Plastic Swords and Foil Helmets by Anita Tucker

BS"D
I share with you, dear friends, my heartfelt emotions as I approach Chanukah longing for my lifetime hometown and longing no less for the hometown that will be.
I hope you have patience for me, as my need to share this with you is sincere.
Your e-mails, visits, calls and caring for my community and those of my Gush Katif friends fuel the energy to continue
I pray with you that our mutual yearning for that bigger special promised home and times will soon be.

Chanukah 67/06
Plastic Swords and Foil Helmets

Commentaries and articles on the subject of Chanukah over the years have emphasized the debate about what is the most important element of the holiday.
Was it the miracles, the heroism , the leadership , the holiday of victory (Chag Hanitzachon) , the Jews against the Greeks, the secular Hellenists against the traditional, the few against the many, or was it the devotion to the essence of so many as exemplified by Chana and her seven sons that is most significant about Chanukah that is most significant?.

Chanukah was the holiday which we best connected with while living in Gush Katif
God's miracles that we witnessed, the heroism (that too was obviously a God -given fortitude that caused us to somehow stay on despite the sand in our beds, despite the rockets and terrorism, our ability hold up in the struggle against destruction and against the capitulation to terror, our standing up to protest what we believed was immoral and unethical.), the devotion to the Land of Israel that we love so much, as it returned our love flourishing the bald sand dunes, all these connected us to Chanukah.
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I recall , in our town, Netzer Hazani, the pre-kindergarten Chanukah play, one post Oslo year was all about the Macabbees fighting the enemy .

As the play began, the thin sweet voices shouted above shattering explosions of terrorist rockets nearby and the noise of shooting in the background.

The tots were playing the role with such conviction as if they were certain that they really were the Macabees and were certain all that they had learned for this holiday was really about them.

As I sat at the pre-kindergarten play, watching my grandchildren and their friends perform , I recall feeling certain that if our IDF would only allow it, our little Maccabees could easily overcome the enemy attacking us that moment like young Judah and brothers against the many in those days gone by , if only they had been permitted to do so.

Our tots' plastic swords, their aluminum foil helmets were worn with such pride.
Our tots' were proud of their tradition.
They had innocent faith, heroism and devotion with their so pure and sincere conviction to the truth that is often more clear to 4 and 5 year olds than adults ,politicians and heads of state.


Today, the only fighting spirit I see here in the temporary living site of Ein Tzurim is survival, the only ones standing straight here are the little red capped, beige, caravillas standing like robot soldiers in lined rows equally distanced one from another .
For many here, holding on, just surviving is the major struggle.

This Chanukah, for me, Anita Tucker, far away from my natural scenery and dear piece of Eretz Yisrael of my destroyed lifetime, the holiday value this year is VICTORY.

Victory is my motto, not only in the daily battles of survival, but a determination for victory in our war.
No, we are not busy as journalists, politicians so many on forwards on e-mails, dealing with war from Iran and Iraq .

We are fighting a war for rehabilitation, for building anew, for being permitted to again be constructive creative people who build, contribute and make a difference in the Land of Israel , among the people of Israel .

We understand now that to realize this hoped for miracle we are not only dependent on our will, our devotion, our faith, our fortitude as we were while building Gush Katif .
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This time we are mostly dependent on others. Will the government come through in all its ineptitude and bureaucracy to enable us to build anew?
Some say to win the war we must win the battle.
The battle is that we insist that the government of Israel provide us with buildings roads and land equivalent to what we had previously and we must rely solely on this.
This battle when and if finally won may leave us without any soldiers left, with too many injured and dead. I don't want to put all my energies in the battle.

I want to win the war.

Winning the war means that we are again constructive contributing citizens. This can't happen via the endless exhausting frustrating battle with our total dependency on the Sela commission, with the Prime Ministers office's bureaucrats.

Winning can only happen when we together with our caring wonderful friends who are behind us in this war of survival and building anew take things into our own hands.
So the first major step I took with my caring new friends was buying caravans for those whom the Sela commission claimed has no technically legal rights to continue with the community. These young families, who were born in Gush Katif grew up there, married there, had their own kids, continued living there until they were expelled. Their crime was that per chance they rented from private rental housing and not from public rental housing so it was decided they have no rights.

So I took the first major strategic step.
The battle fighters said we will keep on knocking on their doors until the bureaucrats agree to help --have patience.

Those of us who want to win the war said forget the bureaucrats and their devotion to inflexibility, our young families will not be thrown aside, let's just buy caravans! These young families are now living with us as an integral part of the community.

Amazing caring people wrote checks directly to buy these homes and the families are in them. Simple, no bureaucracy, no fees, nothing but pure direct chesed with a big personal direct hug that gives tremendous strength to the givers and receivers and no doubt makes some dramatic vibrations upwards in the heavens ,klapei shmaya ,as well.

Everyone who came to visit this year asked me when we will again eat your celery, peppers etc.
We still have not received land for growing, nor full compensation for our agro-businesses. So how can growing vegetables again be possible, we must wait patiently. Those who wait and whine may well win the battle but I just won another stage in my war.
My two sons, who were second generation organic farmers in Gush Katif and three other friends from Netzer Hazani took their down payment on home compensation (who needs a home when you are fighting a war anyway) together with my own silent partnership in it as well, invested in partnered land in the Jordan Valley, put up greenhouses, planted organic peppers and plum cherry tomatoes and have begun picking delicious vegetables. Yes it is not our land, it is an hour and quarter drive, it is not where our permanent home will be but is a reason to get up in the morning, it is productive and constructive!

As I walk between the tall tomato plants and inhale their intoxicating odor, I know that we have accomplished a small victory over the destruction.
The problems aren't simple ,we planted a bit late in the season, the land is a bit different than we are used to ,etc.-small stuff for people with the challenges we've seen these last years.
I left the greenhouses sure, more than ever, that this is the right approach to victory in this war.

The only healing treatment for destruction is construction.

I can fight the battle of bureaucracy and lack of caring forever and perhaps I will succeed to get a compromise with a promise. I will feel victory in the battle but this is still not building anew.

Yes, no doubt, the government must be made to fulfill their responsibility for the building anew --making them do it is a battle but getting the building to really happen and new towns built as they were is the war.
I know that everyone of you who are reading this stand with us in this war and your caring will give us the strength to win the war.

Friends write me and ask ,Anita what do you say about all the terrible news --Iran Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Hamas ,El Kaida, our own Israel heads of state Olmert ,Livni,Livnat etc.
I say forget it --Hakadosh Baruch must have some plans that are beyond our control. What you and I have control of is Chesed.
We can do chesed to each other, to Gush Katif communities, to those in the North, to Sderot, each of us to their neighbor in his own community .We can do chesed to the people of Netzer Hazani, you to us, we to our families, the families to their kids, the kids to each other.
Each in these chains of chesed will feel the hug and caring of the other and if we love and care about each other than certainly Hashem, God, will help us feel his ever present love and care.

Now there are people in the community who are still not working, they are eating away at their house compensation money for daily survival.
We still have to help them hold out with their head up high so that when we win "the war" they will have the emotional strength to continue to enjoy the victory and challenges of construction.

Our toddler Maccabees are in kindergartens that are barely equipped with toys and learning materials. We have given lists of materials needed to the regional council and to all the bureaucrats responsible who have promised that they will be approved and ordered any day now. One month, another month, another month and nothing happens.
Now our children are preparing their Chanukah play in a bare stoic kindergarten. That is it --I had enough of this battle I shall win the war.

Our caring friends from the US called to come and visit --they came, they cared and they gave us the ability to equip the kindergarten with part of what the kids need.

These Maccabees in our Ein Tzurim community will be strong and proud and ready for the building anew --for winning the war-- because the battles have left them weak of soul and with wounded hearts.

So I share with you more of my war strategy.
Hope I'm not boring you terribly but I am so grateful for your ear and heart to share with you. It would be so difficult were you not out there
People have told me that fundraisers and PR experts write short concise proposals. Donors have no patience for long emails.
Sorry, my emails are not for those, I am still a farmer, my goal is to hope you will feel in your heart what I feel in mine . My need is to share with you as a fellow caring person.


My community of Netzer Hazani in Ein Tzurim has not had a rabbi since our Rabbi Yitzchak Arama was murdered 4 yrs ago. We need one now desperately to help the soldiers get strong to be ready for the construction.
But there is no caravan to have candidates stay with their big families for Shabbat --nor do we have a place to put them if they are ready to move in.
Months of efforts to convince the bureaucrats that this is essential have led to promises and no action. We will each donate (from our house down payment) some amount and hopefully one of our caring capable friends will partner with to us make it happen. Meanwhile we will just do it! We will somehow order a caravan furnish it and start inviting candidates for Shabbat.

Next a "youth building" yes the Sela commission , the prime ministers office, and who not, have promised Sammy and Bryna Hilburg ,our friends and neighbors, whose Moadon Yochanan in Netzer Hazani in Gush Katif was built in memory of their son killed in the Shayetet-marine seal unit , 9 years ago in Lebanon fighting the Hizballah(sound familiar) that they will build a new Moadon Yochanan ,youth caravan. Months have past, where is it?

Now the Hilbergs are working with our youth director, fighting too, to keep our youth healthy and sane without a proper facility.
I have given up on this bureaucratic battle --with God's help I will somehow figure out how to buy a caravan for a youth building on our own!
We need our youth when we win this war, not bleeding and injured in the field of battle from frustration, with lack of faith in leadership and their State of Israel.
I need our youth strong and healthy, with faith in Am Yisrael and still flowing with Hashem, with God.
Winning a stage in the war is when the youth have their own meeting place that is theirs and they know that there are people out there who love them. that they know that we, the adults, were self relying and figured out how to get them what they needed for the togetherness that all the experts say heals our youth's souls.
When we have healthy smiling brave youth, who again are willing to stand up tall feeling that going with God's ways is a victory --it will be a victory!

Yes, definitely, we will fight the government battle to get anew what we had, but we won't wait for ever.
Now we will start a fund that will subsidize whatever it takes to compete the land deal, to build again our synagogue our simcha hall etc, to prepare the infrastructure for the greenhouses and other initiatives and infrastructure for homes beyond what the government agrees to give that so far that can't make it happen.
Bli neder, --we will work hard ,convince ,demand but not wait forever .Exhausted we will still gather our fortitude and search for the the caring people capable to help us reach victory and reconstruction .

NO MORE DESTRUCTION!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO US MUST NEVER EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE!!!!!

Whoever adopts a strategy of destruction will find that, God willing, there will be construction twice as big and twice as successful as what existed before!!!!

Come and visit and smell the intoxicating smell of fresh flowering plants in our new greenhouses and you too will inhale a breath of the Chanukah message of victory --Chag Hanitzachon.
Come see our tots in the kindergartens still lifting their plastic swords and aluminum helmets, weakened , yet still declaring proudly as did the Maccabees-
"who is with God, follow me-Mi LaHashem Aelai".

Sincerely looking forward to hearing from you,
Thanks for caring; your caring as always gives strength,
Best ChAnitah wishes,
anita

tucker.anita@gmail.com