This past weekend I visited my brother Rob (Bob to everyone in Israel) at his kibbutz, Nir Yitzhak. It is located in the Western Negev bordering the Gaza strip a few miles before the Israel first touches the Sinai peninsula. He made aliyah (immigration to Israel) about 33 years ago about the same time as my friends David Leichman and Rabbi Miri Gold also settled in Israel. In the past few years I have introduced them and we now get together as we all are foodies and love good restaurants. After their first meeting 2 years ago David turned to me and commented that Rob seemed to him as a typical kibbutznik. He meant that Rob no longer came off as an American in many ways such as dress, thinking, world view, etc. A short time after that as Rob and I were driving to our destination he commented that David in all the years still comes off as a total American. In relating the comments to both of them they not only agreed with the assessments made but actually acknowledged that they shaped their lifestyles to those descriptions. For instance; Rob went to a kibbutz where there were almost no Americans or other native English speakers. David's kibbutz was reestablished with a core group (called a garin, seed) of Americans. David constantly interacts with large numbers of Americans both in Israel and the States. Rob visits the family, every so often and has worked as a teacher of English, with one of the kibbutz companies and now for a few years as manger of the food service at the kibbutz. Generally he has had limited direct contact with Americans and our culture.
To get to Rob's kibbutz from Modi'in I take a Connex (name of company) bus to the Tel Aviv central bus station. To get into the building which is also a mall one goes through security and my two travel bags were opened. I go up the escalator from the 4th to the 6th floor where most of the intercity buses depart. Usually I go to my favorite schwarma stand but I had a late breakfast so I settled on water, an egosi candy bar and a Jerusalem Post newspaper while I waited. The bus to the kibbutz at one time was a direct trip with numerous stops along the way and a 20 minute rest stop at the snack bar and shop run by Kibbutz Yad Mordechai even though the driver's trip might be about 2 hours to the last stop. Now they actually changed drivers at a stop on the road near Ashkelon, there is no rest stop annd we get off and change buses about 10 miles north of the kibbutz at the Eshkol Regional Center. The trip still only took 2 hours.
Rob has just moved to a new house this past week and was still in the process of clearing out his old place and setting things up in the new. As he described things he told me that they were going to add another room. This would be a reinforced shelter known as a security room. Most of the time it serves as a regular room but in the case of bombing is a safer place. They have alsso been building extra security in all the children's facilities. Over the past years his kibbutz has been quite fortunate and not had a rocket or missile land within the area where people live. A couple of years ago during my visit when I learned of and experienced the “red alert” warnings a rocket landed less than 50 feet from the front gate in the road on which every car that enters the kibbutz passes. Even after the “Cast Lead” operation in December of 2008, there are still occasional missiles shot from Gaza towards the town of Sderot and the Western Negev settlements. This year things have been fairly calm for now but who knows when that might change. I was told that the extra security was being installed because rockets are now more accurate and have a greater range.
On Saturday I went out for walk. I was eager to go because during the previous 2 days I was unable to go because there had been a great deal of rain even here in the Negev which is considered desert. Within the kibbutz fence there is a road that circles the entire living area and it is about 2 miles in length. From my brothers home I walked towards the rear fence perhaps 100 yards away and turned right. Towards the end of the loop as I was approaching my start point I looked out past the fence and the fields and saw a large built up area. [see picture] It could only be one place, the city of Rafiah in Gaza. In the past I have seen this but this time I was reminded how close this city was and in turn how close the kibbutz was to the Gaza strip. It actually rests on the border that was established with the State itself. It doesn't take much imagination to think about rockets that could and were shot from civilian areas in Rafiah towards any of the Israeli kibbutzim or other towns near by. Even since Operation Cast Lead many rockets have been smuggled into Gaza in close range to many civilian areas. Yet for the moment it was quiet and calm.
Rob and his fellow kibbutzniks go about their lives. What choice do they have? And I will continue to visit.
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