Hey crazy people, come down from your snowy roofs. Israel was hit by a storm of historic proportions in recent days. A force majeure -- or a superior force -- is what such a storm is called. A once-in-a-century force of nature.
Such wildly intense natural events happen from time to time in countries around the globe, leaving behind scenes of destruction, devastation and death. In the U.S., we have seen a number of fearsome storms that have shown nature's power to overwhelm even the most advanced country in the world. And recently in the Philippines, a storm completely erased whole parts of the country.
By comparison, Israel overcame with relative ease the storm that battered it over the past several days.
So what are we complaining about-
It is unpleasant to find yourself cut off from electricity for even one hour, let alone 48 or 72 hours. But when thousands of trees across the country topple under the weight of snow and bring down power lines with them, who is there to complain to? The Israel Electric Corporation is generally deserving of public criticism, but in this case, IEC employees stood out there in the cold trying their best to restore power where it had been cut off.
It is also unpleasant to find yourself stranded on one of the main roads leading into the capital, Jerusalem. But it is unlikely that most of the trips that the stuck motorists had been taking were necessary, given the weather forecasts. When hundreds of police officers battle through the weather and try to reach and extract every stranded traveller, what can you say to them other than thank you-
It is always good to have faith in the Israel Defense Forces. But the IDF was built to fight wars in the desert heat that usually characterizes our region, rather than arctic conditions.
Does anyone really want us to establish two permanent military divisions armed with Scandinavian equipment to plow snow, sail between glaciers and restart engines in subzero temperatures? And a fur coat for each soldier? What will we do with these divisions in July and August-
Ahh, the wise guys in the media say, why not bury all power lines in the ground? This is indeed a nice idea, but it would cost tens of billions of shekels that we need for other things. Wouldn't this be a waste of money? If we were about to enter a new ice age, the idea might make sense. But if the next storm of such size is not coming for another 100 years, then not so much.
"Stop complaining," Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino said on Saturday. He was correct. The bottom line is that Israel got through the storm well.
It was cold and unpleasant, but good people did their jobs, thousands of volunteers helped out, and in the end we received a lot of water from the skies, which is a good thing. Could the situation have been managed better? Certainly. It is always better to be healthy, young and rich. But generally, almost all of us settle for less.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו