Grandma's army

  GRANDMA'S ARMY IN EMOTIONAL DISTRESS Yesterday felt like the longest day in my life. I was   spending   the festival - which is considered the happiest in the Jewish calendar - with my daughter, her husband, son and very pregnant daughter-in-law in Gannei Tal (a moshav down south). Instead of dancing in the synagogue we were being confined to their “safety room”, like prisoners, while continuously being bombarded by the thousands of rockets coming from Gaza. Not long after the first siren woke us all up at 6:30 in the morning my grandson, who was a commanding officer in an elite unit, was called-up. He was gradually joined by his three brothers, one son’s triplets, plus the son and daughter of my other son. With the addition of two of my granddaughters’ husbands. Some are on the border with Gaza and others were sent to the north, where the threat from Hizbullah is always imminent.   Like the Yom Kippur War, the Arabs took Israel completely by surprise. The wa...

  The long arm of the US State Department, as well as the British Foreign Office had finally reached Czechoslovakia. For three months, the pilots from the base in Czechoslovakia had flown ninety-five round trips to Israel, delivering 300 tons of desperately needed weapons and ammunition. They had hauled 25 Messerschmitts, together with the fighters’ spare parts, armament, mechanics, and most of the pilots. Now it was all over. They were given only one day to get out of the country. Since the end of May, 1948, the Negev had been occupied by the Egyptian army. Behind the Egyptian line was a complex of Israeli settlements and a badly depleted brigade of the IDF. Every attempt to resupply and relieve the cut-off units by truck conveys had failed. When the truce was over, the battle-fatigued fighters in the Negev would be crushed. The only solution was if the isolated Negev settlements could be resupplied by air. Working day and night an improvised runway was carved out, in the in...