From: AFSI, afsi@rcn.com
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002

Dear Friends:

By now you know what happened here in our community over the past few days. The sound of 14 year old children eulogizing their friends at their funerals is beyond bearing. Hearing them ask "Is she still alive?" over and over - is just heartbreaking, and yet this has become their routine now and for a long time to come. Now these babies are busy organizing rotations to visit their friends in the hospitals where many of them lay in serious condition and paying condolence calls...

The following is an excerpt from a letter that one of our neighbors sent to his family and friends on Monday: "... this has been the worst 3 days of my life. Saturday night was beyond any nightmare I could have imagined. I mean, I've done my reserve duty and I've seen wounded solders, but what happened here was pure evil! I saw kids whom I've known since they were born, and I couldn't even recognize them because of all the blood.

Yesterday, we buried Nehemia. He was 15 and lived 3 houses up the block from us. When my son Moshe transferred to his new school, Nehemia, who was in 9th grade was one of the boys who took Moshe under his wing and made things work out for him. Today, we buried Keren. She was 14! Moshe was with me through both funerals and I kept thinking how I wasn't even allowed to go to grandpa's funeral when I was 13, and here is Moshe, burying 2 of his friends. Its beyond what my mind can comprehend. When i close my eyes at night, i still see the visions of Saturday night and I feel like my soul has been ripped out of me.

I know that time heals all wounds, and i know that it will heal ours also... but I keep thinking about our friends who buried their babies today and i wonder how long it will take for them to get back to some form of normal life. And in the mean time, 5 more friends of ours have children who are fighting for their lives and in 2 of the cases, it looks VERY bad! Its so hard!

Anyway, like you know, I'm on the anti-terror rapid response team here in the community. Our job is basically to be a first and fast line of defense in an emergency and basically to "buy time" until the army or police arrive. Then, when they get here, we go under their command and do what they tell us. Saturday night, we were the first ones to respond. within 5 minutes of the blast, we were all there. After the army took over, they told us to patrol the community and get everyone into their homes. They were afraid of an infiltration and wanted the streets clear so they could search the community in an orderly way. After that, we were doing patrols on the security roads all night.

Now here's the problem. Even though we are a first line of defense, and even though we are all volunteers, and even though we are helping out the army.... we only get limited supplies from the IDF (M16s and ammunition). Absurd, huh! Actually, ITS CRAZY! So we have decided that we are NOT going to put our lives ONLY in their hands, but will take responsibility for equipping ourselves with the things that are needed. The 3 most important things are normal walkie-talkies with a 7 kilometer radius. The model is Motorola XTN with a PTT microphone. They cost $200 each and we need 20 of them. The second thing is 20 MAG-BEAM rechargeable flashlights. They cost $40 and we need 20. The third are Trauma kits for first aid in a terrorist attack. They cost $500 each and we need 3 of them. I've written below the list of equipment that we need to be able to be an effective response team. Any help you can give us in raising money for these things is a mitzvah beyond anything I can imagine. I ONLY HOPE WE NEVER HAVE TO USE THEM.

1- Walkie-talkie : Motorola XTN                   $200 * 20 =  $4,000
2- MAG torches:                                    $40 * 20 =    $800
3- Trauma Kits:                                   $500 *  3 =  $1,500
4- Night vision equipment:                           total     $1,000
5- Rotating Strobe lights for emergency vehicles:  $45 * 20 =    $900
6- Megaphones:                                    $100 *  2 =    $200
7- Rifle Scopes:                                  $500 * 20 = $10,000
8- Lock-boxes for M16 Rifles:                     $180 * 20 =  $3,600
9- bullet proof vests:                          $1,000 * 12 = $12,000

And finally, we are going to try to raise $80,000 to buy an armored, bullet proof jeep for patrols.

I know that I have listed $34,000 worth of equipment (not counting the jeep), and we don't expect it all to come from one source, but we have paid a price this week that NO ONE should ever have to pay. We have buried our children and we are going to make sure that we are prepared to protect ourselves. I know that we can't ever guarantee that we can stop everything, but at least we can make sure that we don't mess up because we didn't have the things we need to do it right!

As if this wasn't enough, last night (Tuesday evening) at 8:00 PM, we received a priority alert from the police that an armed terrorist was on his was to our community. As you can imagine, rumors and panic spread very quickly around the community, and our unit was immediately called up to start patrolling on high alert. Our commander had to go to the Shatzky's home where they are sitting Shiva for their daughter Keren, killed on Saturday night to get Mr. Shatzky's M16 so we could give it to another volunteer on patrol (Mr. Shatzky was one of the volunteers on Saturday night, all the while helping others without even knowing his daughter had been killed!).

Thank God the alert was cancelled around 9:30 PM by the IDF -- an undercover IDF unit killed a terrorist in Azzun which is only a few minutes walk from where we live.

We have already setup an emergency method to raise money for this equipment - in a way that will give everyone a proper receipt. Donations should be made payable to:

CBY-Rabbi's Discretionary Fund

Karnei Shomron Emergency Fund
342 Grant Avenue
Woodmere, NY 11598 USA

On the memo part of the check, write: "Karnei Shomron Emergency Fund" (The donations will be recorded and forwarded to Rabbi Steven Pruzansky at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck, NJ who has so kindly and willingly offered to help us in this effort.),

One of the team leaders is a former congregant of the Rabbi. He will send out receipts to everyone and we will, with God's help, be able to purchase the equipment that can be bought in the States, and the rest of the money will be forwarded to us to buy what we need here.

If you have any questions or want more information about donations, or if you have questions about the equipment needed, or if you want to know what else you can do to help, please contact:

Yossi Klavan, Coordinator
Ginot Shomron Kitat Konenut/Anti-Terror Rapid Response Unit
Ginot Shomron, Karnei Shomron, Israel
yklavan@ndsisrael.com
home: 011-972-9-7920413, mobile: 011-972-55-664793.

I only hope that we never have another reason to use this equipment and that the lives we lost this week will be the last. Thank you in advance for whatever help you can give. Please forward this to anyone else who might be able to help.

Yossi Klavan