16-Jun-06: The threat in the freezer

Some years ago, the Israeli journalist and writer Uri Orbach composed a short article which captures an aspect of the oddness of living in a place where some of us are in mortal danger while others, just around the corner literally, are basically living a quiet and undisturbed life. 

Orbach captured the mood of the times (2001) here in Jerusalem where some neighbourhoods - some streets - were under round-the-clock sniper attack by Palestinian Arabs while others were at peace. 

The comment we wrote below about headlines focusing on Sderot reminded us that it's time to give Orbach's words some additional airplay. Here it is:

Where It's Really Dangerous
Uri Orbach (published originally in 2001)
In America, everyone knows that it is terribly dangerous in Israel now, and it is not recommended to travel to Israel.
In Israel, everyone knows that it is dangerous only in the territories and in a little bit of Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem everyone knows there is shooting going on, but only in the neighborhood of Gilo.
In Gilo everyone knows that it is dangerous, but only on Ha'anafa Street.
On Ha'anafa street everyone knows that it is dangerous, but not all along the street, just in the houses that face Beit Jalla.
In the houses facing Beit Jalla, everyone knows it is dangerous, but mostly in a few apartments on specific floors that get shot at occasionally.
In the apartments that get shot at, they know it's dangerous, but not in all the rooms. Just in the kitchen. In the bedrooms and bathrooms, on the other hand, it's totally safe.
In the kitchen that gets shot into they know it's really dangerous. But not in the entire kitchen. Just near the fridge and the toaster.
Those near the fridge know that where it's really dangerous is in the freezer, which is directly in the rifle sights of the sharp-shooters from Beit Jalla.
You can take milk and cheese out of the fridge part without getting hit - usually. Word-of-honor.
And in the freezer over the fridge part of the refrigerator on one part of Ha'anafa street at the edge of Giloh in Jerusalem in Israel? Oh boy, it's totally dangerous there. If you stand there and pull some frozen schnitzels out of the freezer, that's when you really take your life in your hands.
So for a few months, just until things calm down, we're not going to use the freezer.
Nu, so this you call dangerous?

Thankfully, Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood is having far quieter days now, compared with 2001. And we hope the same will soon be true of Sderot and the communities of the western Negev. But there's no basis for thinking that the dangers out there, all around us, are really going away anytime soon.