Live fiercely

February 5, 2024
Day 122

Headline on Times of Israel: IDF says it killed dozens of Gaza terrorists, hits Hezbollah targets in Lebanon strikes

I haven’t written in a bit – I have been a little burnt out from the war. We’re going on four months now and though I was warned that it would be a long war (I’m relatively well-connected), I have to admit, I’m not sure I understood the extent of the involvement.

IDF soldiers operating in Gaza (photo credit: IDF)

I didn’t understand the operation it would need to be. How slowly the IDF would have to go through the alleyways and tunnels and buildings. I knew how small Gaza was (140 square miles), but I did not comprehend the sheer complexity of the area. Neither did the IDF.

Approximately 5,700 separate shafts. Between 350-450 miles of tunnels, with 100 miles of tunnels under Khan Yunis alone.

Reading about all of this, seeing the facts of war after the brief respite that I took, makes my brain feel like it jumped into the deep end of an unheated swimming pool after it had dried off, relaxing, laying out on a chaise, in the warm sun of summer. When you’re underwater and all you hear is silence and the residual sound of the muffled bubbles, all you feel is the cold water seeping into your bones.

Until you get used to it.

How deceptive the warm sun of respite was. It’s Michigan in the dead of winter. Twenty brutal degrees outside with a blazing sun reflecting off the blinding snow. It should be sunny and warm, but the moment you step outside, you get windburn and frostbite. The sun lies.

I may have taken a break from the war, but there was no break for us as a nation.

Life is going ahead, as it should in an odd way. Birthdays are celebrated, parties are happening, events are planned. It’s important that they do, for we are a people who live.

Even as we fight for our existence, we celebrate life.
Even as our brothers and sisters sneak through tunnels to hunt down terrorists in civilian clothing, we embrace the joys of existence.

Nothing will stop us.
Work does not set you free – LIFE does.

We refuse to submit to the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Not in body. Not in mind. Not in spirit.