Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 26, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A6 A 6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015 WORLD winnipegfreepress. com T EL AVIV, Israel - For many Israelis, especially those who live beside the Mediterranean Sea, going to the beach is a summer ritual, a time for serious bronzing and endless paddleball - and for escape. Last summer, Israel fought its third war in the Gaza Strip in six years, and for 50 days, Israel's de facto capital of fun and sun was within range of Hamas rockets. Israelis heard the air- raid sirens, dropped their watermelon slices into the sand and ran to seaside bomb shelters in string bikinis and flip- flops. " Last summer, there were people all over the beach. I watched a rocket fall into the water just over there," said Ruth Bar, 48, a shoe shop manager who has been sunning here for more than 40 years, three times a week - four if she can squeeze in an extra afternoon. Bar is as coppery- brown as a Medjool date, ensconced on her chaise, music playing, green sunglasses on. She remembers the sirens. " People ran to the shelters, but there's really not enough time," she said this week. She shrugged. " This country has wars. We get used to it." Under a nearby umbrella, Nadine Porat was listening. " People were scared. Don't believe her. They say, ' Oh, everyone was on the beach. Everything was fine,' because they want to be brave, to show the world the Israelis were not afraid. But last summer was terrible," said Porat, a French- Israeli pensioner who spends summers in her Tel Aviv apartment by the sea. The war came to Tel Aviv last summer. Many Israelis call this city " the bubble," a place apart - it is youthful, high- tech, dynamic - Miami on the Med, with the country's best restaurants and nightlife. The city is famous for its caf� society and its huge gay pride parade. In religious Jerusalem, women cover up; in secular Tel Aviv, there is skin. While the north and south of Israel have been frequent targets of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Islamist militant group Hamas in past conflicts, Tel Aviv was usually just out of range. Not last summer. Nerry Sternberg, 55, was whacking a paddleball - matkot in Hebrew - with a female friend, who served in the army during the Gaza war. Sternberg said he was here last summer, doing the same thing. He confessed that when he heard the air- raid siren, he stayed on the beach. " The point is, the harder it gets for Israelis, the more free we feel," said the swing dance instructor and DJ. " I've spent my life in this sand." Sternberg said Israelis are more concerned these days with the Iran nuclear deal than with Hamas or Hezbollah. Last summer's war with Hamas killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, four of whom were killed by two Israeli missiles on a beach like this one, but a few dozens of kilometres south ( a tragic error, the Israeli military concluded). Gaza was pounded by Israeli artillery, and tens of thousands of housing units were destroyed. Rebuilding has been slow, and the people of Gaza live among the ruins and memories. On the Israeli side, 72 people died, most of them soldiers killed in Gaza; six civilians were killed, including a four- year- old boy. Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions fired 4,500 rockets and mortars at Israel. They did little damage, and most Israelis quickly put last summer's war behind them. " Oh, man, don't take us back to the war. Please. It's a beautiful day," said Dan Cohen, 26, a Tel Aviv photographer who was kicking a soccer ball around with friends at water's edge when asked about his memories of last summer. " Go away," he joked. " We don't like war. We don't want to hate anyone. We love the beach and the sun; this is the real Israel," said Gal Levi, 26, an accounting student who served in the Israeli army and is now a member of the reserves. Ari Shavit, author of bestselling historical memoir My Promised Land , wrote in the newspaper Haaretz earlier this month about how Tel Aviv has rebounded, how life is sweet again. " There are more tourists, more young people and more fun," he wrote. " The restaurants are bursting, the beaches are crowded. It's really good here, actually." Then the punchline. " Except for one small thing: the future," he warned, alluding to Israel's 48- year occupation of lands Palestinians want for their own state. Up and down the beach this week, happy dogs were running around off their leashes. Guitar players gathered at sunset; surfers watched the waves; kayaks rode the breakwaters. Everybody looked like they ate nothing but salad; they were either young or athletic. The waiters were busy at a popular seaside bar and caf� called La La Land. Near the beach volleyball nets, Hagit and Dor Peles stooped before a memorial to their son. They were filling paper bags with beach sand and placing candles inside. Their son, Israeli army officer Lt. Roy Peles, 21, was killed by an anti- tank missile in the northern Gaza Strip one year ago. He lived a few blocks from here. " He grew up on the beach," his mother said. He was a famously good volleyball player. By the outdoor showers, near lifeguard station No. 11, the sign read in Hebrew, Arabic and English, " Go in peace." - Washington Post By William Booth Relaxing on rocket- free beaches Last summer, revellers were taking shelter in Tel Aviv as war raged DAVID VAAKNIN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Israeli women sunbathe on a Tel Aviv beach last week. A year earlier, rockets fired by Hamas struck the water. The city is normally out of rocket range. HOBART, Australia - A woman watched her father being mauled to death by a large shark Saturday while the pair were diving off the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said. The adult woman had returned to their boat with scallops the pair had collected then became concerned that her father, in his late 40s, had not surfaced after her, Inspector David Wiss told reporters in the state capital of Hobart. " His daughter became worried and went down and checked on her father," Wiss said. " She saw a very large shark. She saw her father being attacked by the shark." The attack happened off the east coast near where a 4 � - metre- long great white shark was seen Friday, government ranger Peter Lingard told the Examiner newspaper. The last fatal shark attack off the Australian coast occurred in February, when Japanese tourist Tadashi Nakahara, 41, lost both his legs to a great white shark three to four metres long while surfing at Ballina, 1,600 kilometres north of the scene of Saturday's attack. Saturday's attack occurred as Australian professional surfer Mick Fanning made his first return to the water since he fought off a large shark during a World Surf League competition in South Africa last weekend. The three- time world champion went surfing alone at his hometown of Tweed Heads, 700 km north of Sydney. He had contemplated giving up the sport after he was knocked off his board by a large shark at Jeffreys Bay. That attack was televised live around the world. He survived unscathed. " First surf back. Feels so good," Fanning wrote under a silhouetted photo of himself looking out to the ocean, which he posted on Instagram. Sharks are common off Australia's beaches, but fatal attacks are rare. The country has averaged fewer than two deadly attacks per year in recent decades. - The Associated Press Shark kills in Australia LAS VEGAS - A fire at a highrise hotel swimming pool sent large plumes of black smoke high above the Las Vegas Strip but left most guests unscathed Saturday. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to gain control of the blaze that broke out on the 14th floor of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel, Clark County fire Chief Greg Cassell said. One person was taken to a hospital with smoke inhalation, fire officials said. But nobody suffered any burns from the flames that ignited outside on the pool deck, Clark County fire spokeswoman Sandra Baker said. The fire was first reported around 12: 15 p. m. with multiple emergency calls coming in. The blaze quickly consumed pool cabanas, chairs and furniture, Cassell said. At least 110 firefighters were on the scene to not only battle the fire, but help with evacuations. It's not clear if any guests will be displaced by the fire, Cassell said. No flames made it into the hotel. However, smoke got into some floors above the 14th floor because the windows of some rooms were open. Firefighters are working with ventilation personnel to use temporary fans to get the smoke out. It could be quite some time before the cause of the fire is determined, Cassell said. Investigators are interviewing guests and going through cellphone videos. Julio Loredo of San Francisco was in his room on the 33rd floor of the neighbouring Vdara hotel when his room started to darken. " We looked out the window, and there was ash hitting our window," Loredo said. He then looked out a hallway window, where he saw guests fleeing the Cosmpolitan pool deck. " People were running. We could see small explosions," Loredo said. " It was in less than a minute that it was completely engulfed." He also saw people running out of the hotel doors and onto the Strip. " I've never seen anything like it before. It was unbelievable," Loredo said. The fire also shut down streets around the Strip for several hours, and a few remained closed on Saturday afternoon. - The Associated Press Highrise hotel fire darkens Vegas Strip STEVE MARCUS/ LAS VEGAS SUN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Smokes billows from a fire on the outside pool area of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas hotel- casino. WINTERSET, Iowa - Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she never knowingly sent or received classified information using her private email server and did not know what messages were being cited by intelligence investigators as examples of emails containing classified information. Clinton spoke briefly after reporters raised the topic during a brief news conference. " I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received. What I think you're seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement among various parts of the government, over what should or should not be publicly released," she said. Clinton said she wanted the information in question to be made public as soon as possible. Intelligence investigators told the Justice Department in a letter this week secret government information may have been compromised in the unsecured system she used at her New York home during her tenure as secretary of state. Asked if the Justice Department should investigate, Clinton said: " They can fight over it or argue over it. That's up to them. I can tell you what the facts are." In addition to alerting the Justice Department to the potential compromise of classified information, the inspector general of the U. S. intelligence community sent a memo to members of Congress indicating " potentially hundreds of classified emails" were among the 30,000 that Clinton had provided to the State Department. The office said it also raised that concern with FBI counterintelligence officials and was recommending changes in how the emails are being reviewed and processed for public release. The State Department is reviewing 55,000 pages of emails with the goal of releasing all of them by Jan. 29. The intelligence inspector general, I. Charles Mc- Cullough, and his counterpart at the State Department, Steve Linick, said McCullough's office found four emails containing classified information in a limited sample of 40 emails. - The Associated Press No classified emails, Clinton maintains By Catherine Lucey KELSEY KREMER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Hillary Clinton speaks to a group of supporters in Beaverdale, Iowa, Saturday. A_ 06_ Jul- 26- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A6 7/ 25/ 15 10: 41: 29 PM ;