Day 17 — Israel in Crisis

Driving south on Israel's main N/S Highway, you see a large sign hanging over a bridge. It reads:

KIDNAPPED—Maya and Itai

This is the same poster

I can’t explain the despair here over the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas. The idea of our people—elderly women and babies are among them—being held by monsters is excruciating day and night.

If not for the hostages, we would no doubt be inside of Gaza, finally destroying Hamas. But they knew our weak spot…I am writing this through tears. They know that we love our people. In fact, we value the corpses of Israelis more than Hamas values living Palestinians. And they know that.

So, they are manipulating us by dangling the possibility of release before us. It’s torture.

I want you to listen to this short interview. Varda was born in Israel before Israel was rebirthed. She is 80 years old. She told us how she felt about the country, which was quite powerful.

We have been humbled. We have been brought to our knees. We were proud and arrogant, and now we’ve been humbled.

The Need

• Today, we were asked to buy 1,000 pairs of earplugs for soldiers, which we did.

• We also donated an additional $20,000 to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. They have been hit three times with rockets.

• We also bought the 15 computers today.
  

Elana and I can’t thank you enough for your gifts. You are truly making a difference in Israel during this most difficult time.

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