Israelis share ‘war’ stories with Queens

Just a few weeks before the intense fighting began along the Gaza Strip, Queens Assemblymember Rory Lancman and a delegation of state legislators traveled throughout Israel meeting with dignitaries, touring nurseries, hospitals and others sites in Sderot and Ashkelon.
Those same areas and the people that Lancman met with are now at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has only continued to intensify in recent days with an Israeli mortar attack killing at least 30 people near a United Nations school in Gaza on Tuesday, January 6.
Lancman, who urged Americans to support Israel in its war on Hamas when the conflict erupted two weeks ago, organized a conference call on Monday, January 5, with three Israeli women he met during his trip. Lancman had the women share some of their own stories about what was happening around them to give New Yorkers a better insight into the struggle.
“When they see what is going on in southern Israel [I want people] to not just see it as a headline, as a far away place, but to see these communities for what they are, which are communities and neighborhoods,” Lancman said.
Chen Abrahams, the Director of Resource Development for the Gvanim Association, lives about a mile from the Gaza Strip, and she has seen and heard firsthand the heartaches of war.
“When you live as close as I am to the border…you are living in a war zone,” Abrahams said. “You can’t do anything. The windows are about to break, and the house is shaking all the time.”
Taly Levanon, CEO of the Israel Trauma Coalition, said that the challenges are great and providing help to citizens in the region is a daunting task.
“For us, the main challenge and difficulty also is to see the big scope of the number of locations that are entering this new reality, and many of them are with the high population of elderly and new immigrants, and therefore, requests are very much to support vulnerable populations,” said Taly Levanon, CEO of the Israel Trauma Coalition.
While the fighting and violence is devastating the region, many in Israel are encouraged and heartened by the support their country is receiving from their friends in the United States.
“Everyone is so warm and taking care,” said Anat Lerner, Director of Early Childhood Programs in Sderot, which Lancman toured in December. “It really gives us a good feeling that people are with us.”
Levanon agreed, and she believes that the people of Israeli are rallying around each other during this difficult time.
“There is a sense in Israel that something is finally being done, and that maybe that there is a chance for hope,” Levanon said. “And, also the Israeli population is now showing an enormous amount of solidarity and hospitality, and it is warming everyone’s heart.”
However, as ambassadors from around the world continue to descend on the region trying to negotiate a peace or cease fire, Abrahams, a mother of a 9-year-old boy, said that two weeks ago Iranian mortar shells fell on each side of their house.
“After something like that happens, it’s very hard to tell your son, ‘don’t hate,’ ” said Abrahams, but she reiterated that her mission as mother is to make sure that her son does not grow up thinking that way.