The Dripping Tap

Drip, drip drip. Mental note, get the plumber in as fast as possible before I go completely mad. Drip, drip, drip. Actually this tap has some rhythm. Drip, drip drip. How can my wife sleep through this noise. Drip, drip, drip. This is real oriental torture. Drip, drip, drip. Mental note, due to lack of sleep everybody in the house should keep at least 2 meters away from me, call it a security buffer zone. Drip, drip, drip. Mind you I have not spent 25 days in a public bomb shelter, can you imagine? Drip, drip, drip. Suddenly the drip doesn’t seem so bad. Drip, drip, drip. At least were south and safe.

The next morning I leapt out of bed, ran outside and breathed in the pure Judean mountain air. What a wonderful morning I thought; the birds singing in the trees, children playing in the streets, the scent of flowers and pine calming and relaxing my senses. OK, so it wasn’t quite like that. The next morning I dragged myself out of bed, crawled into the bathroom, swore at the leaking tap, grumbled at the wife and was quite inexcusably rude to the neighbor who phoned to borrow some milk.

I nearly fell down the stairs, turned on the TV to watch the war, boiled the kettle and manhandled the phone book trying to focus on the plumber’s number. Even dialing his number was a challenge. “Is that Yossi? Get here as soon as you can. Got a leaking tap, driving me insane. No I’m not up north it’s the TV. And you, bye.”

The kids crept silently into the salon, the news disappeared and the cartoons took over. I decided to ignore it. Fell down some more steps to the basement. Sat at the computer and read all the news feeds.

As I read the feeds and saw the videos of our incredible country being torn apart a rush of anger overtook all my senses. I don’t think it was sleep deprivation I am sure it was just raw emotion that caused me to cry a little.

So many questions unanswered about the Lebanese, the international community and the blatant anti-Israel reporting. Nothing new there. But I asked myself, why are we not immune from all of this. For thousands of years we have suffered under just about every government in every country throughout history. You’d think we would have evolved into some thick skinned toughened up nation. But no. Every time the BBC refers to Hezbollah or Hamas as militants, my blood boils. Every time they call Israel’s response disproportionate I end up shouting at the TV, and every time they ignore Iran’s call for Israel to be wiped off the Earth, I stand there incredulous, waiting for someone to condemn them.

These people are tearing our State apart. Safed is unrecognizable. Haifa, Nahariya, Maalot, Shlomi, the border Kibbutzim, Rosh Hanikra and Kiriyat Shemona, to name but a few, have all sustained huge amounts of damage. Everything we have tried to build and rebuild in the last few years smashed to pieces and soaked with Jewish blood.

And just like a dripping tap, you never, ever, get used to it