Bridging two hemispheres: how to

Sitting next to me on the bus back to Tel Aviv (after spending my first Shabbat back in Israel with my cousins Gila and Chaim) was the loveliest person I met in the line forming outside Bus 480 in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.

While passengers were pushing madly to be first or second or — gasp, horrors, possibly just third to mount the steep steps of the bus, a small senior citizen clutching a large bulging bag in each fist waited her turn patiently. When I bowed to indicate that she enter before me, she insisted, “You got here first, I saw you.” And I knew exactly next to whom I would plant my self, jacket, Brookstone backpack, and stuff-filled Whole Foods eco-friendly bag.

An old message: Jews, get out of Iraq
Our journey passed quickly in the manner of strangers on a train (bus, plane, ship, or camel caravan) who bond instantly, and I learned early in our gabfest, among other things — that my companion had arrived in Israel as a small child, a refuge from her native Iraq. “They drove out the Jews, and we left in haste.”

Forty-five minutes later, as our bus neared the Tel Aviv Bus Station, police blockades along the major arteries were causing delay, confusion, irritation, and rumor-mongering among the passengers. Everyone's dreaded unasked question: Were the blockades on account of a “suspicious object” (meaning, a possible terrorist bomb planted in an abandoned container found nearby)?

Within minutes, in a scene reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard's opening frames of Week End, I saw spaghetti-like streams of stalled vehicles, their passengers morphing into pedestrians taking to the highway. Yet here, helicopters droning overhead, along the barricades protesters were holding placards — UNDER FIRE IN SDEROT, and chanting, “We want a military solution! We want the army to do what's right and to fight the enemy!"

An old message: Jews, get out of Israel
Sderot, the southern Israeli town is where, during the past seven years more than 8,000 qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip have been raining, really pouring on schools, homes, streets — everywhere. Here, where 33% of the children suffer from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), civilians and even schoolchildren act as medics, attending to injured family, friends, pets, animals — anyone.

The protesters came from Sderot to Tel Aviv to demand that the Israeli army kill, besides the terrorists who are missile launchers, Gaza's political leaders who meet every Saturday afternoon to decide where and when to terrorize Jews, then order the missile launchers to fire and to kill.

Bridging hemispheres, cultures, eons: tips —

Choose, if possible, a bus seat companion who is gentle and thoughtful.

Pay attention that Iraq/Babylonia drove out its Jews, who had been living there more than 2,500 years — since their earliest expulsions from their native Land of Israel.

Pay attention that Iraq’s cousins in Gaza and elsewhere are doing their best to drive out the Jews from their own country, the State of Israel.

Therefore, choose life! !וּבָחַרְתָּ, בַּחַיִּים

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you might live, you and your seed. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

הַעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם, אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ הַחַיִּים וְהַמָּוֶת נָתַתִּי לְפָנֶיךָ, הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה; וּבָחַרְתָּ, בַּחַיִּים לְמַעַן תִּחְיֶה, אַתָּה וְזַרְעֶךָ — דברים ל:יט.