Sunday, June 22
Allow me to present some context to the United States’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites this past week.
This is what real life in Israel is like right now. We’re basically on lockdown. Every few hours, we have massive barrages of ballistic missiles that rain down on us. Inside of many of those missiles, are what they call “bomblets,” which is a really cute way of saying, stuffed with many more bombs inside.
It is only thanks to G-d, the Iron Dome, and our air force that millions of people have not been killed.
We have many streets in our country that are in ruins. Buildings half ripped open, apartments destroyed, families saved by making it into the shelters by the skin of their teeth. Iran attacked a hospital, on purpose, and only by a miracle had it already been evacuated.
Women are delivering their babies in covered parking lots in hospitals, schools are closed, work is closed. People take cover on the highways under tunnels or crouching next to their cars.
It’s an act of heroism to go out to essential services, like a doctor’s office, the pharmacy, the supermarket. You never know where you will be when the next alert goes off. Our shuls are no longer open open. The Kotel is closed.
We spend hours in the shelters every day. While the walls shake, and we hear explosions, and the wailing of the sirens. When we get to leave, we thank G-d that we didn’t get hit. That we get potentially a few more hours till we have to run back for shelter again.
In the shelters we are young and old, babies and puppies. Teens distraught and mothers and fathers anxiously checking the news, soothing their children. The elderly who become everyone’s grandparents in the shelters. Neighbors helping each other survive this insanity.
This war needs to end – but not before Iran is no longer capable of killing us all with nuclear weapons. Iran has caused everything horrible that has happened in this region for decades. They are the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. They chant, “Death to Israel! Death to America!”
And they do everything in their power to try and make that happen.
They sponsor all our enemies; Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, all who exist only to eliminate us.
And we have been warning the world for 25 years that the danger was growing. It erupted two years ago and we’ve been fighting like hell since they attacked us to stay alive.
So when I woke up this morning and saw that America had joined us, I was shocked. My adrenaline kicked back into high gear, I knew that the Israeli citizens would be the first reprisal target. Sure enough, we suffered a massive barrage this morning and spent the day learning about everything that happened while we were in the shelter.
While we were in there, afraid for our lives, I opened my phone and saw many pundits and politicians in the States bemoaning “the involvement in this war.”
My fear turned to white hot rage.
Is America not supposed to be Israel’s ally?
Have we just become accustomed to having it be politically correct to leave the Jews hanging?
Is that the official statement, that the lives of our citizens mean nothing to you?
This war is about our fight for survival; it’s the definition of existential crisis.
I don’t want to get into politics. I really don’t.
But I don’t care who pushed the button.
G-d wants to protect his people and his land.
G-d sends us help when we need it.
G-d chooses who will live and who will die.
We are all chess pieces in a much larger match between good and evil.
Only G-d decides the outcome.
So I don’t care what your politics are. I don’t care who you voted for or would never vote for. In this moment, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are going to survive another day. That this isn’t over yet.
Here in Israel, we are grateful for the support from our international allies.
And to anyone who would rather let Israelis die for their own political agenda: your antisemitism is loud and clear.
More importantly, we don’t care anymore. We’ve got too much living to do.
No matter what we are facing, Jews always choose life.
