From someone living far away it must be hard to imagine what life is like now, here in the holy land. People are apprehensive before the hourly news since most probably it will tell of another terror attack. Everyone knows that a terror attack means innocent people killed or wounded, maybe even crippled for life.

While Kfar Darom does not allow Arabs to enter for work or any other reasons, many communities that do are reconsidering hiring Arabs. Many of the terror attacks in communities in Yesha have been carried out by, if not aided by, Arab workers. Just this past Thursday night in Atzomona, a community in Gush Katif, a terrorist entered the community unarmed and disguised as a Jew. He went over to a construction site were Arabs had been working several hours before, took a gun and several grenades which had been hidden there and continued on his way. He entered Yeshiva, killed five students and wounded many more. This story is just one in many of Arab workers aiding and carrying out terror attacks.

Driving on the main road is also an uncomfortable ordeal. Twice during the same week (before Purim), Arabs shot at cars driving on the road leading to and from the Kissufim checkpoint. In the first attack a young mother of 2 was killed while another man was wounded. In the second attack, just several days later, miraculously no one was wounded. Since then there have been several other shootings on the road. The latest shooting took place just last night. Today, the victim, a 20 year old resident of Neve Dekalim, was buried.

Many ask how we can go on living like this. In the meantime people are trying to continue living as normally as possible while taking some extra precautions. People still travel around, shop, go to restraurants, visit friends and relatives - and simply pray that they will not be the next victims. One day soon, with G-d’s help, we will proudly stand up and fight out enemies. For now we gain our strength from the fact that people are getting married and new babies are being born. Less than a week ago my husband’s brother, Shalom, got married. This past Shabbot the whole family joined together in the bride’s community - Atzmona. As expected the residents of Atzmona were not in great spirits, but they still came to congratulate the newly wed couple. Within no time, the large room was filled with singing and all of the men joined together to dance with the groom. Where, the night before, sadness was in the air, people joined in true happiness.

With Passover just around the corner we must all pray that this year, finally, we will merit to rejoice, united in the rebuilt Holy Temple, in the holiest of cities, Jerusalem.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2002 and is filed under series.