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One Day Tisha B'Av Will Be a Day of Rejoicing
Israel and Its Supporters Transform Sinat Chinam to Ahavat Chinam
by Israel HighWay Staff

Today Jews around the world commemorate Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. Also today, millions of Israelis are under the threat of a cruel and deadly enemy, and dozens of Israeli families are mourning their dead and caring for their wounded. As they fast and read from the Book of Lamentations, Jews reflect on the past calamities that, according to tradition, befell the Jewish people on this day. For almost 2000 years, Tisha B'Av has been the day when Jews mourn the destruction of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. It is a day of deep retrospection.

The Talmud asks the pertinent question "Why was the Second Temple destroyed? Because of sinat chinam, senseless hatred of one Jew for another."

Issue of the Week is continued below

Bush: Mideast Cease-Fire Must Be Accompanied by Change in Status Quo

President Bush told Fox News on Monday: "A million Israelis are worried about rockets being fired from their neighbor to the north....Israel's a sovereign nation, and she would defend herself. What we've got to do is put pressure on the world to help create the conditions so that when there's a cease-fire, it lasts. Stopping for the sake of stopping...won't address the root cause of the problem." (Fox News)

Israel to Resist UN Cease-Fire Push Until Its Goals Are Met
by Gal Beckerman

The UN Security Council is slated to begin debate on a resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hizballah before the end of this week. Israel does not want a cease-fire until all the elements are in place to secure southern Lebanon and to prevent the rearming of Hizballah. Most of the rest of the world wants an immediate cease-fire to take effect the moment the resolution passes. (Jerusalem Post)

IDF Commandos Raid Hizballah Stronghold in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley by Amos Harel and Yoav Stern

Israel Defense Forces commandos completed a raid of the Hizballah stronghold of Baalbek in east Lebanon at daybreak Wednesday, in what Lebanese security sources described as a major operation against suspected Hizballah positions. In Baalbek, the commandos captured five Hizballah militants and killed at least 10 others before completing the operation and safely returning to Israel, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said. The IDF confirmed that its troops returned from the operation to their base in Israel unharmed and that several militants were captured by the raiding forces and taken back to Israel. (Ha'aretz)

Click to see actual film footage from the raid. (IDF spokesman

Michael Levine: His Dream Was to Serve in the IDF by Eli Senyor

Staff sergeant Michael Levine, 22, announced to his mother already at the age of 16 that he wanted to immigrate to Israel and enlist to a combat unit in the IDF. Four days ago, Michael shortened a trip to the States to visit his family in order to return to Israel and to fight in the north. Tuesday, Michael's mother received the bitter news in Philadelphia: Michael, who followed his dream and enlisted to the paratroopers, was killed in the difficult battle near Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

Michael immigrated from Mangold, Pennsylvania three years ago, leaving behind his parents and two brothers. He lived in the religious Kibbutz Yavneh, and after, moved to an apartment in Jerusalem with two other soldiers.

A short while ago, Michael received a special discharge from the army in order to visit his family in the United States. Upon hearing news about the outbreak of war in the north, he decided to shorten his vacation, and returned to Israel four days ago. His friends say that he went to his commanders and asked to be sent immediately to the northern border. (Ynet News)

Photos that Damn Hizballah by Chris Link

This is the picture that damns Hizballah. It is one of several, smuggled from behind Lebanon's battle lines, showing that Hizballah is waging war amid suburbia. The images show Hizballah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-caliber weapons. Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon. The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend. (Herald Sun, Australia)

Teens Giving Peace a Chance by Lynne Stiefel

Tomer Cohen was awakened around 7 a.m. July 13 in his home in Nahariya, near Israel's northern border with Lebanon, by the sounds of bombs falling 100 meters away. "I heard a big boom, another boom, another boom. I just wake up and run to the shelter. It was very, very scary," the 17-year-old said. Three days later, he was on a plane bound for Chicago to participate in Hands of Peace, a Glenview-based program that for a fourth year has brought together 19 Middle Eastern and 14 American teens in an interfaith setting.

By happenstance, the deadly rocket attacks by Hizballah into Israel's northern cities and Israel's military campaign against the guerrillas have become the backdrop for the two-week Hands of Peace program, which ends Monday. The teens - who are Jewish Israelis, Arab-Israelis, West Bank Palestinians and American Jews, Christians and Muslims - are more polarized in their beliefs than those previously participating, organizers said.

The result so far has ranged from harsh, sometimes bitter, debate to rewarding and meaningful exchanges, they added. The group spends two hours nearly every morning talking over the complexities behind centuries of unrest in the Middle East. Afternoons bring team-building exercises, cultural and social activities, sightseeing and time to relax.

"I think of them as brave people for stepping out of their tribes, questioning things that they literally grew up believing and hearing since they were born," said Tamar Dar, a 21-year-old chaperone from Haifa, Israel, who was a teen participant in the program in the past. (Pioneer Press)

From OneVoice Youth Leaders by Saed Bilbeisi and Elad Dunayevsky

There are rockets flying into Israel's Northern towns as far down as Haifa as we write this, while the people of Gaza are in fear for their homes and lives, without electricity and running water. People are suffering, people are dying and people are afraid. It's a crisis. We are writing to tell you though not to give up on us, or to give up on hope for an end to the conflict.

The situation today makes it very difficult to talk about conflict resolution - to see an end to the conflict. Sometimes it is easy to see the light at the end of the tunnel, at the moment the tunnel is dark. But this crisis and this conflict will end, and we say that with sobriety and rationality. As much as we feel helpless today, as rational people we must see any crisis as an opportunity to rise up and overcome the reasons that brought that crisis.

The situation will come to an end, when we do not know. In the meantime both people suffer so badly. Believe us that no-one is happy with this life. We want everyone around the world to know that we, and many friends and colleagues like us at OneVoice, are working to change this situation. We are ready. We are ready to do anything necessary to help end this situation. We have done so many activities and introduced so many people to OneVoice and it always gives them hope and energy. We can not and will not lose all of this however hard it is at this moment. We will strive to improve this life.

OneVoice is a grassroots, non-partisan Israeli-Palestinian group working to empower moderates to stand up against extremists. (One Voice)

In Unity with Israel, American Teen Reports from Northern Israel
by David Gruskin

My name is David Gruskin, I'm 19 years old, and I just graduated from Teaneck High School in New Jersey. This is my eighth time coming to Israel.

I came to Israel through the Partnership 2000 with Nahariya and the UJA Federation of New Jersey. The past five days have been a very long and crazy experience. It started with military helicopters passing by our apartment window, which I thought was just a military exercise, until I started to hear explosions. Later that evening when I looked down the street I could see smoke rising from a mountain that had been hit by a missile in Lebanon. I had to rush to a bomb shelter twice in a period of 24 hours, and I realized we were in a war zone when I felt the vibrations of the Ketyusha missiles hitting somewhere in Nahariya not too far away. As soon as there were taxis on the road we left Nahariya to go to Moshav Shcheniya. The Moshav is a 40 minute drive from Haifa. I can still hear explosions in the distance and military aircraft every night. I plan on staying in Israel even though some parts are considered very dangerous.

I feel like Israel is my homeland and I plan on making Aliyah. I'm not just going to abandon my country when times get hard. I planned on joining the IDF before this war with Lebanon started and I still plan to join regardless of the war. (Jewish Agency)

‘You Can Never Survive in Israel if You Can't Keep Laughing'
by Wendy Margolin

Bat-El Mekonin goes to sleep smiling and wakes up just the same. That goes for all the participants on JUF's Chicago Community Program run by Shorashim in Israel, and for participants on almost any summer Israel trip for that matter. But the thought of Mekonin so content is especially poignant, because prior to joining the CCP trip this week, the Ethiopian immigrant to Israel, who has grown up in the northern city of Kiryat Yam, was gathered with her family in a bomb shelter.

At home she woke up to sirens wailing in the early dawn, fearing that missiles would fall on her home as she rushed with her family to a bomb shelter. On her way to the bus to join the Shorashim group, Mekonin opened the front door only to hear the sirens. She didn't even have time to close the door before she heard three missiles explode.

Mekonin is one of 10 Israelis who joined the 45 Chicago teens and 22 Israelis mid-trip seeking respite from katyusha rockets in the North. They came from Haifa, Acco, and Kiryat Yam to join the group in Shorashim's summer Mifgash, meaning encounter, program sponsored by the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. When the bombardment of katyusha rockets began the group immediately left the Kinneret and headed to Jerusalem. With their schedule slightly altered, the group has continued to have a blast touring Israel, and 10 more Israelis came on board this week when the conflict continued in the North. (Chicago Jewish Community Online)

Denver Teens Learn Life Lessons From Israel Visit
by Suzanne McCarroll

A group of Colorado high school students returned from Israel Monday after the violence in the Middle East forced them to change their travel plans. The group of 71 teenagers left Denver 6 weeks ago in hopes of learning about life but learned and observed more than they ever expected. "Every once in a while we'd see a few jets and hear a couple sonic booms from the jets," said one of the teens arriving at Denver International Airport.

The students said their experience strengthened their friendships. "It just showed me that … Israelis stick together and they keep it strong," said a teenager. "They're always together. I was just so more unified with the Israelis and with the group." It also strengthened their faith and their commitment to a distant culture they share and a troubled country they love. "The Israelis just deal with it too so we figured we had to too," said one of the students. "… Life goes on and you just have to keep living." (CBS4Denver)

Born in Israel, She's Going Back to Serve in Army
by Lauri Githens Hatch

Just as many of her friends knew they would move on to college this fall, Noga Polansky knew she would move, too: back to Israel, the land of her birth. While her peers will be picking up books in September, Noga will be picking up an M-16 — or, at least, she'll be prepared to — as a member of the Israeli army. And she knew she would do that, too.

"Israel is home," said Noga, 18, who was born in Jerusalem. She moved here as an infant and graduated in June from Brighton High School in Rochester. "When I thought about what to do, and where I'd be happiest after school ended, I knew I'd be happy in Israel." She did not know, of course, that in the weeks before she left, war would erupt between Israel and Hizballah forces in southern Lebanon. Even so, her feelings are unchanged. Israeli youth are still expected to serve, and while exemptions are possible, she never wanted out of her two-year stint.

"Obviously the situation has created more tension," said Noga, who hopes to work in a math-related job although she has trained for infantry duty. "But Israel is my home. And my home is being attacked. So it's absolutely necessary for anyone who can, to do this. It's absolutely necessary for me to do this." (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Hizballah Is Our Enemy, Too by Jeff Jacoby

Hizballah hates Americans at least as implacably as al-Qaeda does. Prior to 9/11, Hizballah was responsible for more American casualties than any other terrorist organization in the world. For more than two decades, Hizballah's Shi'ite fanatics, backed by Iran and sheltered by Syria, have made it their business to murder, maim, hijack, and kidnap Americans with the same irrational hostility they harbor for Israel. (Boston Globe)

"Disproportionate" in What Moral Universe? by Charles Krauthammer

What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security? What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities - every one designed to kill, maim, and terrorize civilians - and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?

When the U.S. was attacked at Pearl Harbor, it did not respond with a parallel "proportionate" attack on a Japanese naval base. When one is wantonly attacked by an aggressor, one has every right - legal and moral - to carry the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled that it cannot threaten one's security again.

Did Britain respond to the Blitz and V-1 and V-2 rockets with "proportionate" aerial bombardment of Germany? Of course not. In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London Blitz, Hizballah is raining rockets on Israeli cities. (Washington Post)

See also: Arithmetic of Pain by Alan Dershowitz, Wall Street Journal

Cry to Those Using Babies by Naomi Ragen

Please remember this when you hear about the "atrocity" of the Israeli bomb that killed many civilians in Kafr Qana, a place from which Hizballah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel. Unlike previous administrations, Mr. Olmert has my respect when he says: "They were warned to leave. It is the responsibility of Hizballah for firing rockets amid civilians."

Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about civilian casualties, since all they have is one goal: this entire war is to target civilians. Every single one of the more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel, is launched into populated towns filled with women and children. Just today, another explosive belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus.

So don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those using babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals and private homes. Cry to the heartless men who love death, and however many of their troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and children. Save your sympathy for the mothers and sisters and girlfriends of our young soldiers who would rather be sitting in study halls learning Torah, but have no choice but to risk their precious lives full of hope, goodness and endless potential, to wipe out the cancerous terrorist cells that threaten their people and all mankind. Make your choice, and save your tears. (Ha'aretz)

Bitter factional struggle and individual cruelty destroyed the cohesion of the Jewish Commonwealth at the time of the Temple, condemning the Jews to 2,000 years of exile. Even when the Romans had besieged Jerusalem and disaster was imminent, hostile groups within the city fought among themselves and plundered stores of food, causing terrible famine.

Too often and tragically, divisiveness has been a trademark of the Jewish world. Last year, Israel was wracked by the controversial disengagement and expulsion from Gaza, northern Samaria, and the Amona settlement. National elections further polarized the country.

What is the antidote to this problem of hate? According to Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook, the chief rabbi in pre-state Israel, "The Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred; it can be rebuilt only by indiscriminate acts of love."

While Israel is under Hizballah's vicious attack, Israel's citizens are witnessing an amazing outpouring of kindness, compassion and indiscriminate acts of love from fellow citizens and Jews from around the world.

Tens of thousands of Israelis in the north have been living in bomb shelters for three weeks. Hundreds of houses and apartments have been destroyed. Thousands of residences have been damaged. In their shelters, children and parents are suffering from extreme cases of "cabin fever." Many Israeli groups and overseas organizations are coming to their rescue.

A vast national effort has been made in Israel to offer housing out of the rockets' range to thousands of families from the north. Families throughout the country are opening their homes to take in families they had never met before. Newspapers and television networks provide lists of families offering to take in a displaced family. Even recently displaced families who used to live in Gaza are inviting families to stay in their already overcrowded temporary trailers. The city of Beer Sheva placed 700 "refugees" in hotels in the city. The West Bank community of Efrat received several hundred northerners and housed them in local dormitories. Local Efrat residents volunteered to prepare food, do laundry and entertain children.

Israeli sports stars are giving comfort to children displaced because of the conflict. Over 2,000 children are at an emergency tent city set up in Nitzanim and they were extremely excited when the Israeli national basketball team team came to the camp. "The national team feels very good to be involved in the situation and to be able to help the kids. In Tel Aviv, we are disconnected from the situation, so it is nice to do whatever we can to improve it," NBA draft pick Lior Eliyahu said.

Popular Israeli singers like David Broza are going from bomb shelter to bomb shelter playing impromptu concerts for those huddled together in sweltering heat and cramped conditions.

Local Israeli communities and organizations are taking solidarity trips to the north and to the south to places like Sderot, a long-time target for rocket attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip. These Israeli solidarity visits have been joined by dozens of solidarity missions by Jewish organizations and communities from across the Jewish world. An "Army of volunteers" has been streaming north to help out where they can.

The missions see that thousands of Israelis remain virtual captives in their bomb shelters. Their jobs are on hold and they are not earning money. Banks and local grocery stores are shut. What do the northern residents eat? Almost every supermarket in the center and south of Israel now has a counter where customers buy food packages for the northerners. The supermarket chains then deliver the packages to the families. The giant Supersal chain has opened a toll-free number and a webpage (in Hebrew) so that concerned citizens can purchase and donate food packages.

The ancient Galilee city of Safed has been hard hit by rockets. Thousands of poor and elderly residents are unable to travel to the south. Livnot U'Lehibanot, a local educational/community service organization has mobilized to provide hundreds of meals and medicines to people in their homes. Livnot works with the elderly whose caregivers have fled Safed, repairs bomb shelters, and visits with children confined to shelters.

A group of former Americans living in Beit Shemesh came up with a unique method of fund-raising for communities in northern Israel: selling online songs performed by one of their sons, a talented musician, Elie Deutsch, who is currently serving on the Lebanese front. The "American Chayal" effort promises to provide "food, shelter, children's programming, funds, and other necessities for the hundreds of temporary residents from the north of Israel who are living in our schools/community centers, and sharing our homes."

A group of students from the Technion and Haifa University recently launched Shelters Pizza. They take orders for pizza and ice cream from around the world, travel to the north several times a week, buy the pizzas from pizzerias in Nahariya, Shlomi, Zefat and Kiryat Shmone (thus providing employment in the hard-hit cities), and make surprise deliveries to the shelters. The donors are provided with digital pictures of the recipients.

The Israeli chocolate company, Elite Strauss, will be providing more desserts. In a joint project with Heritage Affinity Services, the two companies will send "virtual hugs" to Israel's soldiers. "You send the hug, we'll send the chocolate," the two companies promise to anyone who goes online, fills in a form, and presses "send." When the number of virtual hugs reaches the 100,000 mark, representatives from the army and the two companies will head for the Israel-Lebanon border to give out the messages of support and 100,000 bars of chocolate.

Help and Love from across the Oceans

Supporters of Israel overseas cannot open their homes or deliver pizza, but they are responding to the turmoil in Israel with an outpouring of generosity. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, American Jewish organizations are "under pressure to quickly assess needs, attract donors and channel funds to the Jewish state. The United Jewish Communities, the umbrella body of North American federations, raised $23 million as of early this week. Doron Krakow, UJC's senior vice president for Israel and overseas, said about 60 percent of the funds will enable kids from the northern part of Israel to stay in camps in the center of Israel."

JTA also reports on the efforts of other organizations: