrical way for all those 994 days to have their son back home. My heart was with them. All my children have served their years of compulsory army service. When you are a soldier's mother, it is like you are mother to all the girls and boys in uniform.
A dozen young people were down the block at a busy intersection, waving posters and jumping up and down and chanting "Rotsim oto babayit!" meaning we want him home. Many passing drivers tooted their horn in support.
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But across the street stood a few protesting parents whose children were killed by terrorists. They oppose Israel's freeing of hundreds of terrorists from our prisons, which is what Hamas is demanding in return for Schalit. They bring the chilling statistics that 180 people have been killed by terrorists who had been freed in past prisoner swaps.
Everyone feels that the window of opportunity is closing because our new government will be taking over in a matter of days or weeks. Before Prime Minister Olmert and his ministers leave office, they have to make a decision.
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The IDF and the whole country has always prided itself on not leaving wounded soldiers behind on the battlefield.
We are on the horns of a moral dilemma.
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