August 2007, after the war in Lebanon, Rabbi Zoë Klein and former president Randy Schwab joined other rabbis and lay leaders on a mission to Israel to witness the damage and reach out to the people of Israel on behalf of our congregations.

Sermon on the Mission to Israel
This week's Torah portion is Ki Tetzei,
And it begins with the captive wife-
Difficult story to talk with a bar mitzvah student about,
Louis Cohen, used every trick I could think of,
Metaphor, Hasidic interpretations,
But he wasn't buying any of it.
Finally he came and said I understand it now-
It is the Geneva Convention-
There are rules to war-

Overlooking Gaza,
Colonel Benjamin,
IDF spokesperson for the Gaza strip
spoke with us about the basic rules of war-

The first and most important rule he shared was,

1. Military law is that you cannot attack a civilian target, only military.

But a private abode in Lebanon
with a katusha launcher under the bed
is a military target-
Hamas and Hizbollah
Use the tactic of hiding as civilians,
Hiding among civilians,
Using civilians as human shields
And their deaths as photo opportunities.
When we were in the north,
Touring a hospital in Nahariya,
We learned about a Hizbollah soldier
who had been captured,
and in his logbook of missile launches
were the coordinates of Nahariya Hospital,
as well as the coordinates of a moshav,
clearly civilian target.

The second rule of war Colonel Benjamin
Shared with us was:

2. It is a sad and terrible fact

that civilians get killed in war, but as long as they are not targeted,
it is legal.

He explained that
20 times Israel told civilians in Lebanon to leave,
but they either refused, or Hizbollah wouldn't let them.

As we stood there at the look out,
Looking over the NE corner of Gaza,
notorious area for Kassam rockets,
He pointed out how the IDF had to flatten all the
Orchards before the fence in order to deprive Hamas
of Kassam missile launching places-
He said it was an ethical dilemma,
Because the orchards belong to civilians-
And how far do you go
As the missiles get more and more effective-
And Hamas develops more and more methods,
Like hiding among a flock of sheep,
Or building expert tunnels through to Egypt
To smuggle weapons.

One of our group asked how many terrorists are stopped
Trying to get through that fence-
We were shocked to learn that there are
10 - 20 attempted infiltrations a week by terrorists-

First rule of warfare is don't target civilians
The words of a Hezbollah terrorist (as reported in Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006) say:
"'Our strategy is to make them lose as many (people) as possible,' said Hussein, on the cartridge-strewn hillside at Bint Jbeil. ‘Israel doesn't care about the (loss of a) tank. They care about the people.'"
Rabbi Mark Diamond wrote: Hussein is right–Israel's civilian and military leaders care deeply about the lives of their people. People are our most precious and priceless possession. Even as rockets fall upon Israel's cities raining indiscriminate death and terror, we are confident that Israel's culture of blessing and cherishing life will prevail over the terrorists' culture of praising and extolling death.
Colonel Benjamin spoke about the media and its imbalance-
Judging as if there is symmetry between 3 Israelis who are school children,
And 10 Palestinians, 8 of whom are terrorists

And then he said sadly-
"Every soldier killed is a national treasure"

Visited Sderot-
Where sometimes 60 kassams fall in one weekend, sometimes 10 or 20,
Where there is a 20 second warning to get to a shelter when the siren goes off.

We had a letter from Villaragosa to deliver to the mayor of Sderot-
Driving to City Hall,
We passed a school where they were laying concrete slabs on the roof
To prepare for school which will open next week,
Fortifying it to protect children against he rockets.

The mayor couldn't meet with us,
He had an emergency meeting with the minister of education,
Parents of school children,
Government officials and army officials
About how to protect the children.

Sitting outside his office, we could hear shouting inside.

Even under all that stress,
The mayor welcomed us in for a brief hello.
While others were lining up for photographs,
I went to he parents at the table.
I said, "I know you are here to protect your children.
We are here from Los Angeles
To tell you we support you.
I have children too, I can't imagine-"

One of the parents stood up and hugged me,
She said "That is so important," and we both cried.

There was a depressed feeling in country,
The worry about sending kids back to school next week

We learned about a tent city that had been
Established during the war on a beach
Near Tel Aviv,
Far from the rockets,
And that there were 3000 people
There on the beach, and not one in the warm Mediterranean waters.
The children were depressed,
So the Federation had a band play for them,
And during the concert there was a popping sound from one the speakers,
Children started screaming and crying
And wetting their pants-.
 They estimate that there are
40,000 kids in post traumatic stress disorder

Marty Karp-
Horrible thing to look at a list of causalities
and hope it is someone else's kid-

There was some rays of hope-
Reserve Major General Shlomo Gazit,
former Director of IDF Military Intelligence
He said he looks at this as one more milestone
before we enter into a real peace with our neighbors

Explaining that this war in Lebanon will bring about a major discussion in the Arab world-especially among the Arab moderates,
Asking where do we stand,
Do we really stand with these radical fanatics?

Other officials told us:
Forget about real peace in the Middle East,
There will be political settlement and it will last
only as long as Israel is strong enough

Shlomo Gazit,
July 12, war started, most justified war ever faced
We moved out of Lebanon, moved to border with UN approval, to every inch of that land, entirely legal, no forces, no settlements, no claim at all. Then came the ambush.

But the decision to enter this war was wrong. If we were honest we would have to say we weren't ready. Since Lebanon had not been updating equipment, had not even been calling up Miluim for 3 or 4 years. Needed time, budget.

We entered the war unprepared from a military perspective.

The lessons they learned more important than the ones we did.

real target of Hizbollah is that they are a Lebanese Political movement representing the Shiites, 40% of Lebanese population, they want a bigger share of the cake, they want to replace the government

resistance against Israel gives them the right to bear arms.

As a Lebanese political party it was catastrophic

"If I would have known, I would have never inflicted this on my Lebanese people." Nasralla

He can't go to the Lebanese people and say, "I'm going to start it again."

I hope that the war in Lebanon that has not come to an end will bring about new settlement with Syria and Lebanon.

The war started the date Iran was supposed to give UN answer about their nuclear program, attention shifted. Maybe date not an accident.

"They did not expect Israel to start a war. They know Israel is very sensitive to losing the life of soldiers and Israel wouldn't do it. We proved them wrong."

To me, that was the saddest part-

The hit to Israel was tremendous.
5000 rockets hit Israel during this war.
Each Missile contains one million ball bearings,
Which explode outward upon impact,
traveling half to full mile in open field.

When we drove through Haifa, saw the markings on all the buildings
Shattered glass and pocked concrete.

It is a miracle that more people didn't die-
A miracle-
But also a reflection of how smart Israel is,
What an ethic of care they have,
How quickly they know to get underground.

It wasn't just the physical damage of the rockets,
But the effect of the northern populations:
10 billion dollars which had been for education and welfare diverted to military.
What that means is the populations who are vulnerable become more vulnerable.

Akko collapsed, all staff left.

Elderly who are already isolated, in war moreso,
We met with some elderly in the north,
One man, Menashe lived on the third floor,
Bomb shelter at bottom of the building, he and his wife had to go up and down,
Last day of war, there were 24 sirens, how many valiums and pills he had to take.

There was a shortage of help.

We had a tour of the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya
and its remarkable fully equipped underground facility
that functioned as a safe haven offering emergency medical services.
During this war, the hospital was able to move
600 patients underground in 30 minutes.
We saw the devestation wrought by
a katusha destroying an ophthalmology unit.

We learned how this hospital has to
mirror the underside of ambulances and stretchers,
as they've found at times
Palestinians will fasten bombs underneath the stretchers
with their own people feigning illness on top.
Half of the hospital's budget each year
Is spent on shelter and drills for chemical war and other.
We saw the parking lot,
And learned that under the cars parked there was
An elaborate plumbing system
In case of chemical war,
So people can be washed off
Before entering the hospital.

I spoke with Rabbi Ken Chasen
Comparing it to Katrina-
How much preparation there was
For war, how little our country prepared for the inevitable.
Either have an ethic of care or not-
With Katrina there was 100% certainty about the worst happening and still so little preparation.

We visited patient, Simcha Tamam, who shrapnel wounds along her back
Hospitalized for physical and psychological rehabilitations.
She had lost both her brothers Arieh and Tiran
In this war.
One of her brothers had come to her house
Specifically because he had no bomb shelter at his.
One Katusha fell and the brothers left
The shelter, when another one fell.
Simcha had run out of her shelter
To get them to come back,
But it was too late.

She had a tiny little voice,
And sat with her back to the visitors,
Hunched over and afraid.
I put my hand lightly on her knee
And asked if we could sing a prayer to her,
And she meekly said yes,
And we all sang Mishebeirach.

We visited a woman named Mila,
Gilad Shalit's neighbor (we were there for his birthday),
katyusha fell in yard, ripped trees-
Signs which said: Gilad, Mechakim lecha b'bayit
We were supposed to meet with the Shalit family
But they had been called to the Knesset.
Mila spoke of how she saw soldiers walking through garden,
"Your son is missing. We believe he is with Hamas."

She described Galit as is introverted, delicate, quiet.
She said all his friends said, why Galit and not us,
He is so sweet, so quiet-he's not cu tout for this-

We met a woman named Miriam,
A Kiryat Shemona resident,
confined to a wheelchair,
whose home was hit by a Katusha.
We saw the hole in the ceiling-
She and her frail, elderly parents were in a "secure room,"
smoke filled the house,
she called for help
and emergency services personnel
broke through to rescue her.

Strength of this woman in her wheelchair-
Lo yazuz v'lo nazuz.
-her father said they had now raised three generations under ketushas-

We painted a bomb shelter-

We visited with the mayor of Tel Aviv
Who told us that this year his city was donating
Their annual beer festival to Haifa,
a festival which always brought tourists and money,
to help build the city.
It made me again think of New Orleans,
How other cities were competing to take their sports teams,
Not give.
The opera singer who joined our group
To send us off in song
Was so impressed to see us,
Reform, Conservative and Orthodox,
Together in one place.

It is so important to have collective approach to things.
An elderly man told us, "I am convinced that the heart of the Jewish people in the USA is with us."

Paul Lipz said, Israel, for its size and reality is absolutely the most incredible country in the world-what they've managed to do economically in such a short time (1948 is like an hour ago) with so many wars is amazing.