Dooms Day
Israel's Iranian Missile Crisis
There is no good point in time to start this story, but let’s start it last Thursday night. Already by then, reports were coming in that Iran was preparing a retaliation against Israel who knocked off a few Iranian commanders a week or so prior. The word was that the attack would take place within 24-48 hours.
Now this is not the first time that Iran has rattled its sabers in recent history, so I, like most Israelis, I think, kind of shrugged it off. But this time was a little different as the warnings wouldn’t stop coming.
Shabbat passed uneventfully, BH, and it was a pleasant day weather-wise. We had guests for lunch, where the topic of the threats obviously came up.
Shabbat ends, and we all begin our post-Shabbat activities. I had bought a new Tallit (prayer shawl) on Friday, and as soon as Shabbat ended, I went to go put on the Tzitzit (fringes) so that it would be ready for the morning. My wife went to the gym. As I was in the middle of my project, that is when the text messages started flowing in. The home front command had issued restrictions on gatherings and closed all of the educational programming across the country.
A few minutes later, I went to check the news, and by then, it was already being reported that Iran was going to attack within hours. I continued working on my tzitzit, and I’ll be honest that the thought that I might be buried in them instead of wearing them might be an actual possibility. By the time I finished another hour later (I am not very crafty), the news was reporting that Iran had started its attack.
First, it was just “tens of UAVs” (in Hebrew the abbreviation can be pronounced “catbom”, which kind of makes sense in English too). Iran is quite far from us (it is 1550km from Tehran to Jerusalem - New York to Orlando) so this is when the anticipation started to build. Then it was hundreds and ballistic missiles. We attempted to move the kids to our safe room, but they just weren’t having it, so we let them return to their beds with the hope that nothing would require moving them at a later point in the evening.
I went to shower (thought it might calm me down), and then read a little bit in bed (also to calm me down, though my book is about WWII so maybe not the best subject matter). I finished reading and I went to lie down.
By this time, everyone knew something was coming, so people were closing their shutters, making phone calls, and slamming doors. All of this was noise that made it difficult to sleep, but also, when you are on high alert, they are noises that will make you overly jumpy. We also live in the flight path from an air force base, so we heard plane after plane taking off and going on its important mission.
Finally, after my umpteenth attempt to fall asleep, it was the noise we had been waiting for. Two big booms that were the unmistakable sound of threats being intercepted. The booms were greeted with loud cheers from neighboring Bethlehem, a city that over the past thirty years has changed from 90% Christian to 80% Muslim. My wife quickly sat up in bed and opened the phone to see what was going on. I was tempted to go back to sleep but the booms continued. The siren still had not sounded so I went to look out the window and I saw a sight I will probably never forget. The sky was lit up with probably close to a dozen “lights” each one either on its way to do harm or doing its best to intercept it before any harm could occur. It was Star Wars-esque in its surreality and fascinating all at the same time. The moment was short-lived though, as shortly after I glanced out the window, the siren sounded and it was time to quickly bring the kids into the safe room.
I was pretty sure we were going to have to spend a long time in the safe room, given the magnitude of what had been reported earlier in the evening, but surprisingly there was only one round of sirens. I quickly checked in with a bunch of friends, and then went back to my room to try and sleep.
There was still a solid two hours of airplanes conducting missions even following the siren, so it was difficult to sleep. By this time Shabbat had ended on the East Coast of the United States, so we started getting check-ins from family and friends there. With their nerves calmed, it was finally time to try and rest.
I woke up 3.5 hours later, not quite rested, but well aware that the previous night was one for the history books. All day today I was thinking through all of the different aspects of what it means. Did Iran’s response match what we did to them? Was the disproportionality something that requires another response from Israel? Did we just witness a “One Day War”? How come countries get to go tit-for-tat in the first place? Where is the line between Mankind’s accomplishments and Hashem’s protection for His country? Why did Arab countries assist Israel?
Last night, the whole country had their lives physically threatened. And it feels like we survived an attack on our beings. Perhaps more than the physical weapons that were directed at us, the emotional toll of being played with as to when we would meet our fates was just as much if not more abusive. It will take a long time till I feel whole again and I wish myself and all of my fellow countrymen a quick recovery and a speedy end to this conflict.
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