An Israel Update

I am currently sitting at an outdoor cafe surrounded by swarms of Israelis chatting, working, and smoking while buses pass and horns honk, but less than two days ago, I watched Iranian ballistic missiles blaze through the night sky towards Israel’s most populated city. I rushed to Israel the moment I finished finals to spend a month working in Jerusalem and making weekend trips to Tel Aviv, but three days in, my plans changed. When Israel attacked on Thursday night, my family and I knew that this was not going to be a normal week ahead of us, but I could not have imagined the extent. The next night, Iran sent more than 100 ballistic missiles at every civilian population of the country, and some of those missiles slammed into apartment buildings and homes. I think that might have been the first time that I have been truly scared while in a bomb shelter here.

It always sounds strange to say that many people are not scared of the rockets coming from the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas because it's “only shrapnel”, but this was not just shrapnel. Once it was clear that people were being murdered from within their mamads (bomb shelters), each of the many booms that I heard from within my family’s mamad became a question of: was that an interception in the sky or an impact on the ground? One of the most amazing aspects of the way this country handled this was how unanimously and seriously people listened and responded to the home front command, and always went into a shelter. Israel’s value of life shines brightest when death tries its hardest to reach us. 

Meanwhile, back in the states, anti-zionists jumped at the opportunity to write a new slogan on their protest signs: “Free Iran”, and no, they did not mean free Iran from the Iranian regime. Somehow, while the Israeli air force took out top IRGC leaders and military targets and Iran sent hundreds of missiles – including cluster bombs – at civilians, the media decided not to make that distinction. 

 No matter how strong we portray ourselves, it’s truly jarring how quickly things return to normal here, or at least something that looks like it. But despite the returning noise and filled restaurants, there is still rubble in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Bat Yam, Petah Tikva, Tamra, Ramat Gan, Rishon LeZion, Bnei Brak, and Haifa. The world keeps spinning, Jews will still be blamed, but the people of Israel live.