The light on the steps to the bomb shelter was turned on early last week and messages on the building’s WhatsApp group have been telling people to clear their junk out of the shelter and prepare it for use. Surprisingly the weekend (Friday and Saturday) passed relatively quietly with what in the country has been termed “an anxious calm”. Today’s news, along with the country winning 6 Olympic medals and high temperatures continuing throughout the week says, “The Iranian attack on Israel is expected to come on Monday”.

Last night as Shabbat ended, I joined over 150 people on the street corner of the progressive/reform congregation I belong to to part from the Sabbath and remember Karina Ariev whose cousin is part of our community. Karina has been held hostage in Gaza for the last 303 days and will be 20 years old today. One of the participants in the gathering was the father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who lives in the neighborhood, and is also being held in Gaza with 114 other Israelis. I returned home to headlines claiming several sources saying that Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in a hostage deal/cease-fire with Hamas. For months, every Saturday night thousands of Israelis take to the streets calling for the negotiated return of the hostages and a cease-fire. They are joined by “Standing Together”, a new group of young Jewish and Palestinian Citizenship of Israel, mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens against the occupation and for peace, equality, and social justice. The feeling is that the government is disconnected from the people and the lack of leadership is nurturing anarchy and fascism.

With 303 days of war, continued conflict is the only vision our government has given its citizens including the 60,000 residents of Northern towns and villages that have been displaced from their homes and the some 150,000 residents of the Gaza border region. Occasional missiles are still shot from Gaza into towns in Israel and multiple missiles are shot every day into Israel from Lebanon with a record of 400 in one day. On July 27^th 14 children and youth were tragically killed and 40 injured in the Druze community in the Golan Heights. The obscure goals of this war are not being met.

On Thursday, while in the park with my grandson, I kept my eyes open for the nearest shelter. Friday night I missed the calm of “anxious calm” as I waited for the sirens to announce another barrage of incoming missiles from Iran. A little less anxiously I waited for the siren as we stood on the street corner yesterday evening remembering the plight of the hostages in Gaza. I do not doubt that the siren will come and that everyone in the region will be facing more tragedy and destruction. I hope that the world will not be dragged into a larger ongoing conflict as I continue to search for the responsible adult(s) in our country, and our Knesset.