After cooking up a pancake breakfast I went down to the beach for a surf session. Before leaving at 7:30 Anita said be ready for the rocket alarm, they shoot a rocket this way every day about 8. Down at the beach a few guys were fishing, waves were small but fun. At 8 the alarm went off and the fisherman turned to the city and watched the sky. I too did the same thing a few hundred yards out in the water. There was no hit in Ashdod, we are glad to get false alarms instead of the occasional no alarm.





We headed for the hills today, out of town. We went hiking in the forest in search of fairies. Anita made fairy flower crowns. We rode scooters and played in the park and after all of that had a picnic. Then we found another ruin site Tel Tsafit that was a gate way city between the Med and Jerusalem. The white clay cliffs and ruins and the ground is littered with pottery shards. Who knows how old these pottery pieces are, but it’s amazing to think about their possible age while picking them up.








The war goes on, this picture is today with Gaza burning in the background. From the tall apartments you can see similar views of Gaza in Ashdod. Yes we could leave Ashdod, work would pick up the tab for hotel and or flights if the family wanted to go to Croatia. But we don’t feel that threatened. The rockets in the north gave me a scare. Further escalation from the north is a definite concern but seems like formal leadership in Lebanon do not approve of starting that fight. Right now departure triggers are other countries join the fight against Israel or a significant increase in rocket hits to Ashdod from Gaza.

Reading the Israeli news links gives some extra perspective. I saw a horrific video of Hamas soldiers picking up kids from the side walk to use as shields as the run across the street. Also it’s reported that Hamas is intentionally putting children and civilians at risk to drive up the casualty rate and bad press for Israel including holding people at gun point to stay in high risk locations. Also who stores rockets in a religious place like a Mosque?

As Anita said today, “there will never be peace in this place.” The more we read about the history of this land the clearer it becomes that there is no compromise that could please all. For the US folks maybe the closest analogy is how America grew at the expense of the Native American. Nothing anyone is proud of but it happened and can’t be undone. Now think of a few of those Native American’s being so consumed with anger about it that they constantly wage a war against the US from within. And then they do it without any concern for retaliation to their own families. The best to hope for is people learn how to live in tolerance of others.