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February 21, 2003
Back safe in Israel by Shabbat
SHANA ROSENBLATT MAUER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Instead of spending the morning of Friday, Nov. 29, shopping, cooking
and cleaning, Rachel, a friend of mine from Efrat, made phone calls,
checking room availability in a string of hotels in the vicinity
of Ben-Gurion Airport. The day before, her daughter and in-laws
had been part of the Israeli group that suffered the terrorist attack
on the Paradise hotel in Mombassa, Kenya. Although the attack took
place on a Thursday, it had taken time for the Israeli rescue crew
to arrive in Africa, tend to the wounded and ready the planes for
their return trip. Rachel had spoken to a representative of the
Foreign Ministry several times, who patiently explained that because
of the time difference and rescue effort, the planes would only
be landing on Friday at a yet to be confirmed hour. Despite her
shock over the whole incident, Rachel remained focused and continued
to search for a hotel close to the airport so that she and her family
could greet her daughter and in-laws and reach the hotel before
the onset of Shabbat.
But, what Rachel did not know as she struggled to remain rational
following her daughter's survival of a terrorist attack that killed
three Israelis and nine Kenyans, was that it had taken three hours
for local emergency personnel to arrive at the Paradise hotel, which
seemed somewhat inexplicable considering that Mombassa, a major
city, was only an hour drive away. She also did not know that survivors
of the attack ended up sitting on the hotel's beachfront for five
hours without proper drinking water or shelter before some sort
of refuge was found for them. She was also unaware of the experience
of one Israeli couple who, unharmed, immediately fled after the
attack and went straight back to the airport only to be rejected
by every airline with imminent flights scheduled out of Mombassa.
Nor did she know that when the group was finally transferred to
another nearby hotel, the group did not immediately receive water
or aid, and was told by the manager that they should be grateful
he even agreed to take them, a decision that put him in grave danger.
Thus, it is not hard to imagine the outpouring of relief and gratitude
expressed by these unsuspecting tourists when rescue teams dispatched
by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz arrived to tend to the victims and
shuttle the group back to Israel. Adults and children who had flown
to Kenya to spend their Chanukah vacation far from the ever-present
threat of terror - many of them, like Rachel's daughter and in-laws,
on bar and bat mitzvah celebration trips - were elated to see their
countrymen and even happier they had come to take them home.
Visitors no longer flock to Israel. Most hotels are lifeless hulks.
Restaurants and cafés are half empty. Inert, dusty tour buses
huddle in forlorn parking lots. Unemployment is 12 per cent and
inflation totalled 6.5 per cent last year. Israel is often the object
of international scorn and, on many occasions, world Jewry has vocally
expressed frustration with Israel's role in the ongoing war that
has yet to be named as such. The situation is indeed disheartening.
However, as I read the news in the days following the attack, I
took tremendous comfort knowing that despite all of the bleakness,
this country still has leaders who do not hesitate when Jewish people
are in need of rescue, and the resources to carry out such operations
with the swift efficiency that was once the pride of Jews the world
over.
Amid the chaotic effort to make weekend contingency plans, Rachel
received a call from her contact at the Foreign Ministry. In a reassuring
and sympathetic voice, the woman on the other end of the line told
Rachel not to worry. All of the Israelis who were concerned about
arriving in Israel close to the start of Shabbat were given the
option of travelling on the first plane out of Kenya, which would
be arriving at Ben-Gurion several hours before sundown. While trying
to co-ordinate emergency protocol with a far-off developing nation,
contacting family members of attack victims, administering emergency
care, equipping a small fleet of planes for a return journey, and
contending with a concurrent attack that had been unsuccessfully
executed that same day against the Israeli passenger plane that
had actually delivered the Israeli group to Mombassa on that fateful
Thursday, Israel's various governmental departments were also scrambling
to make sure that the observant Israelis in the group would not
be stranded at the airport or separated from their families over
Shabbat.
There was truly no need for concern the woman reiterated. The first
plane would arrive well before candlelighting and all of the passengers
would definitely have enough time to get home for Shabbat. And,
so they did.
Shana Rosenblatt Mauer, originally from Vancouver, is
a writer living in Efrat, Israel. She works as a PR professional
and grant writer for the Shalom Hartman Institute.
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