Communications and the Conflict

The last two weeks have been quiet in the Western Galilee although necessary steps have been put into place to ensure that residents are able to find shelter should the need arise. Matzuva is well acquainted with such situations and our shelters are clean, ready and open should the need arise. In the Upper Galilee Panhandle however some katusha rockets have landed in that area.

On the kibbutz the hot topic is the communicates issue that has been going on for the last 18 months. A general meeting held last Wednesday was well attended and 2 local Israeli TV providers "Yes" and Hot" plugged their respective packages of digital TV; one by satellite and the other optical fibre landlines. Up until now, television programmes are transmitted to homes via a copper land line that is not of a good quality – about 40 programmes are beamed that include Israeli news channels, CNN, Sky, BBC Prime, 4 movie channels, National Geographic, kids programmes, Fox Sport, ESPN, Israel Sports 5, 5+, Hungarian (Duna), Knesset and so on. The variety is pretty extensive but the pictures are analogue and not good quality. Certain packages such as Sports 1 & 2 (Premier League and Israeli soccer) cost more and require a satellite dish and a converter box.

This week it's the turn of the Internet and telephonia providers to vend their wares.

It's a little boggling to assimilate all the data but in the final analysis members and residents will vote by ballot which system they are prepared to pay for out of their own pockets. All the prospective providers want a lump monthly payment by the kibbutz with extra services chosen by members being paid by them directly to the company with their credit cards.

What is certain is that the landline communications on the kibbutz are more or less prehistoric and sooner or later will need replacing. Negotiations are still underway trying to get the best deal for residents. The fact that we are a community will lower the cost in comparison to what an ordinary consumer would pay living in Nahariya or Tel Aviv.

The bottom line of course is to get a better quality and a better financial package especially for our veteran senior members.

Conflict and Politics

At the time of writing the IDF has thankfully left the Gaza Strip and soon the soldiers will be reunited with their families. Thankfully all our soldiers from Matzuva are safe be they conscripts or reserves. Having been through three wars since coming to Israel I can say unequivocally that war is no picnic for soldiers or their families. There is no joy in Israel for the loss of innocent lives and I think the western press seems automatically to miss out on the real background to the ongoing dispute with the underdogs always being presented as the good guys whatever their doctrine or dogma happens to be.

Anyway, hopefully some sort of interim solution will be found for the civilian population on both sides of that border.

Now that the troops are back the politicians in Israel are back at it in full swing and we have a general election in another 18 days. Ehud Olmert is a lame duck and on his way out and maybe on his way possibly to jail and Tzippi Livni and Binyamin Netanyahu are going at it full swing with Ehud Barak also putting his oar up. Matzuva, traditionally is a product of the Labour movement but has been apolitical for at least the last decade and although the Labour party has always been the preferred choice here I’m not sure, with the influx of new members and residents, whether this will be the case this time.

Meanwhile, a new village is starting to emerge at Matzuva and the construction of these villas is well underway at “Nofey Matzuva” just to the south of the soccer field. 25 of the 41 families of Stage A are already building and within a few months or less will take up residence. A lot of families from Stages A and B already rent housing on the kibbutz to keep an eye on the building just a short walk away. Stage B also to the south towards the main Kabri-Shlomi road is now being prepared with infrastructures prior to the completion of building in about 18 months. Construction work has also begun at the site of the old children’s farm south of the children’s house with the first house already well under construction. The 12 or so plots are earmarked for members exclusively and among them are second and third generation Matzuva kids. As reported in a previous update another 50 plots are planned for new kibbutz members to the west of the residential area beyond the perimeter fence which in time will have to be moved. The two renovated children’s houses are now being prepared to absorb more children thanks to a Ministry of Housing grant.

The electric lines on the kibbutz are slowly being removed and laid underground with the children’s houses being the first part of this project. This is of course ecologically sound planning and contributes to the aesthetics of our rural community. Thanks once again to Noam our auditor for this input.

On that Katusha rocket

Finally, a few reflections on the Katusha rocket that landed just below the perimeter road to the northern part of the kibbutz:

Shlomo Doron relates: “I’m the oldest member of Matzuva and I was waiting for my wife, Hava, to buy some provisions at the “Kolbo” minimarket. Suddenly there was a very loud bang. I didn’t know exactly what or where it came from but my son Yoel rang through from London and told me exactly where it had fallen – having surfed at that time on the Internet. When we arrived home Hava called out to me – come and see there’s a white dove on the lawn in front of the house. Was this symbolic – that I don’t know but it was certainly coincidental. Over the years I’ve seen English, Americans, Australians, the Jordanian Arab Legion and Arab vigilantly groups over the years. We underwent a 6 month siege before the State of Israel was established and the fact is that the kibbutzim Hanita, Eilon and Matzuva along with Nahariya guaranteed that Western Galilee is part of the Jewish State making it all worthwhile. My hope is the youngsters will one day be able to sunbathe on the beach at Beirut, Lebanon and lift a glass to our generation who believed way back a long time ago”.

Betty Zvi (ex-Ulpanist from Toronto) recalls “I was in the bedroom cleaning up and luckily the windows were open. I heard the windows blowing out at my next-door neighbours house. I started to call out for Anat Am-Ad my neighbour.

Already in the past a katusha had fallen nearby but this time it was really close”

Anat Am-Ad relates: “At 7:30 in the morning I was in bed sleeping. When I heard the blast I jumped out of bed and ran. When I re-entered the house there was broken glass in the corridor and when I went to the bedroom my bed was covered with broken glass. If I hadn’t jumped out of bed immediately I would have been covered with shards of glass. This took me back 21 years. That’s what happened then – I was in bed with my husband Karni in the middle of the night and when the rocket came we jumped immediately out of bed a few seconds before all the windows in the house shattered. It was frightening, unexpected…just suddenly.

During wartime you are on edge but up until then it had been quiet in the north then suddenly it happens again – It’s weird and it took me quite a while to recover – the silence was overpowering – are there going to be more rockets. We were lucky for a second time – big mazal!”

That’s all for now have a good weekend – more news to come shortly.

Take care and don’t forget Jerusalem

Regards

Baruch