Life on the Southern Front: Quiet after the Storm
/When I was a child in Africa, there was an idiom, "it's raining cats and dogs", well that just does not sound right in Israel. It does not rain in Israel like it does on the highlands in South Africa. But a shower of rockets exploding somewhat resembles the multiple bangs of the electrical thunderstorms on the highlands that would shake the windows and send children to mom and dad's bed. When I was in the military a few of us were caught outdoors in a granite region by a sudden electrical storm and lighting was striking the earth rapidly all around us like it was doomsday.
Now is the quiet after the Gaza storm. Some Israelis are still displaced and don't want to return to the Ashqelon region. The threat of tunnels is something very real. The economy came to a virtual standstill here. Many were afraid to leave their homes and ordered their groceries on-line. Supermarkets did only 20% of their regular turnover. Some independent Israelis had no income.
I was driving my son home one day and I pointed out the military helicopter, next thing there were sirens sounding and the helicopter deployed flares, that was confirmation to me and very quickly there were multiple rockets filling the sky.
What cannot be ignored were the testimonies of miracles such as the petrol tanker at the petrol station in Ashdod that caught alight but did not blow up even though it was full of petrol. As a former Formula One motor racing marshal, I know that vehicles in an accident don't blow up like in the movies. However a fully laden petrol tanker engulfed in flames of such intense heat will blow up but this time it defied the laws of physics. So many miracles for Israel since 1948 is no coincidence. HaShem promised His favour would return to Israel in the last days.
