Life in Israel is like… 12 hours ago we exited our bomb shelter after 30 minutes of extensive ballistic missile fire from Iran that targeted most of the country, and now I’m making an apple crumble coffee cake for Rosh Hashanah – which we are hosting this year because I didn’t feel safe driving up to family in Haifa like we usually do. And of course...
The truth is that I’m glad Hassan Nasrallah is dead. The bastard and his fellow Hezbollah terrorists deserve death, and they finally got what they deserved. I wish that innocent Lebanese civilians didn’t have to die. That is the unfortunate tragedy in this particular chapter of the story. It’s tragic that, like Hamas, Hezbollah doesn’t give a damn about anyone but themselves...
While there still haven’t been any incoming rocket alarms for my town of Pardes Hannah-Karkur (yet), we heard one this morning that was in a community approximately 10 minutes west and slightly south of us, and also heard the subsequent booms from the missile defense system, successfully taking out the rockets. I’m working from home today. I’m keeping the...
Neither Lebanon nor the UN has ever made any serious efforts to rein in Hezbollah over the years, and the world remained silent while these terrorists attacked Israel almost every day for more than 11 months. Not that anyone ever listens to me, but I’ve been saying repeatedly that if no one stepped in to try to stop Hezbollah from attacking, then Israel would be forced...
The fact that there aren’t more dead and wounded Israelis at the hands of Hamas and Hezbollah isn’t due to a lack of determination or because they’re not trying. Both of these terror organizations have been firing rockets and other projectiles at Israeli civilian populations for years. As I type these words, Haifa and other cities, towns, and communities less than an hour from...
We’re watching television. The list on the right is from the Homefront Command, letting everyone know in real time which communities in Northern Israel are currently experiencing rocket and missile alarms (one of the towns on this list is the home base for the amazing gap year leadership program for young men from at-risk situations that our organization runs), thanks to...
It’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that people (who generally seem to live in the west and have never faced terror or lived in a war zone with neighbors who want you dead and keep trying to make that happen) think Israel shouldn’t be defending itself at all in response to any attacks against its citizens. If we do, we need to make sure that not a single...
I’ve been trying to write about the person I’ve become since October 7th, but the truth is that my thoughts and emotions feel too big for words. Every time I try, including this time, I find myself at a loss regarding how to proceed. The writing below is disjointed – just like my thoughts and emotions… ** To say that I now see the world through a very different lens is an...
Do you remember how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were those people who “did their own research” and chose to believe dubious “professionals” whose medical advice went completely against what the global medical and scientific communities were saying? Do you remember what you, as an intelligent, rational individual thought of those medical and...
Through my work, I was recently given the opportunity to spend a few hours in the presence of a large group of Israeli 12th graders. On the surface, they seemed like “regular” kids – talking, laughing, leaning into one another with practiced, intimate ease. Sweet, beautiful teens being regular teens. Except that these kids were from the Gaza border communities – survivors of...