September 06

Tsfat: Images of the Aftermath
by Eliyahu Alpern
p. 3 of 3

Above is one child's view of the conflict, in a drawing Eliyahu saw in a bomb shelter. "The Arabs" are on the right; Israel on the left. "Boom boom boom" is the sound the missiles make when they hit houses.

And below is another child's view of the conflict -- Michal Mor's. This is what katyusha shrapnel is meant to do: maim as many as possible. Just like it does to phones and posters, so it occasionally does to humans. There are scars from surgery on her abdomen and head.

Then again, maybe Michal was lucky. She and the rest of her family was in the kitchen when the missile hit. Here's what it did to her house:

Tsfat, it seems, will recover. So will Kiryat Shmona, eventually. And so will Israel's sense of itself. Eventually the tourists will come back, and walk in the footsteps of Isaac Luria -- hopefully buying some Kabbalistic art along the way. In the meantime, for now, quiet is enough.