News From the Front

The klaxon sounds on the telephone. It is horrifying, startling. The purpose of the klaxon when it sounds on Israeli cellphones is to warn civilians that incoming ballistic missiles and drones are on their way from Iran or Yemen. “Anyone who has anxiety, will feel it throughout their bones, when they hear the klaxon sound on the phone.”

“When we hear that sound, we grab a drink, go to the bathroom, and head for the saferoom. The kids know what to do. They know to head to the saferoom, even if they are in the park playing.”

Schools in Israel are closed. Businesses are closed. Grocery stores and food delivery are working well.

“Our 5-year-old says, ‘they want to kill us because we are Jews, but G-d is with us.’”  The kids know the truth. “Most kids are not scared – they don’t really know what is going on.”

One of the most difficult challenges to endure is simply the boredom. “Not being able to work, go to school, or do anything other than go outside for a walk is more boring than you can imagine.”

“One thing about living through the war in Israel is that people are getting to know their kids. Kids, you know, want to eat 20 times a day, particularly when they are inside.” Everyone in our Israeli family sleeps in the saferoom together. The room is probably 10×12 and is blanketed with mattresses on the floor, some blowup and others uncomfortable foam. “In our family’s home, 5 people sleep in the saferoom.  The room has no air and when the steel door shuts, there’s nothing other than a fan to keep people cool.”

All people who live in a multifamily building are kept track of, carry a bag with extra clothes, passports and important papers. In Bat Yam, when a ballistic missile hit the building, finding people was a challenge. Therefore, buildings throughout the country have now developed lists of the occupants with pertinent personal information.

Israel is waging a war against nuclear proliferation while Iran is waging a war against the civilians in Israel.

“Even our middle child, a girl of 3, wears a dress to look pretty just in case she needs to be rescued, but it’s better than her putting scissors in her mouth, which a 3-year-old occasionally does. She knows when to go to the mamad [saferoom]. She knows to run from the park to the mamad in the house when the siren sounds.”

President Trump is right to make it clear that Iran can never have nuclear weapons.  It may be surprising to some Americans that Iran’s leaders would rather die and be responsible for the death of their own people than to give up the ability to wage a nuclear holocaust against Israel and the western world.  There is no reasoning with the madman of Tehran and there should not be.

Israelis, and those who have lived a long time or who have studied history, are well acquainted with America’s role in World War II. The United States would never barter for peace during World War II. The United States took the position that imperial Japan, Germany, and their allies needed to be completely and totally crushed and annihilated. In addition, the population of those countries would need to be reeducated and establish new governments based upon democratic western values. Our allies were rebuilt with the Marshal Plan, while our enemies were vanquished. Many responsible for the Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust hung from the gallows.

The West, all these many years later, is in a war to preserve democracy from our own refusal to act affirmatively when we had the opportunity. Iran and its allies have been threatening to annihilate western Christendom since 1977. There is a reason that Iran, North Korea, and others that hate our way of life find it necessary to build intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach anywhere in the world and to spend unconscionable amounts of money building nuclear bombs. These countries do no worry about humanitarian aid to their people, the social safety net, medical care, or much of anything else. Their entire existence is focused on killing us!  Taking out these bad actors before they obtain the ability to wreak havoc on the world is much easier than waiting until the terror becomes irreversible.

Those living in Israel appreciate that they are in a tiny country, half the size of New Jersey, with 10 million people. Iran is 60 times the size of Israel with more than 90 million people. For Israel to conquer a large and significant country like Iran and to prevent it from spreading nuclear terror throughout the world is more than just a favor to the West; it is an obligation which Israel has undertaken to protect itself and the rest of the free world.

The tentacles of the monster in Iran are found in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and wherever else they can infiltrate. It is time for the rest of the world to work with his Israel to eliminate the threat of international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the reach of ballistic missile technology.

Every Israeli knows that he or she is walking on the razor’s edge. The building in which a former resident of Williamsport, Pennsylvania lives could be the next pile of rubble in hours or moments. It is impressive how many people have reached out to demonstrate support and to pray for the people of Israel, regardless of whether they are native born sabras or graduates of Williamsport High School.

Americans also need to think about homegrown terrorism from both the leftwing and the rightwing and the extent to which the West has embraced potential terrorists in its midst. In order to secure cheap labor, western democracies have opened their doors to those who do not support western values and trash our way of life. Obviously, not all Middle Eastern immigrants are nefarious but enough are, requiring the United States, Canada, and our allies in Europe to close the open door and be more careful about their immigration policies.

In speaking to young people in the United States from middle school up through college, law schools and beyond, it is always revealing as to how little Americans know about their own history, the values of a robust democracy, and the lessons we have learned from our own negative behaviors over the centuries. We, as a great nation, have made mistakes, and we have learned important lessons from those errors. We have matured as a nation and we have become more open-minded but, at the same time, it occasionally appears that we have forgotten the lessons of the past.

The United States will only remain great, powerful, and free so long as we educate our young people and hold our government responsible for adhering to high standards of morality and conduct. We must not be afraid of our enemies who seek to destroy us, while at the same time promoting and preserving our own liberties.