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Inspiring Stories from Israel
(We would like to hear your stories)
mail to: halkin@sympatico.ca

(Submitted by Ruth Isaac)
 I am not the least afraid to go any place, by bus or to a mall.
 I didn't change or stop doing ANYthing I used to do
before this mess began! People tend to forget that twice the
casualties from terror get killed on the roads!

 More people still die from heart attack, cancer, and other  things; they just don't show them on TV.

Don't misunderstand me, there is a war going on, it's not
pleasant, but lets face it.. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!! It's only TV and media that make people think it's the end of the world coming.

Only 60 years ago!! They were leading Jews to their death like sheep to the slaughter!

 No country, no army. 55 years ago!! Seven Arab countries declared war on the small Jewish state, only a few hours old!! We were then 650,000 Jews! Against the rest of the Arab world! No IDF, no mighty air force, just tough people with nowhere to go (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, attacked all at once).

 The country the U.N. "gave us" was 65 % desert. The country
tarted from scratch! 35 years ago!! We fought the three strongest armies in the Middle East, and wiped them out in six days. We fought against different coalitions of Arab countries,  with modern armies, and masses of Russian soviet weapons, and still won!!!

 We have today a country, and an army, and a strong air force, and hi-tech economy, exporting millions, Intel-Microsoft-IBM develop their stuff here, our doctors win world prizes for medical developments, we made the desert flourish, selling oranges and vegetables to the world.

 Israel has sent its own satellite!! In space (three satellites all together!!), we sit proudly with the U.S. (250 million people),
Russia (200 million people!), China (1.1 billion), the Europeans --France-England-Germany (350 million), as the only countries in the world to shoot something into space!! Israel is today in the world nuclear power family with U.S, Russia, China, India, France, and England. (We don't admit it, but every one knows...) To think that only 60 years ago, we were led, shameful, with no hope, to our death!!

 We crawled out of the burning ashes of Europe, we won our wars
here with less than nothing in our hands, we built an "empire" out of nothing.

 Who the hell is Mr. Arafat to make me scared? Terrified? You make me laugh!  Passover was last month, let's not forget what the story is all about. We overcame Pharoah, we overcame the Greeks, the Romans, the inquisition in Spain, we overcame the pogroms in
Russia, we overcame Hitler, the Germans, the Holocaust, we overcame seven other Arab countries at once, we overcame
Saddam. Take it easy, folks, we will overcome these ones too.

  No matter at what part of human history you try! to think of,
for us, the Jewish people, our situation has never been better!!! So let's lift our heads high, and remember: any nation or culture that tried to mess around with us was destroyed to the ground - while we kept going!!! Egypt?

Anyone know where their empire disappeared to? The Greeks? Alexander of Macedonia? The Romans? Anyone today speak
Latin? The Third Reich? Anyone heard any news about it lately?

 And look at us, the nation from the Bible, from slavery in Egypt we are still here, speaking the same language!! Right here, right now. The Arabs don't know it yet, but they will learn there is one God. As long as we keep our identity, we are eternal.

 So, sorry for not worrying, bitching, crying, or being scared,  things are going o.k. here. They surely can go better, but still, don't  fall for the media junk, they won't tell you that there are festivals going on, people keep on living, going out, seeing friends. Yes, our morale is low, so what?  It's only because we weep for our dead while they
enjoy the blood (and this is the same reason why, we will win,
after all).

 You can forward this (if you choose) to the whole of the
 Jewish community in the United States,and the world.
They are part of our strength and it might help some of them to
keep their head up high. Tell them there is nothing to worry about.
Tell them to think BIG and to see the whole picture.
 "See you next year in Jerusalem."

Submitted by Joel Schuster

July 6, 2002 -- LOS ANGELES - Angelic "daddy's girl" Victoria Hen emigrated
from Israel to the United States with her family 12 years ago to escape the
fearsome threat of Mideast terrorism.

It didn't work.

The 25-year-old El Al ticket agent, who spoke of marrying soon and raising a
family in her new country, was slain by crazed gun-and-knife-toting attacker
Hesham Mohamed Hedayet at Los Angeles International Airport. Friends
recalled yesterday how Hen was born in the Israeli town of Rishon Letzion -
the target of a homicide bomber two months ago - and was raised in
Beersheva.

In 1990 her parents, Avinoam and Rachel Hen, brought her and her two younger
brothers, Nimrod and Udi, to Los Angeles to avoid the violence they were
seeing every day in Israel.

They were "trying to find a place where you can bring up your kids in a
peaceful way and not be scared of losing them to terrorists," said family
friend Sean Ben-Menahem.

Victoria's parents, who run an auto-parts store, were too overcome with
grief yesterday to emerge from their home in the Chatsworth section of
northwest Los Angeles yesterday.

"They're in a position of denial right now - expecting Victoria to walk in
through the door any minute," said another longtime family friend, Joseph
Knoller.

"And we all know that's not going to happen."

One of Hen's first jobs was as office manager for Knoller's firm - a private
security company, Nastek. She did that from 1995 to 1998 before joining El
Al, where she handled tickets and boarding.

"Her main job was to actually smile at people, to actually make them feel
comfortable when they come up to the line, and she definitely did that,"
Knoller said.

Her favorite part of the job was to escort VIPs through the security
checkpoint while she was in uniform, friends said.

Hen also loved children and often spoke of having her own. She worked for
Knoller - as recently as a week ago - as a baby sitter for his three
children.

"They wouldn't have any other baby sitter but Vicky," he said.

Hen's other relatives, including grandparents, still live in Israel. They
recalled her as devoted to her father.

"She was daddy's girl," an uncle told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"The first time her father wasn't next to her, she caught two bullets in the
chest."

Investigators said yesterday that Hedayet, the gunman in Thursday's rampage,
said nothing before he walked up to the El Al ticket counter and began
firing.

Hedayet was killed by two security guards but not before he fatally shot Hen
and a second victim who was seeing a friend off on the afternoon flight to
Tel Aviv.

"She was brought to this work with the act of love and was taken away from
us with an act of hate," her family said in a statement read by Knoller
yesterday.




(Submitted by Hilary Abrahamson)
 -----Original Message-----
 From: kenan [SMTP:kenan@lavi.co.il]
 Subject: This is very inspiring!!!
 Excerpts from a friend in Israel ....thought you would find this of
 interest.
 I am not the least afraid to go any place, by bus or to a mall. I didn't
 change or stop doing Anything I used to do before this mess began! People tend to forget that twice the casualties from terror get killed on the
 roads! More people still die from heart attack, cancer, and other things;
 they just don't show them on TV.
 Don't misunderstand me, there is a war going on, it's not pleasant, but
 lets face it.. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!! It's only TV and media that make people think it's the end of the world coming.
 Only 60 years ago!! They were leading Jews to their death like sheep to
 the slaughter!
 No country, no army. 55 years ago!!
 Seven Arab countries declared war on the small Jewish state, only a few
 hours old!! We were then 650,000 Jews! Against the rest of the Arab world!
No IDF, no mighty air force, just tough people with nowhere to go
 (Lebanon,Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, attacked all at
 once). The country the U.N. "gave us" was 65 % desert. The country
 started from scratch! 35 years ago!! We fought the three strongest armies
 in the Middle East, and wiped them out in six days. We fought against
 different coalitions of Arab countries, with modern armies, and masses of
 Russian soviet weapons, and still won!!!
 We have today a country, and an army, and a strong air force, and hi-tech
 economy, exporting millions, Intel-Microsoft-IBM develop their stuff
 here,our doctors win world prizes for medical developments, we made the
 desert flourish, selling oranges and vegetables to the world.
 Israel has sent its own satellite!! In space (three satellites all
 together!!), we sit proudly with the U.S. (250 million people), Russia
 (200 million people!),China (1.1 billion), the Europeans --
 France-England-Germany (350 million), as the only countries in the world
 to shoot something into space!!
 Israel is today in the world nuclear power family with USA, Russia, China,
 India, France, and England. (We don't admit it, but every one knows...) To
 think that only 60 years ago, we were led, shameful, with no hope, to our
 death!!
 We crawled out of the burning ashes of Europe, we won our wars here with
 less than nothing in our hands, we built an "empire" out of nothing. Who
 the hell is Mr. Arafat to make me scared? Terrified? You make me laugh!
 Passover was last month, let's not forget what the story is all about. We
 overcame Pharaoh, we overcame the Greeks, the Romans, the inquisition in  Spain, we overcame the pogroms in Russia, we overcame Hitler, the Germans, the Holocaust, we overcame seven other Arab countries at once, we overcame Saddam. Take it easy, folks, we will overcome these ones too.
 No matter at what part of human history you try! to think of, for us, the
 Jewish people, our situation has never been better!!! So let's lift our
 heads high, and remember: any nation or culture that tried to mess around
 with us was destroyed to the ground - while we kept going!!! Egypt?

Anyone know where their empire disappeared to? The Greeks? Alexander of Macedonia? The Romans? Anyone today speak Latin? The Third Reich? Anyone heard any news about it lately?
 And look at us, the nation from the Bible, from slavery in Egypt we are
 still here, speaking the same language!! Right here, right now. The Arabs
 don't know it yet, but they will learn there is one God. As long as we
 kee our identity, we are eternal.
 So, sorry for not worrying, bitching, crying, or being scared, things are
 going o.k. here. They surely can go better, but still, don't fall for the
 media junk, they won't tell you that there are festivals going on, people
 keep on living, going out, seeing friends. Yes, our morale is low, so
 what?
 It's only because we weep for our dead while they enjoy the blood
 (and this is the same reason why, we will win, after all).
 You can forward this e-mail (if you choose) to the whole of the Jewish
 community in the United States, and the world. They are part of our
 strength and it might help some of them to keep their head up high. ; tell
 them there is nothing to worry about. Tell them to think BIG and to see
 the whole picture.
 "See you next year in Jerusalem."















If you have an answer please
send it to me at:
halkin@sympatico.ca