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Last update - 07:33 02/09/2008
Bradley Burston / Hurricane Mahmoud
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Gustav, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 

As a small boy, I was fascinated by fallout shelters. I wanted my dad to bury one in the backyard. It was the Cold War then, Soviet missiles were pointed toward New York, and I scoured Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated for plans to Build Your Own Shelter. I wasn't thinking nuclear holocaust. I was thinking an underground playhouse with a cool vertical escape hatch, part kids' fort, part mockup space capsule.

The memory came back to me this weekend, watching with growing horror as Hurricane Gustav locked onto a storm track bound for New Orleans. Our family just visited New Orleans. We were enchanted, of course. But we were also fascinated, and not a little bewildered, by the extent to which the place felt like home. Like Israel.

What was it, I kept wondering, that felt so familiar?

My first thoughts, watching the mammoth fireball radar image of Gustav as it neared the coast, were about the terror and the dread and the hardships and upheavals of the evacuees in New Orleans, only recently having begun to reclaim their lives from the devastation of Katrina.

Then I began to think about our own disaster plans. Back here in Israel. About making sure that the suitcase of family photo albums was ready in case we suddenly need to evacuate. About making sure that the bomb shelter in the basement was ready and freshly stocked in case we needed abruptly to take cover.

On paper, how could two places be any more different? But after speaking with people who lived there, it started to make sense.

At root, in Israel as in New Orleans, there is a palpable sense of simchat hayim, a profound joy in being alive, alongside a constant and no less palpable knowledge that serial, unimaginable catastrophe is not only possible, but inevitable.

There is, regarding government in both places, an assumption of corruption, a habituation to ineptitude, a feeling that the very officials whose job is to serve you and protect you, will, when the chips are down, fail you.

There is also the sense, in New Orleans vis a vis the rest of the United States, and in Israel, vis a vis the rest of the Jewish world, that while your people elsewhere truly love you, when push comes to shove, you're on your own.

True, we have no hurricanes here. But we have Iran. And that's more than enough.

The Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become Israel's hurricane threat, the serial menace who orders his vassals in the West Bank to send us suicide bombers, his vassals in the Gaza Strip to send us Qassams, his vassals in Lebanon to send us Katyushas, his vassals over the next ridge from our house to try to burn us out in an arson fire.

In the back of our minds is Hurricane Mahmoud at Category 5: drawing strength from the warm waters of radical Islam and western inaction and covert western complicity and demonstrated western weakness, the Iranian regime unleashes ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

In the back of our minds, shadowing our future, is the threat that Hurricane Mahmoud has made explicit: erasure from this earth.

In the back of our minds is the knowledge and the half-security, half-fear, that when it comes down to it, your friends and family are the only people you can really count on.

The sense, is, of course, exaggerated by isolation and accustomed threat, two elements which make the culture, the history, the very language of New Orleans - and, no less, that of Israel - unique in all the world.

But exaggerated it certainly is, because the feeling is offset, in the end, by great numbers of people of good will, without whose help, both places would long ago have been lost.

In that regard, I would like to take this opportunity to compliment John McCain on an entirely appropriate and morally courageous declaration which put the energy and resources of the Republican Party in the service of aiding the residents of the four-state area at the center of the storm track.

"We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster.

"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now, no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat."

I would like to also compliment Barack Obama for pledging to use his e-mail list of supporters to raise funds and provide goods for those affected by the storm.

May the good times soon roll again.


Previous blogs:

What really scares us about Barack Obama
Ten Mideast traps for Barack Obama to avoid
The pleasure that Hezbollah takes in torture
Experiment: People's Peace Plan Number 1
Fear of calling a terrorist a terrorist
Palestinian terrorism as a natural act
How would Jesus vote on Mideast peace?
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Acid attack
IDF soldier loses eye after Palestinian woman throws acid in his face.
Obama's tribute
Obama lauds Olmert, says he's looking forward to working with successor.
  1.   CATEGORY 5 WILL DESTROY WASHINGTON DC 15:01  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  2.   Israel, not Iran, gavie birth to Hizbollah and Hamas 15:12  |  Natallie Durson 01/09/08
  3.   Mr. Burston.....it is what Americans do 15:28  |  Lynn 01/09/08
  4.   indrajaya & gNatallie Durson 15:30  |  Akiva P 01/09/08
  5.   And what is cutie Burston going to do about it? 15:31  |  Absolute Sweden 01/09/08
  6.   Indrajaya #1 I`m sorry for you, but you need treatment 15:45  |  S 01/09/08
  7.   ...and Laius gave birth to Edipus, and Zeus to Athena... 15:51  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  8.   hurricane...huh...? 15:53  |  ravi 01/09/08
  9.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 15:55  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  10.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 16:05  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  11.   # 6, S (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THIS) 16:09  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  12.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 16:12  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  13.   to indrajaya, and to natallie 16:29  |  albert paul ortiz 01/09/08
  14.   Natalie - It must be nice to blame Israel for everything 16:32  |  ERSB 01/09/08
  15.   # 13, ALBERT PAUL ORTIZ 16:42  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  16.   ERSB - reply to your ramblings 17:09  |  Natallie Durson 01/09/08
  17.   Right on Bradley 18:28  |  Bitin Dawg 01/09/08
  18.   Depraved head winds 18:42  |  allang 01/09/08
  19.   Hurricane Season is open for all. 18:57  |  Stephen 01/09/08
  20.   Nuttalie - wrong again 19:04  |  ERSB 01/09/08
  21.   Bradley It`s Your Call 19:53  |  Yosemite 01/09/08
  22.   Natalie 20:06  |  Yosemite 01/09/08
  23.   Genesis of Shi`a Islam 20:12  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 01/09/08
  24.   Bradley you have surpassed yourself in idiocy! 23:14  |  lakshmi 01/09/08
  25.   How could a third- world state pose a threat to a formidable 23:15  |  American 01/09/08
  26.   Gustav Overrated, Ahmadinijad Too 23:58  |  Mark of Lewiston 01/09/08
  27.   indrajaya 1 00:26  |  Chris 02/09/08
  28.   #15 - Indrajaya 00:56  |  Deborah 02/09/08
  29.   #8 Ravi, you sound like rational person 01:18  |  Bruce 02/09/08
  30.   Everyone should have a `go bag` packed and ready. 02:03  |  Maureen Ann 02/09/08
  31.   # 15, CHRIS 05:14  |  indrajaya 02/09/08
  32.   Indrajaya - Have you been drinking? 05:39  |  MIKE 02/09/08
  33.   How to lessen the missile threat on Israel 06:00  |  John Isenhower 02/09/08
  34.   To #26.So which is the better outcome, of Katrina or Gustav? 08:29  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 02/09/08
  35.   Indrajaya #11 complaining of my name S 09:04  |  S 02/09/08
  36.   Part 3. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 09:26  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  37.   Part 1. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 10:54  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  38.   Part 2. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 10:55  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  39.   Hurricane Mahmoud 12:30  |  Ralph 02/09/08
  40.   Indrajaya # 15: Can you respect other`s faith? 12:34  |  Jan Vlaming 02/09/08
  41.   wow 12:38  |  saseen 02/09/08
  42.   As if the Palestinians suddenly ... 13:33  |  Edith 02/09/08
  43.   Hey Professor #36,37,38 e.m Jordan is Palse! 14:14  |  Mahdi 02/09/08
  44.   ERSB #14 some points 14:22  |  examiner 02/09/08
  45.   to ERSB #14 - ill-informed (2nd try) 15:44  |  zeev 02/09/08
  46.   To #43 Mahdi (you’re back?), what do you say to Amil Imani? 16:04  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 02/09/08
  47.   woulda, coulda, shoulda, but..... 16:07  |  PL 02/09/08
  48.   # 42 Edith...if the Pals in Lebanon are "perfectly 16:30  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  49.   Mahmous is a hurricane that keeps gaining power. 16:33  |  Aounist 02/09/08
  50.   Madhi - you are brainwashed 16:44  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  51.   Hamadan 17:06  |  . 02/09/08
  52.   Indy # 11 17:22  |  Rozz 02/09/08
  53.   # 49 Aounist......... Gaining power? LOL!!! 17:26  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  54.   # 15 Indy....we citizens of the world kindly ask 17:29  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  55.   to Lynn #48 17:33  |  zeev 02/09/08
  56.   The winds of relgious fundamentalism 18:00  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  57.   Poor Natalie is dellusional #2, I dare Natalie to read this post 18:03  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  58.   The wind of tolerance 18:21  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  59.   Restore your WETLANDS !!! NOW !!! 18:22  |  Iranian-American 02/09/08
  60.   Lynn, kindly asking? 18:23  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  61.   #56 Anonymous, you forget the most dangerous fundamentalists 18:29  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  62.   The muslim countries can end up more totalitarian and intolerant 18:39  |  Anonymous