Things You Can Do To Help

I received an email from Mark Cohen in New York who alerted me to Elie Deutsch's website, which has a music download by Elie which he has made available as a fundraiser. Elie is a musician who is currently on the border defending his country from Hezbollah's terrorism.

It's heartening to see Israelis of all walks of life opening their arms and homes to the refugees from the north.Included on Elie's webpage is a link to the Charity Network which you can read below or simply hit the title link above.

In the face of terror and war, Israelis are pulling together to provide housing for the 1,000,000+ refugees from the border area, as well as providing food, shelter, counseling, medical care and other needs to the remaining Israeli residents of the North. Many of these people have travelled north to make sure medicine reaches the sick and elderly; to make sure hot food is prepared and delivered to those stuck in bomb shelters or huddled in their homes, afraid to leave and/or without the means to reach the grocery store, assuming the store even has supplies.

I know any of you watching the news these days will be surprised to find that Israelis of the north need food and medicine trucked in (just like the Lebanese); need shelter after having their homes rendered unliveable by missile strikes, need medical attention after being the civilian victims of Hezbollah who, unlike the IAF, is deliberately targeting civilians.

The difference between here and Lebanon is that here we take care of our own--it is Israelis bringing food, emergency equipment, medicine and other necessities to our people, not the U.N. It is Israelis who are providing for our refugees, not the U.N.

I know the Lebanese coverage is more exciting--after all, you don't see Israelis dancing in the streets celebrating Arab deaths, nor do you see Israelis storming the UN buildings and trashing them for the failure of UNIFIL to protect them and allow Hezbollah to build up its stock of missiles for the last decade. Israel doesn't fire its artillery from civilian positions in order to invite counterattacks on civilian housing, so we don't have the same newsworthy number of civilian casualties.

It has occured to almost none of the mavens of the MSM that the reason our casualties are less than those of Lebanon are for the simple reason that the Arabs, including the Lebanese, have been launching war at us since 1948---and over time, we have perfected early warning systems, put air-raid sirens and bomb shelters into place to protect our own....unlike the cowards of Hezbollah, who fire their missiles from civilian buildings.

If you would like to help, there is a Charity Network alive and well in Israel, here to help the soldiers, their families, our refugees and the beleagured Israelis of the north who can't leave:



The Charity Network



Below is a list of links plus a brief description of the type of emergency relief effort that they are currently providing:

www.lemaanachai.org Lemaan Achai, emergency relief activities in Bet Shemesh

www.tabletotable.org.il Table to Table, packages for soldiers and relief for residents of the north

www.israelsoldiers.org Friends of the IDF, support IDF soldiers up serving in the north and in the Gaza Strip

www.onefamilyfund.org One Family Fund, support for victims of northern missile attacks and their families

www.livnot.com Livnot, Tzfat organization raising funds to fix bomb shelters, assist the elderly, provide meals

www.hazonyeshaya.org Hazon Yeshaya, provide/deliver meals to people in bomb shelters and displaced residents of the north

www.afmda.org American Friends of Magen David Adom, emergency medical assistance

www.yadsarah.org Yad Sarah, medical equipment, specifically for residents of the north

www.mishnasyakov.org Mishnas Yaakov, provide massive amounts of emergency supplies to residents of the north

www.jfsisrael.org Jewish Family Services Israel, provide emotional and crisis management management support

www.crisisinisrael.com a web page with specific information on people/groups who need help and people/groups offering help

www.ujc.org United Jewish Communities-- Federations of N. America, sends kids from the north to "safe" summer camps


You can also be in touch with your local Federation, or other Jewish fundraising resources.

Have an easy fast. Chazak!