The Columbus Jewish News asked former Central Ohioans living in Israel about their experiences over the past weeks during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They spoke with the CJN prior to the cease-fire.
Charlie and Penny Libicki
Charlie and Penny Libicki grew up in Northeast Ohio and later lived in Bexley. They now reside in Ashkelon and sheltered during the bombardment of the city.
CJN: What are your Columbus roots?
Charlie Libicki: My wife, Penny, and I grew up in Lorain. We moved to Columbus from Boston after college in 1979. We were members of Congregation Ahavas Sholom in Bexley.
CJN: What brought you to Israel?
Libicki: Penny attended the Hebrew instruction institute Ulpan Akiva in Netanya in the summer of 1996, fell in love with Israel and decided that is where we should live. At the time, all of our children were in Israel, and the two oldest of our children currently live here.
We arrived at a compromise that we would move when I turned 50, in 2004. We first chose Ashkelon for idealistic reasons, specifically because it is close to Gaza. It’s a medium-sized town with very affordable housing, a pleasant climate for most of the year, a beach within a 20-minute walk and a diverse Jewish community.
CJN: What has been your experience during the conflict?
Libicki: In this round of fighting, Hamas set out to make Ashkelon its major target, with outlandish threats to turn Ashkelon into “hell” and that the “occupiers should either leave or die,” and furious barrages. Perhaps they calculated that by concentrating on Ashkelon, they might be able to overwhelm the Iron Dome defense system and demonstrate at least some breakthrough success.
And, indeed, when you fire off over 100 missiles in the space of five minutes, some are bound to get through. The constant explosions were like the grand finale of a fireworks show, but much longer and closer, and without the visuals since we were in the basement.
On Tuesday night (May 11), a missile struck an oil storage tank in the Ashkelon-Eilat Pipeline tank farm, raising a toxic blaze that took most of a day to extinguish.
On Wednesday night (May 12), Penny and I sat in the basement waiting out a barrage and listening for the familiar cadence: the whoosh of the Iron Dome defense missile, followed by the wailing of the sirens, followed by the foundation-shaking boom of contact with the incoming Gaza missile. One boom, however, didn’t match the pattern; it had a squishier end to it, as if it had hit the ground. And indeed, when I went on a short walk to check it out, I could see that the field across from the hospital was ablaze.
They say that the Israel Defense Forces doesn’t waste ammunition on incoming missiles that will land in open areas. But this was just across the street from a hospital. Are they really that confident in their ranging?
Penny and I and our house and everyone we know personally are OK. Not the case for everyone in Ashkelon. So far in the city there have been two fatalities and a couple dozen injuries. We thank everyone for their concern and prayers, and we pray for the peace of Israel and its neighbors.
CJN: Where does Israel go from here?
Libicki: On the one hand, this is a movie that we’ve seen before, far too many times. On the other hand, things have been quiet for a while and there was no obvious reason why the violence should have spun so wildly out of control right now.
It doesn’t seem as if any party had something to gain from starting a conflict. To my mind, what’s different right now, and a departure from anything in the history of the modern State of Israel is that Arab parties have been asked to join the government, and some have been eager to join.
It may have started as a desperation move by Netanyahu, but once he opened the door, it’s not so easy to shut. What that could mean is that the Arab community will have a voice in guiding the future of the State of Israel, and not just enjoy what rights they have by dint of Jewish beneficence. And there are parties on both sides that find this unsettling and even dangerous. Among Jewish nationalists, obviously, but also among Arab ideologues, who see any accommodation with the Jewish state as betrayal and joining the government as unthinkable.
The surest way to spoil the deal is to ignite the “Arab street,” forcing everyone to choose sides. Once that happened, Hamas felt compelled, especially with their own upcoming elections, to show themselves as the champions of the Palestinian people. And here we are.
What to do? It’s hard to say. The idea that we should let the Israel Defense Forces do its job and eradicate Israel’s enemies … is also a movie we have sat through before and it always has the same ending. So, while I believe that it’s worthwhile to degrade Hamas’ military capabilities, we should try to get through this without cutting scars so deep that we can’t get back to the process of building an inclusive government. And the longer this goes on, the more difficult that will be.
Rivka Cherney
Cherney
Rivka Cherney grew up in Bexley and works at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo in Jaffa, Israel.
CJN: What are your Columbus roots?
Cherney: I was born and raised in Bexley, and I attended Congregation Agudas Achim during my childhood years. I went to Columbus Torah Academy until high school. My mom still lives in Columbus, and I come back as much as I can to visit.
CJN: What brought you to Israel?
Cherney: I went to Israel to study Judaic studies for one year after high school before I went to college. I fell in love and always wanted to come back. I finished college in New York, and I started working for a nonprofit organization. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Israel. At first, I was scared of making aliyah. So, in 2010 I did a five-month Masa Israel Journey program, working as an intern in sports marketing for the Israel Football League. I decided to stay after my program and made aliyah in 2011. My brother has made aliyah as well.
CJN: What has your experience been during the conflict?
Cherney: I work at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo in Jaffa, which unfortunately has a lot of violence and riots happening, so I choose not to go to work until it settles down. Life is not the same right now, as even a subtle noise makes me jump.
I was also living here in 2014 during the Protective Edge war, which was also devastating, but I feel that now we have a lot more destruction and rocket fire than in 2014. It is a very unsettling feeling and hard even to leave the house. We do not even have a bomb shelter, so we have to hide in the stairwell each time.
I am supposed to be getting married on June 14 here in Israel, and now with this situation, it has me worried.
CJN: Where does Israel go from here?
Cherney: This is an extremely difficult situation. Terror is never the answer, and Hamas believes it is. Israelis should not have to live in fear and sleep in bomb shelters for weeks. Jews are fearful in their life daily, whether it is walking in the street, sleeping in their own house or taking a bus.
Hamas is not only a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Jews and Israel, but they also use their people as shields. Israel gives plenty of money and supplies to Gaza, but unfortunately, Hamas controls Gaza and uses it for their own needs.
I also do believe that the media has to stop portraying Israel as the bad guys. This will do nothing but make things worse. Israel has every right to protect itself and respond, especially to terrorist organizations.
The difference here is we act in response to the violence and rockets that are sent nearly every minute. It is not our goal to kill Palestinian people and destroy Gaza, whereas Hamas’ goal is to destroy Israel and Jews. People need to wake up and see the truth.