Israel 23,

April 5, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

After our mountain tour with the army, we were allowed 2 hours leave to walk around Eilat before returning to the base. The gate is closed and locked and you need permission to enter and leave the base especially in war time. After last night’s attack, they take no chances. Eilat has changed a lot since I came here in 1971 as well as 8 years ago. My memory of Eilat is a sleepy little village with no restaurants or cafes. I can’t remember if there were even hotels here. There was a youth hostel but I slept on the beach on and off for 3 months. I must have hitch hiked here from Tel Aviv at least half a dozen times. Hitch hiking and sleeping out in Israel and for most of Europe was tolerated and safe.

The beach is lined with 10 to 20 story luxury 5* hotels. There is a nice outdoor promenade here where you can buy the usual beach articles. The water is cool and refreshing so several of us went for an evening swim. I had my goggles so I was able to dive for some red rocks in 8 feet of water. Along the water are numerous cafes and restaurants. We split up into 2 groups, those who wanted to eat and drink and those who simply wanted to wander around. I chose the former group for my first falafel in Israel. The taste did not disappoint me.

Yesterday we boarded the bus and drove through the desert to Tel Aviv. It was boiling hot, at least in the high 30sC. I wandered around Tel Aviv in the afternoon and took a nice swim out to the breakwater. At supper all the other groups were anxious to hear about the attack in Eilat. Personally, I was not at all worried about our safety during the attack, as I felt that we were well protected in the shelter. The Army, Navy and Air Force were there to protect us and I felt that we were in good hands. Some of the others were less reassured than I was and In Tel Aviv, some of the other members of the group were very concerned for our safety.

Last evening I went out to eat with my French friends from Cassis. We sat out at a beach restaurant and enjoyed each other’s company while listening to the waves flap onto the beach. I must make a stop in Cassis on my next visit to France. Today, I slept in and then spent some time catching up on emails, reviewing my flight and doing my weekly washing. I try to swim or run everyday as I will be doing the World Championship Triathlon on the Canadian National Team, Age group 75-79, in Malaga in October. After all this manual labor at the bases, I think that I am in relatively good shape.

Love,

Brian

At the same time in Montreal……

Israel 22,

April 3, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

We woke up this morning to blue skies, sun and of course a warm temperature which would gradually increase over the day. After breakfast we were given our tasks for the day: cutting mangos, cutting tomatoes and washing the floor…. Afterwards we set the tables in the officers dining room with blue table clothes, dishes and cutlery. This took us most of the morning and early afternoon.

Our commanders told us to get ready at 4:30 for a special surprise. We met in front of the commissary office and walked over to the port. We were then given a tour of a PT boat. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed. 2 SUVs then picked us up and drove us through the desert, up and down some rocky hills until we got to a designated place. We then hiked up a few hundred meters to the top of a small mountain where we had a view of Eilat, the Red Sea and Jordan in the distance. The soldiers had prepared a picnic for us with watermelon, cookies, coffee and juices. The view was spectacular. We were then presented with our IDF certificates, tie pins and a framed picture of the whole group. Each of us was presented with our award separately, photos taken, cheers from the group and a heart warming thank-you to each of us by the commander. The IDF really appreciates the small contribution that each of us made by coming here and helping Israel.

3 of the guys had to leave early to catch an early morning plane back to the States for a wedding. They had told us that they were going into Eilat to purchase a few supplies such as can openers and knife sharpeners. We learned later, quietly, after they had left, that they had purchased 50,000 shekels ($18,000 American) of necessary items including cappuccino machines, piazza ovens, ice cream machines etc…What a nice gesture on their behalf.

Yesterday the Iranian Embassy in Syria was attacked and destroyed killing several high level Iranian commanders. The UN security will meet to condemn the attack as expected. The Israelis have not confirmed of denied the attack which is their usual position. Iran has said that they will retaliate in due time. The CIA has indicated to Israel that the attack will occur in 48 hours. An attack if it does occur with come via 1 of their proxies such as Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad. Let them come, we are ready for them.

Tomorrow we board the bus for the 4 hour journey through the desert.

Love,

Brian

Israel 21b

April 2, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

Eilat, boys night out and navy base bar-b-q.

Love,

Brian

Israel 21,

April 2, 2024

Hi Everyone,

After my last blog yesterday describing the drone attack, several of you kindly sent notes asking if I am ok and telling me to be safe. Yes, I am safe. As I am continuing to write my blog, I am still alive, in 1 piece and a have not been captured by the ‘evil forces’.

Yesterday was a completely new experience for most of us. We have 400 to 500 soldiers and sailors on the base. There are several ships in the port. We can see the mountains of Jordan in the distance as well as the city of Aqaba Jordon. The border lies somewhere in the middle of the gulf of Aqaba. In the distance we can see Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The sun rises in the morning over the Jordanian mountains which are a reddish colour. The gulf is 4-5 km across, a good swim and an arrest by the authorities if you dare to try.

Our job at the base is to provide the food for the IDF men and women. This means kitchen work of all types. There are 12 of us, all men from the States, Canada, Holland and France. They split us into small groups to perform our tasks. Very little training is involved but the chef wants perfection and occasionally corrects us if we make small errors. The chief chef is a great fellow. He is married, has 2 children and lives in a house off the base. He was in high tech before but did not like the job. He always wanted to be a chef so he studied and got this job. He explained to us that much of the young kitchen staff come from troubled backgrounds. Some had trouble adapting to regular army life. He takes them under his wing and teaches them kitchen work giving them some pride in themselves and their work. I think that they will turn out better with his coaching and his personalized care. It is not everyone who can do this.

Soldiers often ask us where we are from. They are all appreciative of the work that we do for Israel. 300,000 reservists were called up to help the regular army. This leaves the country with 300,000 less hands to do the regular army and civilian work. 100,000 Palestinians came from Gaza and the West Bank everyday to work in Israel. Since the war started, the border is closed. There is no construction going on. There is a major problem with food production, picking and planting fruit and vegetables. There are no tourists except the volunteer workers. The economy is going to be really in trouble. On the weekend there are over 100,000 Israeli demonstrators in a central plaza in Tel Aviv demanding the resignation of Bi-Bi and the immediate return of the hostages under any condition. I don’t know what will happen. I support Israel and continue doing my small job to help. `

Yesterday, I placed veal steaks on a platter and then dipped them in bread crumbs. We were 3 for this work, 1 dipped the steaks in oil and the other 2 dipped them in bread crumbs before placing them on a platter. This is rather specialized work and so each of us had a designated job. Not necessarily in order, we took the stems off tomatoes, put cucumbers into the cutting machine, sliced beets, cut oranges in small pieces, placed cinnamon buns on platters interspaced with croissants, dipped chicken legs in oil, prepared steaks with garlic, put carrots in the carrot cutting machine, opened fish packages and placed them on a platter…. Other tasks consisted of mixing the vegetables in a sauce to be poured onto the fish, mixing spaghetti with a long spatula, mixing and mashing potatoes…. I could go on but it might boring to describe everything.

Last evening we were invited down to the dock to see the ships. There are 2 or 3 PT boats, 1 destroyer and a bigger boat that might be a frigate. The destroyer put out to sea, led by a smaller PT or tug boat. A small Jordanian boat of the same size came out to the border line to patrol. There is no trouble between the 2 countries in spite of the war now. The enemy was probably trying to hit our ships with their drone but missed and hit a building 50 meters away and 100 meters from where we had taken shelter in the bomb shelter. We saw the hit on Twitter. We think that the drone came from Iraq or the Houthis.

After this we were given permission to go into Eilat, accompanied by our commanders. We were like a bunch of kids at summer camp that were getting an evening off. We walked into town, 20 minutes away, and picked out a nice restaurant overlooking the sea. We ordered refreshments and enjoyed the cool air while taking in the view of the Red Sea. A few of us took off our shoes and got our feet wet.

This morning we had flag raising with all the soldiers on the base. We all stood at attention, and then did ‘attention, at ease’, when ordered to do so. We then all saluted the flag at flag raising while singing Hatikvah. It is a moving, sad and uplifting experience all at the same time. Everyone knows in his/her heart why he/ she is here. Tonight we have a bar-b-q with the soldiers. We will eat the fish, steaks and vegetables that we prepared today.

Love,

Brian

Photos to come

Israel 20b

April 1, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

Robert thinks that I am talented and will give me lessons. I have 3 days to learn!

Love,

Brian

Israel 20,

April 1, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

The 5 other guys in my room were in bed sleeping by 9:30-10:00 pm. I stayed up to 12:15 watching an Argentinian movie. I must have fallen asleep at 12:45. The war came home to us at 1:22 am. The sirens went off waking all of us up. We have 30 seconds to get to the bomb shelter. Dressed only in my underwear I made it in 28. Some of the veterans knew to grab some clothes. The shelter is 10 m from my door. It looks like a sewer pipe 20 feet long, 5’10” in diameter and about 8-10 inches of thick concrete.

There were about 30 of us crammed together. The volunteers were mixed in with the non combatant soldiers, male and female. The soldiers with weapons ran to their designated posts. 2 min later there was a loud boom. Our planes flew over head for the next half hour. Everyone was calm. The people with cell phones went right to X (twitter) where we learned that the naval base had been hit with a drone. There was a hole in the building, but not do too much damage. We had visited that warehouse earlier in the day. The drone hit 100 m from where we were hiding in the bomb shelter. One of the American fellows travels around with a harp (about 4 feet high). He thought to bring it with him to the shelter. We heard the background noise of the fighting, air planes and I think the iron dome defence. He played the harp, singing Hebrew songs like Aveno Malkainew. It was surreal.

It is hard to get comfortable in the shelter which is concrete with round walls. Next time I will grab some clothes and a pillow. We were in the shelter for 1 hour. Time passed quickly. People had already posted the battle on Twitter. You can see the boom as we were hit and you can see the iron dome taking out some drones and rockets. It is amazing to see some of the mean comments made by people in the States and Europe, like we really deserved what we were getting.

I was back in bed by 3:00 am and slept until 6:30. We had a meeting in the morning with a commander who told us not to take any pictures. I am only repeating what is already posted on Twitter. Hit Twitter, Eilat, drone attack to see the videos.

I am safe.

Love,

Brian

Israel 19,

March 31, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

We said good-bye to our ‘older’ new found friends and made a new group of friends going off to a new base. I chose this time to go to the naval base in Eilat. It was a 4 hour drive through the desert that is very arid with no sand dunes. There were occasional oasis’ to break up the scenery and far off mountain ranges.

53 years ago I spent 3 months in Israel, 2 months on a kibbutz and 1 month exploring Israel and sleeping out on various beaches. I hitch hiked back and forth from Tel Aviv several times. In those days, hitch hiking was easy and safe. Often I would hitch hike with a girl which made it rather easy as a couple is less aggressive looking to a driver. When I came here in 1971, there was nothing. There was 1 small youth hostel, 1 cafe and no place to buy a beer. There were no hotels or restaurants and very few inhabitants. The 2 lane semi paved road has been replaced by a 2 or 4 lane very well maintained road. There are large apartment buildings and hotels as Eilat is now a medium size city.

We arrived at the base after 2 pit stops along the way. We were greeted by the soldier in charge who showed us around the base. We went down to the naval port and saw the ships in the harbour. We will probably be invited for a tour of the ships later this week. We could see Jordan across the Gulf of Accaba. The border runs in the middle of the gulf. Here, they are very strict about taking photos. We are absolutely not allowed to take photos of soldiers or ships. We were given our uniforms and were allowed to take pictures of each other and the water. The accommodations are so-so, 6 in a room with bunk beds, smallish, but with air conditioning. It is 35C outside, and hotter in the sun. We have not yet been given our duties.

Love,

Brian

Israel 18,

March 30, 2024

Hi Everyone,

I told myself that I would write everyday so this day should be no different. After breakfast, I went up on the terrace overlooking the sea and studied some Hebrew. At 74 years of age, I am making very slow progress.

I then headed down to the beach as I needed at least 1 day of total relaxation after the ‘hard work’ at the military base. I rented a beach chair and had an ice cream cone for lunch. The water was rough with nice size waves do I did some body surfing. Swimming out to the breakwater was out of the question. I am off to a naval base in Eilat early tomorrow morning.

Love,

Brian

There is Israeli dancing every Saturday on the beach with music for everyone.

Israel 17,

March 29, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

Today was an easy day for me. I woke up a little later than usual as the clocks were turned forward by 1 hour here for daylight saving time. The breakfast here is ‘wholesome’ with a variety of vegetables that I can not eat for breakfast. I prefer fruits, yogurt and a bagel, Israeli style, which is fatter than our St Viator style. I figured out that if I fill 2 cups separately with 1 cappuccino, I can fill the rest with 2 espressos which gives me the coffee taste that I desire.

I proceeded to the local laundromat where I washed 1 weeks worth of clothes. There is not too much as we wear army, IDF uniforms on the base. While the clothes were washing and drying, I had another cappuccino at a coffee shop around the corner that I discovered on my last trip. I walked by an exercise club where the local girls were practicing kick-boxing-shadow-boxing to music for 1 hour. It was great to watch but I don’t think that I would last 3 minutes with them.

After dropping off my washing at the hotel, I walked over to Hostage Square. Although I was there 2 weeks ago with my cousin, Rochelle, it was much more sobering to me today. Having been in Israel now for 2 weeks, I can understand the horror to realize that these people, whose only crime was to be dancing at a music festival or living on a socially minded kibbutz, have now been in Hamas’ hands for 5.5 months. How many are still alive? How many have been raped? How many are now pregnant? I took many pictures that you can see below. A music band set up in the central area and played quiet type music. Leonard Cohen’s, Hallelujah, was one of the tunes that was played making me proud to be a Canadian. This, in spite of what the Canadian government and some Canadians have done, and are continuing to do now with their on going demonstrations. The misinformation and the lies that are being spouted in Canada and all over the world goes beyond all comprehension. When people scream ‘Free Palestine’, do they really understand that that means putting Hamas back in control? If not, what are they offering as an alternative?

The weather was warm today, but for the most part cloudy with sunny periods. In any case it was good enough for a swim out to the breakwater, a distance of ‘20 minutes’ there and back. The manager of the hotel was there to congratulate me for my effort. Although there were some people in the water up to their knees, I was the only one to swim out that far.

I was invited to Shabat dinner once again by one of the executives of MDA with some of her family and another Sar-El volunteer. They were united in their dislike of Bibi but wonder if he should be replaced in the middle of a war. They blame him for the failure to prevent the Oct 7 massacre. No body knows what to do now or how it should all end. No one can predict the future or have an idea as to what an ideal situation should be as a final solution for a 75 year old conflict. 7 rockets fell near Tel Aviv and 100 in the north. 200,000 people can not return to their homes. People are going on with their lives here in Tel Aviv but there is a general sadness in the air. Is this at all reported in the western press? Don’t talk to them about the Haredis who don’t serve in the army and spend their time ‘studying’.

I still don’t understand why 1.8 million Gazans don’t revolt against 10,000 Hamas ‘fighters’. Golda Myer once said that ‘the war will end when the Arabs learn to love their children more than they hate the Jews.

Love,

Brian

The photos above, taken in Hostage Square, the ones that no one in the west sees, especially the teddy bears, are devastating. Take 2 minutes to stare at them and you will understand why I feel that I must be here now. While writing my blog, I am sitting out on a terrace, overlooking the Med, sipping a beer in the cool evening air, listening to soft music at 11:30 pm, wondering what lies ahead. the contrast is too much to imagine.

Brian

Israel 16,

March 28, 2o24,

Hi Everyone,

I was up late last night writing my blog and studying Hebrew. Everyone seems to go to bed around 9:30 leaving me alone to study Hebrew by internet in the common room until 11:30. This morning we were up as usual at 6:30 to wash up and then at 7:00 for breakfast. We had a short day of work until 10:30 to finish off the emergency packs. We then had to clean up the base, have lunch at 12:00 and then catch the bus to Tel Aviv at 12:30. We took pictures with our hosts and had a nice speech from our commander. He thanked us profusely, and invited us all to his house next week for a ‘cocktail’. He realized the time and financial sacrifices that we all have made to be in Israel now. He is very handsome and all the ‘girls’ wanted to have their pictures taken with him.

On arrival at the train station-bus station in Tel Aviv, 4 of us elected to walk for 47 minutes to our hotel. It was hot and we arrived rather sweaty as it was 28C. We have heard that it is 10C in Montreal with 32 cm of snow. I took a quick shower, had a cappuccino and headed to the beach across the street. The beach is beautiful, as I have said before. It stretches for miles with a board walk and has a beautiful sandy area stretching 200 m to the sea. The sun was shining and the sea was calm. Although there were ‘no swimming signs’ as there were no life guards present, everyone was in the water swimming. I dropped my towel on the beach and swam out to the breakwater. The water was calm and refreshing. The swim took me 20 minutes to the breakwater and back, not bad for a first swim since Sept.

I then walked along the beach for an hour. The beach was full but not backed like in the summer on the Riviera. The guys wear short type bathing suits; there are no speedos. The girls all wear bikinis varying from the French style to the Brazilian style bathing suits. There are very few blonds here; most of the Israelis on the beach appeared to be Sephardic in origin. Even with my tan, I am very light skinned here. Everyone was playing volley ball or soccer in a group without allowing the ball to touch the sand. Impossible…

At 6:00 in the hotel we have a 5-7 with wine and refreshments. Our 5-7 lasted until 8:30 with the appropriate amount of wine as I was with a French couple and a Norwegian girl. The Americans seem to drink less wine than us. Afterwards I went to a beach front restaurant-bar-cafe with a French couple. He lives in Versailles and has a secondary residence in Cassis, near Marseilles. He did not know the JB family.

I am enclosing a picture of a German-Israeli girl that won ‘picture of the year’. She is lying on an SUV with a bunch or Palestinian ‘hero’s’ celebrating with their guns in the air. In the video a Palestinian woman comes up and spits on the poor girls body. One day I would like to meet that woman and ask her why she spit on that girl. Would she like to spit now? If you ask me one reason why I am in Israel now, that is the reason.

Love,

Brian

Doris asked me challenge the big guy to an arm wrestle. He laughed…