Wetherhorn

Three Arab Terrorists tried to stage an incident at the tunnel road leading to Jerusalem from the south. An alert guard halted them for inspection. At that point they took out their weapons and began shooting. One of the IDF guards was killed, others injured, and all three terrorists were killed. This incident resulted in our younger son and his family cancelling a planned visit to us. They would have gone through that tunnel en route to us.

The grandson of one of our close friends was killed in Gaza. We could not attend the funeral of CAPT Shlomo Ben Nun because it would also have entailed driving through that tunnel, and at almost the time of the shooting incident.

Have to mention that the body of one of the kidnap victims was found in Gaza. Yehudit Weiss of kibbutz Be’eri was located in a house in northern Gaza. Her husband was slaughtered on October 7^th, and she was dragged off into captivity.

 Enough bad news. Here’s something that is a bit more optimistic. Colleges and universities have postponed the start of the semester because of the war. The government also reported a shortage of over 20,000 workers in the agricultural sector. Many of them had been Palestinians from Gaza, others were contract workers from Thailand. The good part is that the National Bank, in cooperation with the Agriculture ministry are sponsoring a program to help both of these problems. The public service broadcast that talks about this has a narrator in a bus with a lot of college-age kids.

“Who here is a medical student?”, he asks.

“Me.” Says one of the passengers.

“Who is studying humanities?”

“I am.” Says another.

“Who is learning Hi-Tec?”

“We are.“ say two others.

“And who has experience picking peppers?”

Silence.

The narrator goes on to say that experience isn’t needed. College students waiting to return to classes can volunteer to help pick agricultural produce. The crops won’t rot. The volunteers will be paid. And, in addition, the National Bank will give them a grant covering a semesters’ tuition.

A real win-win situation.

A bus load of adult and high school volunteers from my village went to harvest grapes yesterday.