by JanetheWriter
On Friday, after I read Daphne Price's wonderful post on this blog about why she and her family are in Israel right now, I was prompted to comment thusly:

Good for you, Daphne!  For so many of us, opportunities to visit Israel are too few and far between and I applaud you and your family for doing what you believe is the right thing at this difficult time.

My own first visit to Jerusalem in 2004 happened to coincide with a rush-hour bus bombing in Rehavia that killed 11 and injured scores more.  Indeed, January 29, 2004 was a sad and scary day, but in true Israeli style, we carried on with our itinerary, which then included stopping at a streetside news stand in the evening to watch the names of the dead and wounded scroll by on the television.  I could not have had a more Israeli slice-of-life experience.

I hope that you savor this visit, not only for yourselves and your children, but especially now, for all of us whose hearts are in the east.

Although, unlike Daphne and her family, I can't be there physically right now, like so many of us, my heart and mind are extraordinarily present in Israel.  Here are three things that I'm doing to help me be there in spirit.

1. Listening to Galgalatz, a radio station operated by Israel Army Radio, which I found when a friend noted on Facebook that she was listening online.  Not knowing what it was, I Googled it and next thing I knew, I was listening too.  According to my fellow RJ.org blogger David A.M. Wilensky, "In Israel Galgalatz is on everywhere all the time!  It is THE radio station, with, as you'll find, the most inexplicable playlists of all time." Indeed, although I don't understand the news at the top of each hour or much beyond a few words of what the DJs say, hearing their voices and the wonderful mix of music they select surrounds me with the sound and feel of Israel.  If only schwarma and falafel were available over the internet...

2. Donating my Facebook status to QassamCount, which uses that space to publicize the number of rockets that hit Israel each day, as well as the total number of rockets and mortars Hamas has fired into the country since 2007. To my way of thinking, it's a much better use of the space than are updates about my comings and goings in the world. After all, in the overall scheme of things, who really cares what I'm doing at any particular moment in time?!

3. Corresponding via email with an Israeli, which came about as a direct result of #2 above.  After I donated my Facebook status to QassamCount, at one point, I did change it back to something else. When I went to return the space to QassamCount, the updates didn't show up. After a day of waiting for them, I emailed technical support at qassamcount@gmail.com, beginning an exchange with Arik at QassamCount that went something like this:

Me:  Earlier this week, I donated my status and it showed up on my FB page without a problem. I then changed my status but now want to once again donate it to the rocket count. I have clicked on the "Donate Status" button on the application, but my status never changes. Why is this? What can I do to fix it? Thank you.

Arik: You don't need to redonate your status - next time we run an update it will be changed to our latest update about Qassams. Thanks.

Me: Thanks, Arik, but my status still hasn't changed to the QassamCount.
 In any event, if you have not already seen it, I thought you might be interested in this clip from Fox News yesterday.

Arik: Hi. What's your profile URL? I will check it out.
And thanks for the link! :)

Me: Thanks, Arik.
It's definitely still not updating...  The profile URL is:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/home.php?ref=home.
Grateful for whatever you can tell me...

Me again: Arik, if you did something to my profile or status to make the QassamCount
show up, thanks!  It appears to be working now.  If not, I have no
explanation for the "fix."
Now, let's just hope the numbers go down and the whole application
becomes unnecessary.  Thanks again.

Arik: We had a technical malfunction that affected you and others. This is why it was
suddenly fixed.
I join your hopes that our app won't be necessary soon...
Have a pleasant week.

Me: Thanks...shavua tov to you too.

Indeed, may QassamCount swiftly become a thing of the past and may we all donate our status to other, more peaceful Facebook applications.

Print

Email

Comment

Comments

Post a comment