Conflicted summer

Shay Doron is quick to smile or make a joke. She proudly wears a necklace that bears the ring she received as a member of the Maryland women’s basketball team that won the national championship in April.

Doron is living a dream. She met the president, was honored at a Baltimore Orioles game and, in general, is enjoying the spoils that come with winning a national title. The senior guard with the happy-go-lucky attitude has become a celebrity in College Park and the surrounding area after leading the Terrapins to the ultimate prize.

“We were drinking lemonade on the White House lawn and saying, ‘Wow, we’re drinking lemonade on the White House lawn,’” she says. “It has been amazing.”

There is, however, a cloud over her feel-good summer.

Doron is continually thinking about her native Israel, where most of her family still lives, and that country’s fight with Hezbollah. A cease-fire took effect yesterday, but she spent the past month worrying about family and friends. She monitored the news and received daily phone updates from her mother, Tamari, who rode out the hostilities at the family home outside Tel Aviv.

“It is just tough because all my friends, my guy friends, are still serving in the military,” the 21-year-old senior says. “I know at least 10 or 15 have signed on for a few more years with the Navy, and they are really embattled. It is really scary. I just don’t want to hear any bad news.”

The fighting has taken an emotional toll on her family, although she considers herself fortunate since no one has been injured. One set of grandparents and an aunt became refugees, fleeing to Tel Aviv from their homes in northern Israel near the Lebanon border to get out of range of Hezbollah rockets.

Her uncle Meir sent his wife and children to safety in Denmark while he stayed at their home not far from Lebanon.

“He is still working because somebody has to make a living,” Doron says. “My uncle is in a bomb shelter five, six times a day. It is no kind of life to live. Hopefully, what we are doing will make it stop eventually.”

In addition to her national title ring, Doron wears a royal blue bracelet with an inscription that reads “Stay strong for Israel.” Doron has dual citizenship in the United States and Israel. She spent her first two years of high school in her homeland, then moved back to America — she previously spent eight years here — to play for power Christ the King High School in New York.

Doron continues her daily regimen of working out and going to class. She averaged 13.4 points last season and led Maryland in assists and steals. The 5-foot-9 guard plans on making a run for another title before pursuing a career in the WNBA. And though Doron, an academic All-American, never has wavered in her desire to improve on the court and graduate, the events in the Middle East have weighed on her.

That has been the case since she received a call from her mother with distressing news of a Hezbollah attack on an Israeli military base in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and two kidnapped, then five more killed as the attackers were pursued across the border.

Israel quickly responded with air strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as the hostilities increased. Hezbollah rockets rained on Israel, and Israel launched a ground offensive designed to disarm Hezbollah.

The fighting finally stopped yesterday after 34 days because of the U.N. cease-fire pact.

“The truth is we deserve to have our state in a peaceful way,” says Doron, who has played for Israel’s national teams. “They started it, and they say we are the aggressors. This is one of the main terrorist groups. It’s a fact. If we don’t fight back, there will be no more Israel.”

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