This was at 8:28 this morning. There were rocket alarms (a very loud siren whose tone rises and falls for the length of time that you have to enter a protected area) all around us, including at my office. But, if you look closely, you’ll notice that there was no alarm in our town of Pardes Hana-Karkur (though there was one in the area where our local train station is located). Somehow they keep missing us, though when it’s that close, we can still hear—and feel—the booms as the rockets are intercepted by our defense systems. If you’re in the affected areas, Home Front Command guidelines dictate that you continue to shelter in place for ten minutes due to the possibility of pieces of shrapnel falling from the sky following the interception.
Imagine trying to go about your days and nights knowing that, at any time, there can be a rocket alarm that sends you immediately running for shelter or praying that you’ll be safe if it catches you out in the open or in your car with your children. If you are in your car, try to imagine that you have anywhere between 15-90 seconds to get your children unstrapped from their seatbelts and car seats, out of the car, far enough away, and lying flat on the ground with your arms covering your heads in case a rocket or shrapnel hits your car, causing it to blow up.
Imagine that a country more than 1,000 miles away fires nearly 200 ballistic missiles over the course of 30 minutes at your civilian population…
Now I’ll ask you to imagine what it’s like to live under these conditions for months, years, even decades, as global leaders and international organizations willfully turn a blind eye, never saying a word until your country responds, suddenly deciding that now is the time to talk about the need for de-escalation or “proportional” responses. At the same time, “well-meaning” people living in the west who have no real-world experience with war or terror campaigns demand to know why YOU haven’t tried hard enough for diplomacy and a ceasefire, as you dodge incoming rockets fired by terrorists who have sworn to destroy you, are backed by the country that fired ballistic missiles at you, and generally haven’t given any indications that they’re interested in either diplomacy or a ceasefire. Quite honestly, if the survival of my country wasn’t hanging in the balance, your calls would almost be laughable. Almost.
If you’d like a better understanding of what Israeli civilians have been living with over the past year and why we are going after Hezbollah, I invite you to check out this website to see rocket alerts in real-time: https://www.tzevaadom.co.il/en/
If you’re curious about Home Front Command guidelines, check out this website: https://www.oref.org.il/eng
By the way, what is exactly is the proportional response for an extensive ballistic missile attack targeting your entire country? Asking on behalf of 9.8 million friends who are like family…
