By Jonathan Feldstein
I’d be lying if I told you that things are not tense in Israel right now, nationally and personally. As always, one of the ways to get through it is with humor, even when the situation is far from funny.
One of the best social media posts I saw was on Friday asking what traditional pre-Armageddon food one should prepare for Shabbat, the sabbath.
Indeed, many Israelis went into Shabbat, the day of rest, very ill at ease. As Orthodox Jews who typically shut off all devices on Friday night for 25 hours, this Shabbat we – and many others – left phones on, on silent, set up our bomb shelter with food and drinks and activities for our grandchildren. We tuned into a silent radio station that broadcasts nothing, unless there is an emergency. All this is to be able to enjoy a peaceful, restful Shabbat according to Jewish tradition, but to be aware of any life-treatening emergency protocol above and beyond the air raid sirens that we are used to.
In a Friday radio interview, I quipped to the host that while I was glad that most of our kids and grandchildren would be with us for Shabbat if anything happened, packing 12 people into a one-room bomb shelter might be stressful, as much as it would be important that we are all together, especially since four of our children live in buildings without bomb shelters.
“On the other hand,” I told him, “while I will have my phone on for emergencies, if the anticipated Iranian attack happened on Shabbat I would not be able to film it.” After the April 13 Iranian attack with over 300 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles, and having seen up close one of the missiles (11 meters long with a massive warhead), even if I am in my bomb shelter, were one to hit my building I’d probably not survive anyway. “I’d rather go out getting great video and hope my phone survived.”
He was concerned by that, told me it was unsafe, and I should go to my bomb shelter. I joked that he was being like my mother, and that I am sure he’d really love to see the video. He confessed he would. But still.
Shabbat passed uneventfully. We recounted getting on an airplane with five kids from 3-11 exactly 20 years ago to move to Israel. Despite the challenges, and indeed there have been many including those exacerbated by the now 10 month old war, even with no end in sight and a feeling of Armageddon on the horizon, or something close to it, we agreed it was the best move and we’d do it again every day.
That doesn’t make the reality easier.
Trying to keep up with the pace of life, we’re second guessing plans, planning not to be too far from home. Just in case. I have three days of meetings scheduled as of now, but understand that anything could change at any moment. My daughter and son-in-law are expecting their fourth in a month and have plans to get away for a night this week, with us watching the grandchildren. Like any good mother, even my radio-host friend, she’s uneasy being an hour away from home and her kids, just in case. They need to get away and I hope they will. Canceling their plans will not be the worst thing to happen if there is a major escalation. But we need to keep on living, not existing in fear.
My meetings have been arranged with the unspoken understanding, “barring escalation.” The truth is if/when something happens, I don’t want to be away from home either. So I am trying to stay close, yet to plan my schedule as if nothing were different, even a travel program to Israel that I am organizing. The truth is that I have to do that because with my work, building bridges between Jews and Christians in support of Israel, I need to be present, to plan for what I can plan, to communicate to the many who look to me for updates, who are praying, advocating for, and donating to us.
Just before Shabbat, there was a kind of reprieve to our nervousness that something might happen imminently with reports that Iran was planning to attack Israel on next week’s observance of Tisha B’Av. All this is part of their psychological warfare, or possibly as I said to my kids even a disinformation campaign: by us toward the terrorists, or by the terrorists toward us. They could indeed be planning for that date (August 12-13) because of the symbolism, being the anniversary of numerous calamities that have befallen the Jewish people on that date throughout history. Or not. Or just to try to catch Israel off guard. Or maybe something will happen as early as tomorrow as some reports indicate. Who knows.
The one thing I am pretty sure of is that Iran has now created the expectation domestically and globally that they have to retaliate, if not for the assassination of Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut a week ago for which Israel openly took responsibility/credit, then surely for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah in an IRGC facility in central Tehran the next day, for which Israel has not taken responsibility.
It would be very unlikely that the bloodthirsty Iranian Islamic regime won’t respond, and that it won’t do so forcefully. April’s drone and missile attack on Israel was unprecedented in the world. Iran could do worse on its own, or unleashing Hezbollah (with at least 150,000 missiles and rockets, along with an untold number of drones) in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen who have long range Iranian weapons, the remnant of Hamas in Gaza, and even Hamas and other terrorists in Israeli territory.
A multi-front attack will indeed be massive. I don’t know that anyone knows for sure, but I have heard estimates of as many as 500 Israeli casualties a day in the first weeks.
There’s a lot going on, and no less uncertainty. I expect to keep up with these regular updates for people asking and wanting to know what’s really going on. Armageddon notwithstanding.