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Okay, well, I want to start off by saying that this isn't an “advertisement” saying “If you're looking for a fantastic vacation spot, you wouldn't want to choose Israel!” because, really, that's not what the point of the story is, and even if it was, that statement would be false. Despite all of the gorgeous views all around Israel, and the Mediterranean Sea that gives off a salty odor and the sun that tans your body, Israel is far more than “just a beautiful country”; it's more like a soldier that never gives up. As most of the world has heard, Israel and Palestine are enemies that would do anything to get their country back. Actually, it's more like the Palestinians are bombing Israel to get, what they claim “their” country back”. Since Israel is as strong as a Dwayne Johnson, they obviously fought back by bombing the Palestinians territory. And then the process would repeat again, and again, and again, until the Arabs and Israelis would finally “make up”. But then, being the kind of people that they are, the Palestinians decided to attack Israel again, this summer, the summer of 2014. This, you know, doesn't have to seem like the biggest fear in the world to you, but to me, it was like the second 9-11. All I heard about were rocket bombs, bombing Israel and then Israel gets mad and bombs Palestine and it was just a nightmare. Okay, you don't have to believe my story about Israel if you don't want to, but at least read it, because I've had an “interesting” summer his year, and wanted to share my experience with everyone.
It was July 7, 2014, and me, my mom, my grandma, and my little brother were exploring the southern tip of Israel, Eilat. It was the summer of 2014, and, by far, my favorite summer yet. We decided to go to the Ice Mall, a ginormous mall with an ice-skating rink in the middle. Yes, yes, you read that last sentence right. It was areal ice-skating rink in the Middle East. We wandered around and I finally didn't have anything on my mind. I spotted an arcade on the 2nd floor of the mall, so we all decided to go there. It was what happened the second I got off of the elevator that turned my thoughts into disasters. We carefully stepped of the rusty, old elevator, and began heading to the arcade. All of a sudden, my grandma gets a call from my grandpa. Before she even says anything, my grandpa informs us the war has started. As soon as my grandma revealed the news, my first thought was, “OH MY GOSH, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!”. And that's when my brain started going crazy and my heart was running a marathon and apparently really wanted to win. But my grandma wasn't as scared because she believes that there isn't a great chance anything will happen. Apparently, you only have 15 seconds to hide, so there isn't much you can do. Also, Eilat, the southern tip of Israel is not really hit by rocket bombs, so we were safe; until July 12th came, the day we had to leave back to Ashqelon, the town where my grandparents lived in. I really did not want to leave because first of all, Eilat was way too much fun, and second of all, there was a huge chance that I could DIE! Fortunately, we got home very safely. Then, at around 7:50 pm., I heard a police siren or like an ambulance siren and didn't really pay much attention to it because you can't do much about it, you know. But then I kind of thought to myself, “Why are the police/ambulance sirens so loud? What, do they want the whole country to know someone is hurt?” All of a sudden, while the siren was still blaring, I heard my mom scream my name as loud as that siren! I quickly sprinted to her and asked what was wrong and she said that I have to get into the little hallway because a siren was going off which meant that the Palestinians threw out a rocket bomb into our territory and we had to hide in a safe place. I guess my heart won the last marathon and was asked to compete with the champions of other marathons because it stared sprinting as fast as the rocket was flying. I started turning pale and horrifying thoughts flew threw my brain. “What if we die?” “What if I can't go back to America” “Will this ever end?” My brain kept asking me horrible questions like those so I just curled up into a ball and rolled back and forth. Out of nowhere, I heard a loud BOOM in the distance. “Does that mean the rocket fell?” I asked my mom, in Russian. “Yes”, she replied. “Phew!” I said in relief. Like little mice, we all went to turn the TV on and, what do you know, a reporter was saying the not that long ago, a rocket fell in Ashqelon. As I found out, when a special device called an Iron Dome sees that a rocket is in the air, it blares out a loud siren, and this could happen more than once or twice in a row. Also, when Israelis see that a rocket is going to land in a living area, they send out their rocket to bomb the Palestinians bomb. But if a rocket is going to land in a deserted area, the Israelis let it fall. Many people ask me this, and don't understand my thinking after this, but everyone wonders if it was scary or not. Obviously, as I mentioned before, I was scared to death when I first heard that there's going to be a war. But honestly, I got so used to it, that I didn't even care anymore. Not that I didn't care, but it just didn't bother me anymore. People always say like, “WHAT! How were you used to it when there is a rocket flying over your head?! How were you not scared?!” Well, I was scared, I really was. I was a 12 year old girl, experiencing something I only heard about in my grandma's stories. But after experiencing it, I got the hang of how things work around there and I went with the flow. Sometimes, I was more scared than other times. Like when rockets exploded 12 times in a row, or when 3 rockets exploded right above our apartment building and it felt like an earthquake. Yes, I was more scared then, but not as much as when the war first started. When I chatted with my friends, they all said that it must have not been that fun because of the war and stuff. I mean yes, we couldn't go to the beach a lot, but we still got to enjoy our beautiful home country, the country of Israel. Honestly, when you ask me, a 12 year old, I say that this was an amazing experience that I will truly NEVER forget.
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