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English-speakers in Ashkelon adjust to life on the confrontation line By Cnaan Liphshiz The siren caught Marty Davis behind the wheel on Wednesday morning. Signaling to no one, he turned from the empty street into the parking area behind one of the buildings that stretch along Ashkelon's Montifiore Avenue. The building faces Gaza, he explained with a New York accent. "The rockets come from the south so it's safer to get behind the building's north face." Tapping one finger on the wheel, he waited for the 10-second undulating wail to subside. When it did, he listened for the dry thuds heralding the Grad rockets' fall somewhere around or in the city he and his wife decided to call home some 20 years ago. Advertisement Indeed, Davis' manner of carrying on with his life almost as usual seems characteristic of how Ashkelon's English-speaking immigrants are taking the situation caused by the rockets that Hamas is firing on their homes from Gaza since the expiration of the ceasefire two weeks ago. In parallel to heading Ashkelon's umbrella organization for English-speaking immigrants, Davis had worked in development projects up north, where he has seen a few Katyusha rockets falling. "Now that my home has become the confrontation line, I find it's a little bit different," he says. As soon as the rockets hit somewhere in the distance, Davis' cellular phone rings. It's his wife, Terri, calling from home to make sure he's alright. Currently, she only needs to worry about him and their middle daughter, Ilana, who lives and works in Ashkelon. Ilana's sister and brother live out of town. The Davis family belongs to a community of some 2,000 English-speakers living in Ashkelon. Like many other Anglos, they live in a house in one of the city's northern neighborhoods. Their two-story home is in Ganei Barne'a - not far from Sderot Hazionut ("Zionism Avenue") and the local Country Club. This part of town looks a lot like Ra'anana - complete with wood-plated garbage bins, flower-rich traffic islands and well-kept gardens for owners to let loose their dogs. Marty is driving to the apartment of June and Mel Narunsky, who settled in Ashkelon 22 years ago after emigrating from Durban, South Africa. They live closer to the center, right outside Afridar - Ashkelon's first neighborhood constructed in 1951 with funding from South Africa's Jewish community, whose ex-members also formed the city's nucleolus. Cranky kids June, an English teacher who also edits the community's publication, wanted to live in Ashkelon to be near her sister, who had been living in the Gaza settlement of Neve Dekalim. Now, the place where her sister's community existed before it was evacuated during the 2005 Disengagement is used for launching rockets into Israel. At present, June is putting up her daughter, Andi, and Andi's three children. Andi, her husband and the kids live just down the road, but they moved in with June and Mel because their house is less protected. In her apartment, Andi - a freelance translator who works from home - has to take the kids out to the stairway whenever the Color Red alert system goes off. June's apartment, by contrast, has a "mamad" - a built-in bomb shelter. The schools are out since last Friday, and with her Israeli-born husband away at work near Tel Aviv during the day, Andi needs her mother's help with the kids if she's to get any work done. As for the kids, they are getting cranky. Except for a few brief excursions, they have not gone outside the building. They have been locked up since Saturday, when the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Cast Lead to restore of calm in the south - prompting Hamas' regime in Gaza to launch dozens of rockets deep into the Negev and the southern coastal plain. Speaking about the effects of frequent sirens on her children, Andi says: "Kids panic only if their parents panic. The sirens themselves are not so scary if the grownups behave like it's not the end of the world." But one of her daughters - all under the age of 10 - has started to wet the bed since the ordeal began. From the Narunskys, it's a short hop over to the city's only Conservative synagogue, Netzach Israel, whose complex also houses the town's Tali kindergarten, which belongs to a nationwide network providing a pluralist Jewish education for secular pupils. It also doubles as an afternoon daycare center for the community's 175 children. The synagogue-school complex is the city's only educational institution which was protected against Palestinian rockets with reinforced concrete and armored glass. The money for the reinforcement came from donations from Jewish communities in the U.S., such as the Conservative Synagogues of Baltimore association, which set up an independent partnership program with the Ashkelon congregation. Inside the building, Lorna Szefler, a veteran immigrant from the U.S., describes it as "probably one of the safest places in town." She has come there to discuss the situation with several other members of the Anglo community, including her son, 30-year-old Avi and his wife, Noa, 28. Their one-year-old son, Nathan, was playing with toys on the floor. Susan Hedvat, another immigrant from the U.S. who settled in Ashkelon many years ago and works as a high school English teacher, picks up a doll and animates it for Nathan. "He doesn't get too scared when the sirens go off," says Noa, "but he knows that someone is supposed to pick him up." Some find the rockets more stressful. The congregation's rabbi, Gustavo Surazski, who immigrated to Israel with his family four years ago from Argentina, sent his wife and two daughters up north. "My wife was too worried to stay, and I can't blame her," he says. Surazski says he tries to control how much news his two daughters, aged five and two, watch on television. "The more they know the harder it is for them," he says. "But of course, they should know what's going on." Inevitably, perhaps, the discussion at some point turns to Hamas, the people in Gaza and the difficult images of carnage seen on television in the wake of IDF attacks there. "When I watch these images from Gaza, I do feel my emotions are more insulated than before," says Claudia Giat, 46, who married an Israeli after she came here as a volunteer some 20 years ago from the U.K. "When someone is out to kill you and your children, it's a matter of survival," she says. "And I can look at those pictures from Gaza and feel much less moved than I used to be. I think to myself that their lives are not worth more than mine or my children's lives." Bringing up another generation to hate Although he strongly supports the operation, Surazski says the images from Gaza "serve to bring up another generation of people who will hate Israel." Giat replies that what worries her more, is that the Palestinian attacks "are bringing up a generation of Israelis that hate Palestinians in a way which goes against one's values - especially those of someone from abroad." Referring to her son, who recently enlisted, she says: "I know that he is going to have to change his whole value system and all that I've taught him as right and wrong, just in order to survive here." Some of Ashkelon's Anglos bring their experiences with combat with them, such as South African Brian Brand, who moved to Ashkelon from Eilat four month ago to become the Holiday Inn's executive chef. Before Brand, 52, immigrated to Israel in 1992, he served in the artillery corps of the South African army during its 1975 invasion of Angola, and came under fire there. That combat experience, he says, has made him less worried about the rockets from Gaza. "The Grads are inaccurate and primitive," he says in explaining why he rarely bothers to head for cover when the alarm starts. "The chances of them hitting any one person are slim." Marcus Klotz, 80, isn't too worried either. As a Polish-born Holocaust survivor, he has lived through five Nazi concentration camps and several blitzes - including the one of Dresden - before he moved to the U.S., and finally to Israel. "It does bring up some memories," he said about the situation. But when the rocket alarm went off on Wednesday as he was entertaining two guests in the taupe-colored living-room of his apartment, his only reaction was to pause and say: "Here we go again." He did not get up to head for shelter. "I ran away enough in my life," he explained. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Fallen hero Relatives mourn Maj. Roey Rosner, 27, killed Wednesday by Gaza militants. On the northern front Hezbollah denies responsibility for two rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon.

Read & React Red Cross: Israel breaking int'l law, letting children starve in Gaza Responses: 114 Two Lebanon rockets hit North; Hezbollah denies involvment Responses: 68 Yossi Melman: Excellent intel on Gaza shows Israel learned from Lebanon errors Responses: 21 Yoav Stern: Rocket fire on North may be realization of Iran threat Responses: 25 Gideon Lichfield: So, why isn't Israel winning the PR war? Responses: 74 More Headlines 23:04 Third IDF soldier killed in Gaza over past 24 hours 22:37 Draft UN Security Council resolution doesn't call for immediate Gaza truce 02:23 Report: Obama ready to talk to Hamas after taking office 02:24 'This country exists because of people like him' 22:35 Israel to present complaint to UN over Lebanon rocket fire 01:24 European Jews to hold rallies supporting Israel's Gaza offensive 22:10 'I pray that he will watch over us, he died a hero' 22:38 At least two Lebanon rockets hit north Israel; Hezbollah denies involvment 02:06 UN: Army admitted school shelling was by mistake 18:20 Get up to the minute coverage of the warfare in Gaza directly to your email 22:05 IDF Chief of Staff Ashkenazi tours Gaza battlefields 23:11 WATCH: Olmert spokesman says Israel never sought war in Gaza 18:12 ANALYSIS / Rocket fire on North may be realization of Iran threat 19:57 UN says halting aid to Gaza, citing danger to staff from IDF 15:01 ANALYSIS / Excellent intel on Gaza shows Israel learned from its errors in Lebanon 19:07 Palestinians: 35 found dead in rubble of Gaza battle zone 17:07 Olmert: IDF has not yet achieved all its goals in Gaza offensive 20:35 WATCH: U.S. Senate voices strong support for Israel's Gaza battle against Hamas 18:53 Sarkozy: Halt to arms smuggling is key to Gaza cease-fire 16:08 Red Cross: Israel breaking int'l law, letting children starve in Gaza 21:49 Iran bans volunteer suicide bombers from traveling to Israel 17:18 Palestinian shot dead after trying to blow up settlement gas station Previous Editions Select Day 08 jan 07 jan 06 jan 05 jan 04 jan 02 jan 01 jan 31 dec 30 dec 29 dec 28 dec 26 dec

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