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A View From Here
Troy asked me some time ago to contribute some perspective on the current situation here in Israel, where I’ve been living for the past 13 years. For weeks, I’ve been unable to write anything (a first for me during Israel’s crises). I haven’t been able to get into the cool, dispassionate head I need to be in to present you with any kind of cogent analysis. I’ve always tried to maintain some baseline standard of composure when discussing the lunatic hell of this endless war. I think that ship might have sailed, at least for the time being.
So why am I back, you ask? Well, I’ll be honest. We are alone out here, more and more so every day, and I’m finding our isolation harder and harder to tolerate. It might be a little unseemly, I guess, but I can’t resist reaching out to you — not in the spirit of geopolitical analysis and the plucky fisking of media talking points, but out of an increasingly desperate need simply to communicate, to send a flare out to a part of the world that’s still relatively normal. I need you to understand our reality here.
On the surface, our world is strikingly similar to the world you live in. Anyone who has visited Israel can tell you this is a thoroughly first-world environment. Now superimpose the rest of our reality onto that physical world: the air raid sirens, the whisking of the kids into the shelter, the daily funerals of the young heroes who put their bodies between our children and the monsters, the fathers’ knees buckling while they try to choke out the Kaddish over their fallen sons, the hollow-eyed mothers, the sobbing children, the tableaux of soldiers weeping on each other’s shoulders as they bury their dead.
Most of the horrors of this go-round are sadly familiar, but there is a new development this time around that has kicked all of this into a whole new realm of nightmare. That’s the network of tunnels, as vast and complex as a subway system, dug under the very ground on which Israelis walk. The soldiers braving and destroying these tunnels are discovering not only vast supplies of machine guns and ammunition and grenades, but also stores of handcuffs and tranquilizers. Consider the reality of that for a moment. Not only are our people meant to be mown down in large numbers, but we are also intended to be dragged down, alive, into the darkness.
Nothing about any of this is theoretical. Heavily armed men have already come up out of the ground inside our territory — disguised in IDF uniforms, a further nauseating touch — and have engaged and killed our soldiers, 18- and 19- and 20-year-olds who died preventing vastly greater carnage within the kibbutzim. A close school friend of my 11-year-old son does not know his uncle because he was shot to death by a Palestinian terrorist, and this same child’s first cousin just came back from Gaza with grave head injuries. One of the three teenaged boys snatched and murdered by Palestinian terrorists on their way home from school earlier this summer was the nephew of a friend of ours. The wedding of our friend’s daughter coincided with the shiva (the mourning period). The sanctified name of the murdered boy was invoked under the chupah (the wedding canopy). Can you conceive of this? It is close; it is personal. This is the reality of our lives here.
I am in the challenging position of having to maintain a chipper front for my three young children while a) finding some language with which to explain the war to them; b) pretending everything is normal; and c) pretending everything will eventually be okay. I do not believe everything will be okay. It requires a monumental effort to manufacture an optimistic front. Now, don’t get me wrong: this is absolutely not to say I have lost faith in our army. Quite the opposite: I could not possibly have greater faith in our army, and I thank God for our soldiers every day. The trouble is that our very acts of self-defense are automatically read by most of the world as offense, so anything we do to protect ourselves — anything at all, right down to building bomb shelters for our civilians — is evidence of our aggression. The world is filled with outrage that so few of us are dead. How dare you protect yourselves, Jews? How dare you not die in larger numbers?
Our enemies try to kill us while hiding behind the bodies of their own children, and we are heaped with opprobrium when those children are killed in the crossfire. Does anyone think we are not filled with anguish over dead Gazan civilians? Does anyone believe we want to kill a single Gazan child? The only option we are to be permitted is not to respond at all: to turn the other cheek, to let them savage us with impunity and then bare our throats for the final slaughter. There has never in the history of human warfare been an army as conscientious about avoiding civilian casualties as the IDF, but facts don’t matter. Jews are fighting back, and that is not to be tolerated.
And so we are vilified. I respond very carefully to an old high school friend on Facebook who has shared an article by a Hamas apologist, pointing out that the piece is a fact-free piece of Hamas propaganda written specifically to hoodwink well-intentioned people like him. He responds with kindness, but then someone else pops up to accuse me of “shaming” — of being someone who insists — how backward! — that there is any such thing as wrong and right. There is the ultimately trivial but intensely depressing litany of celebrities who are cheerfully spitting in the face of every Jew who ever admired them (Mark Ruffalo, Mia Farrow, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Jon Stewart, Rihanna, Whoopi Goldberg, Ryan Gosling, Eddie Vedder, John Cusack, the list goes on). Hamas hanged some Palestinian civilians from cranes in Gaza this past weekend. ISIS is literally crucifying their enemies. In Syria they slaughter children by the dozen and throw their bodies in the street to rot as a warning to others. And Bar Refaeli and Gal Gadot are denounced as genocidal baby-killers for tweeting their love and concern for their own country.
Suck it up. I know. That’s not important. But layer that festering hate on top of the demonstrations, the throngs of Israel-bashers marching through Berlin, London, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Geneva, Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid, Ottawa. Luxembourg. Costa Rica. Mexico. The Hague. Limpopo. Manchester. Capetown. Rotterdam. Auckland. Sao Paolo. Santiago. Atlanta. Houston. Boston. Portland. Philadelphia. Chicago. If you pluck individuals out of these demonstrations and ask them their motivations — I’m talking about civilized people, mind you, not the ones screaming “Gas the Jews” and doing the Nazi salute — most of them will offer some variant of “killing children is not the answer” or “civilians are not legitimate targets.” Unless they are Jews, that is. That is as it should be.
I take this personally. The crux of the matter apparently is that this country was born in sin (so says the world), and everyone in it, down to the most innocent child, is therefore a sinner. Anything done to us, no matter how savage or cynical, is justified by our original sin, and anything we do to fend off the blows is morally repugnant. How are we supposed to battle this? How am I supposed to protect my children when this is what much of the world believes about them?
The mounting crises and disasters of this summer have left me feeling underwater, as though I’m watching the world go about its business but am somehow disconnected from everything. It feels a little like what I imagine it’s like to discover you have a terminal disease. The whole world is chattering away, gabble gabble gabble, but no one is saying or hearing anything important, and they’re certainly not listening to anyone like me. And why should they? It doesn’t matter what we say or do; it doesn’t matter what the truth is. It doesn’t matter what will happen the next day if God forbid the monsters win in Gaza. Everyone shrugs when “militants” smash Buddhist temples; they’ll shrug (probably cheer) when they burn down the synagogues. They look away when they tear the crosses from the ancient churches of Mosul; they’ll shrug some more when they come for the Caravaggios.
My heart aches. This wretched, beautiful, forsaken little country is the lamb of God. We have been chosen to be heaped with blame and loathing and then chased off the cliff, so that we might die for everyone else’s sins — or at least make everyone else feel a little better about their world, until the monsters start coming in their direction. It’s extremely odd to know that your own death, the death of your own children and your whole nation along with them, will imbue vast swaths of humanity with a glow of warm satisfaction. We have the temerity to exist at all, so we have it coming.
Published in General
I’ve been here for a long time. This is maybe the best thing we’ve ever had the privilege to publish.
My family supports the One Family Fund, which was founded to rehabilitate terror victims and their families. Its mission has expanded and now it supports other things such as summer camp programs to help get children away from the urban targets of rockets.
We also support Friends of the IDF, which is like an Israeli version of the USO.
In fighting the media fight, I like to give to MEMRI, a nonpartisan translator of Arabic and Farsi media into English.
All of these organizations have 501(c)(3) status.
TV and media communities are often fooled, but sympathy for Israel and Jews everywhere is common beyond the cameras. Please continue to come to Ricochet, if not to post your always insightful articles, to be reminded that friends of Israel abound outside the limelight.
Our prayers are with you. There is no greater power.
Civilization is hard to build and keep; savagery is easy and natural. Israel is doing the hard work now, and I look forward to the United States getting back to it soon.
I think Judith might welcome some advice from people wiser than me–and who have had more experience of being parents–about “finding some language with which to explain the war to [her children].” She and I have spoken about this offsite, and I truly have no idea what might constitute a healthy approach to explaining this situation to one’s kids.
(It’s not that I have no experience in this realm. My brother Mischa recently visited Paris with Leo–age five–in tow. I was charged one evening with babysitting. Not to worry, Mischa said, Leo was all tuckered out: just put on a good documentary and he’d drift right off. “He loves World War Two documentaries,” he added. “He’s totally into World War Two.”
“World War Two?” I said dubiously.
“Yeah. But … nothing with the H.”
“I see,” I said slowly, taking this in. “So the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, Hiroshima, that’s all okay?”
“Yeah. All that’s fine. But not the H. He doesn’t need to know about that yet.”)
And some more encouragement from Texas’ junior senator: http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1647
On November 24 last year, the pediatric neurosurgeon at Children’s Hospital sat on the edge of the gurney with my 12-year-old and showed her the scan revealing a sizable tumor on her brain stem. He explained it didn’t belong there and they’d have to take it out surgically. Kate was fine having the situation explained to her matter-of-factly and calmly. I was a puddle.
My advice to Judith? Live in hope (what else do you have, really?), so as to convey hope to your children, and then tell them all the truth they need to know. They’ll probably handle it better than you.
I have and it is and my heart is breaking not only for the sheer horror the Israelis continue to endure, but for the shame I feel for my country and its desertion of a great friend and ally. My admiration for the courage and persistence of Netanyahu and Israel’s citizens knows no bounds.
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
WRT children, readers may be interested to learn about the “Code Red Song”. It was developed by Israeli child psychologists to help kindergarten-age kids deal with the psychological trauma of the air raid sirens.
One note on the translation: “Falling …Boom” refers to the rocket landing.
Godspeed.
“…pretending everything is normal…”
Why? This isn’t (hopefully) “normal”. It is, however, a battle in a war with no end in sight.
I think #38 is spot-on.
Judith:
May the Almighty bless you and keep you.
Yes, there are voices in Hollywood that cry out against Israel. They are not the only voices though. Listen to Bill Whittle from a few days ago. Take heart. The truth is being told.
And may I add in my anger and shame that we should all remember this next we vote in any federal election.
I share my ——– sister Thompson’s feelings on this point. Barack Obama, John Kerry, and the lickspittleing Arabists at the Department of State have done about all that they can get away with to undermine Israel and Mr. Netanyahu.
I have read the allegedly apocryphal telephone between President Obama and the Prime Minister. http://reason.com/blog/2014/07/29/israeli-newspaper-publishes-alleged-tran
It MAY be fictional, but every syllable sounds exactly our president!
With friends like these . . . .
Judith, I have posted a link to your letter to my Facebook page, and since a lot of my friends are in EU, So. Africa, and AU and I have asked them to share. Because so many people seem to be ignorant or disinterested who are in our lives, we have agreed to end each of our postings of information regarding Israel or Islam with:
One Step At a Time.
Please know that we awake each morning with tears, and go to sleep each night with a prayer for all of Israel.
Not for America Liz, but for voting in this piece of slime. I’m not ashamed of being an American, just ashamed that most of our liberal democrats were suckered in.
That’s a tough one for me, Kay. Obama won by impressive margins in both elections; in fact, even I knew more who voted for him than not. What is America if not the convictions of her people?
This is truly the best way to fight for those of us watching from abroad. It should constantly be in our minds that the war Hamas is fighting here is much more than some tactical engagement with the Israeli army, it is a propaganda war. The hatred they generate against Jews around the world is their victory and the counter for that is the truth, with their own translated words being the best weapon in exposing their evil. MEMRI is doing critical yeoman’s work in that fight.
Mrs. Levy do not lose hope, despair in its own way can be as dangerous an enemy as those who attack you now. Never doubt that you and all of Israel still have friends out in the world.
So, consider this thought: Hamas is using tunnels because Israeli Missile Defense is proving highly effective. The tunnels are a frustrated reaction to superior Israeli technology.
It seems likely that Israel can find a way to prevent many tunnels from being dug in the future, probably exploiting seismological detectors, possibly with the aid of terahertz-type radar for the shallower tunnels. (The US is supposed to have some means to detect drug tunnels along the US/Mexican border, so there is presumably substantial experience to draw upon.)
Fortunately, the Gaza/Israel border is not that long, which helps.
One could speculate/ imagine that detonating a number of large charges at regular points along this border might collapse tunnels nearby.
So take heart: Hamas is running out of options. As years roll by, they will run out of time. There is a limited shelf-life on the politics of (supposed) territorial dispossession. Just ask the American Indians.
Stay the course, and you will win a permanent victory within your lifetime.
As an earlier commentator stated, looking back on this conflict from the vantage point of the future, the greatest lesson it may yield is the fact of “the missing Arab reproach”.
Young children dream big. They enthusiastically latch onto big ideas, like bravery. They are not yet jaded by experience. So I would liken their own trials to the challenges of the heroes in their books and TV shows. Give them aspirations to outshine their fears, and pride to color their losses. Teach them why it is an honor to be an Israeli.
Judith, I have long awaited this post. It is, sadly, exactly the post I thought it would be – although even more heartbreakingly eloquent than I had imagined.
It is anguishing that our quisling President has behaved exactly as I knew he would in this situation – issuing pro-forma platitudes on Israel’s right of self-defense, while doing all he can to be supportive of the Palestinian cause within the limits of what he thinks he can get away with politically.
My assumption is that if the attacks on Israel were to escalate to your being attacked by neighboring armies and air forces, the President would only offer some version of “they brought it on themselves,” offering only “humanitarian” aid, ignoring any military compacts between our two nations.
This can offer you no comfort – perhaps even add additional pain. But it does provide the knowledge that we do know what he is doing, and that he is doing it deliberately.
I have sent this article far and wide and it is being rebroadcast by many. I encourage others to do the same (and include the Ricochet url).
Judith,
Your post brings tears to my eyes. I have no basis to imagine what you face other than your words, which are horrifying, as text, let alone in real time.
I am certainly not alone among Ricochetti or Americans who DO NOT heap blame or loathing on you or your countrymen in Israel. Just the opposite. So many of us only have admiration for your stance and fight to maintain a safe and prosperous homeland for all your citizens.
I love the picture on the Ricochet headline, because in the midst of the hell you, your family and neighbors face, that picture is a visual of a shining hope that must well up in your heart, every day when the sun rises and sets.
I am praying for your peace and safety.
Lemaan Achai does terrific work.
Israeli milblogger doubletapper is collecting $18 per pizza, delivered to the troops.
Oof, well, long story (complications, multiple surgeries, meningitis, and, finally, eye surgery to correct position), but she’s much, much better now and there have been no tumor cells detected in her latest MRIs post-surgery. You would be proud to know the loving support the Ricochet community provided us through our ordeal, Claire — members and contributors (you know who you are). This is an incredible group — a blessing to us all.
Having said that, I understand Judith’s anguish and loneliness. As good as people are, no one can step into your skin and relieve you from your suffering — not even for a minute. Even the merciful God who accompanies us through it remains unseen.
Sometimes hope looks like this old saying: When you find yourself in Hell, keep walking. In the case of our Israeli friends, keep your heads down and keep fighting!
Judith, thanks for reaching out to us! I’m horrified and heart-broken; and yet, filled with hope…Hugs and daily prayers! Shalom!
The socialist rot has corroded the foundations of American civilization.
I echo others here: 1) Thank you for sharing. 2) May God bless you and your neighbors.