10s of soldiers were stuck on the Home Front base after a soldier hung the key to the gate on the neck of a cat, who subsequently escaped and vanished

The Home Front was briefly praised for how it functioned during Operation Cast Lead, but after the end of the operation it experienced an event which nobody expected. A soldier that was guarding the gates of the base, close to Ramle, decided on Friday to abscond and hang the keys to the gate on the neck of a nearby cat. He didn’t imagine that the cat wouldn’t protect the key, and that the soldiers on the base would be stuck without a way to get home for Shabbat.

When vehicles full of soldiers and reservists arrived at the gate and requested to leave for Shabbat, the cat escaped from the position with the key around its neck. The terrified soldier began to look for the cat, but in vain.

The soldiers who wanted to go home became angry at the guard, and the officer in charge of guard-duty rushed to the gates to berate him. “The cat wasn’t disciplined, and how absurd does it sound – everyone was made to look for it,” said one of the soldiers present.

The punishment: A one hundred shekel fine

After a long search without success one of the bus managers decided to put an end to the affair and to break the lock of the gates in order to allow the soldiers to leave. The event was reported to senior commanders on the base, and yesterday it was decided to put the soldier who hung the key on the cat on trial.

The soldier expressed regret, and explained that it was a moment of mischief because of he was coming to the end of his army service and felt festive. His commander decided on a light punishment because of his generally good service, and gave him a fine of one hundred shekels – the price of the lock. Until now, the cat and the key have not been found…

Shalom Friends,

Maybe some of you will read this and think that I’ve got a distorted mind, and why am I comparing between the two, but sometimes it seems to me that Yossi Bublil receives more daily publicity, love and public interest than the 848 days of Gilad.

I look at this and I say – we are talking about two people – one a big brother, the other a little brother – and everything is in disarray. One has been sealed off in Gaza for 848 days, and the other has been sealed off with difficulty for 70 days in a villa. 

One is dying to return to his parents, to his family, to his friends, to civilian life like the rest of his friends, and is surely praying that all of us will take him out of the terrible dark place where is at the moment. His father and mother are supporting him by travelling the length and breadth of the land.

The second brother has already graduated from this half of his life, and is currently closed up in a villa, also “some place”. He has a swimming pool, food, cigarettes, a doctor, and friends. Even his daughter is with him.

Despite the little brother, the big brother wants only to remain sealed in the villa for 100 days. We are nicknaming the big brother the porcupine [Durban]; the little brother the sacrifice [kurban].

They are reminding us about Yossi Bublil 24 hours a day, through every possible means, and we even send texts once a week so that he’ll stay, because that’s how we’re “with love”.

A few days ago I saw the program, and there was a removal. And so Erez Tal said that a load of crazy texts had been sent. I imagine to myself that it’s hundreds of thousands, and I think how many hundreds of thousands can send an SMS, but half of those people can’t come to Kikar Rabin…

It’s true – Gilad has become a matter of routine, while Yossi has become the topic of Friday evening living-room conversations, to chats on the bus, to little musings in the newspaper. But I almost forgot: Yossi doesn’t just want to stam remain in the house. He’s earn from it a million shekels…

And so maybe it will sound strange to you Gilad, but it seems that freedom has a price. For a hundred days you get a million shekels, while you – Gilad – are edging closer to 900 days, and I guess that there isn’t a price in the world that you wouldn’t give up for even one day of freedom, after all that you’ve been through. Oh, and let’s be realistic – that you will continue to go through…

So I ask myself, and I ask God – who will be freed first? Yossi or Gilad? The one that wants to remain, or the one that wants to leave? The small difference…It seems that up there in the Knesset they don’t understand that your life isn’t a reality show. It’s sad Gilad, because right now the government’s about to change.

After all of the above, maybe we’ll succeed in freeing Gilad Shalit with the help of a “bombardment” of text messages to the manager of the program (Mr Olmert).

I still don’t know, but I’m starting to distribute what’s been sitting in my head and my heart for some time. Maybe this is how big revolutions begin. With a personal request to everyone who’s received this, to send it to everyone in your address book.

Somehow, maybe it will help someone to free Gilad Shalit.

Maybe.

THE BATTLE OVER THE ELEVATOR

Secular tenants demand: We doing want a Shabbat Elevator in our building

“Don’t make us stop on ever floor.” This is what one couple living in a high-rise building in Givat Shmuel are demanding. The demand is included in a complaint against their religious neighbours, who every Shabbat and festival turn the building’s two lifts into “Shabbat elevators”. ”The law talks about one lift only,” claimed the couple, who have one baby, and live on the fourth floor of the building.

However, their neighbours refused to accept their request. With the help of a lawyer, the couple yesterday presented their complaint. “Balance is the name of the game, and two [Shabbat] lifts clearly disturb the balance,” reads their complaint. “You can’t force your way of life on the other.”

In the near future the real estate supervisor (the legal body that is authorised for dealing with the problem) will be compelled to discuss the issue, and to proclaim the principle of the debate: If secular people living in a majority-religious building have the right to a regular lift.