The Saturday Night that Iran Lit Up our Skies
Some seriously historic moments of this October 7th war, both tragic and heroic, have happened on Saturdays. One was yesterday’s heroic hostage rescue operation. Who will ever forget the jubilant announcement of the lifeguard at the Tel Aviv Beach about the just-completed mission? Similarly, there isn’t an Israeli who won’t remember what they were doing on the night of Saturday, April 13, 2024. Reports of an imminent Iranian retaliation for an Israeli strike in Damascus that killed a top Iranian General, Mohammad Zahedi, were coming to a crescendo. Even for a public that had become numbed by endless rocket attacks from Iranian proxies in the north and south, the likelihood of an unprecedented direct Iranian attack had caught people’s attention.
I was with my daughter Noa at a Jerusalem rally for the hostages that night. At the end, a speaker announced that schools would be closed the following morning, due to the ‘security situation.’ At 9:30 pm, finally accepting the high probability of an Iranian attack, I had an obsessive need to stock our safe room with six-packs of water, and half of Jerusalem was at the supermarket that night, doing the same thing. As Noa and I were later getting cash at an ATM, just in case a missile attack were to take out Israel’s electric grid, we heard the news report that the drones and cruise missiles were indeed on the way.
The next few hours played out in slow motion. At 2:30 am, we finally heard the booms, then a siren. As Jerusalem skies lit up, we herded into our safe room.
For weeks, what we would talk about during moments not focused on hostages or the war in Gaza – was how we passed the sirens that night, what we were doing before, during and after the 310 rockets, ballistic missiles and drones were launched for the first time, directly from Iran to Israel. Sitting in that room, surrounded by endless bottles of mineral water, I had one pounding thought, one which has stayed with me ever since.
AIPAC, America’s pro-Israel lobby, has been steadfastly lobbying Congress for over three decades, to ensure that Israel’s missile defense system was fully funded, multi-layered and world class. AIPAC had at the heart of its lobbying agenda a relentless commitment to counter Iran’s strategic and deadly threat to the West. During my years as a Congressional lobbyist on Capitol Hill in the 90s, I was first exposed to the annual lobbying agenda of programs for which AIPAC aimed to secure Congressional funding, year in and year out. Later during my years as head of AIPAC’s Israel office, I saw over and over how the organization’s defense lobbyists worked with the Congressional committees to be sure these programs were fully funded, as did scores of AIPAC activists across the U.S. Now in its 4th generation the Arrow, for example, is shooting down missiles regularly. Just last week the Arrow downed an Iranian missile that the Houthis fired toward Eilat. Over the last 35 years, AIPAC helped secure more than $4.5 billion to support the Arrow anti-missile system.
The Iron Dome received the most attention during the last eighteen years since Israel’s full disengagement from the Gaza Strip, as it was the short-range defense system that protected Israel’s cities from Hamas rocket onslaughts that came all too frequently. During one of the rocket attacks from Gaza, some eight years ago, our daughter Noa was on an inter-city bus on the Tel Aviv highway when the sirens went off. The bus emptied out, and its passengers knew to crouch next to the bus at the side of the highway, watching as the incoming rockets were perfectly intercepted by the inimitable Iron Dome anti-rocket system. She knew there was Congress and AIPAC to thank, again and again, whenever Iron Dome prevented a missile from hitting a population center.
Countering the Iranian threat through Congressional funding of a multi-layered missile defense system remains an essential pillar of AIPAC’s lobbying agenda. As control of Congress and the White House flipped to one party or the other, as prime ministers came and went in Israel – AIPAC’s citizen lobbyists and professional lobbyists alike sought funding for these programs.
Going back to that historic Saturday night. There was the drama of lit-up skies, and following the news reports, as to which of the spray of ballistic missiles and drones would be landing here at which hour. Scores of friends and families were preparing for come-what-may in their safe rooms, and my social media feed had the sense of the world coming to an end.
The rockets and drones started entering Israel’s air space and were met with a stunning performance by the multi-layered systems that had been designed over years to intercept and destroy incoming missiles at myriad altitudes. The other truly historic act that occurred that night was the coordinated sweep of Jordanian, British, German and Saudi systems (according to reports) – coordinated by the Biden White House and the U.S. Central Command — that acted together to thwart the Iranian onslaught. 310 is a lot of missiles to thwart.
We half expected that the ‘morning after’ would see our daily rhythm seriously interrupted. After all, a regional war could have broken out and we were all shell shocked. The sole injury was that of a seven-year old Bedouin girl, Amina Hassouna, who was fighting for her life. (This is one injury too many, and we are not proud of the lack of bomb shelters for the Bedouin population). To my amazement, the skies were as blue as ever, cafes were bustling and the usual traffic jams assured us that life goes on. Definitely an only-in-Israel experience.
As Israelis are still inside of this year that has endless layers of hell to it, it’s pretty challenging to isolate this one event and feel gratitude for how it all played out. Another moment of gratitude for me took place just this week: AIPAC’s Board of Directors approved the appointment of Elliot Brandt as the next CEO of AIPAC. Elliot will succeed Howard Kohr, the organization’s long-time CEO, who is set to retire at the end of this year. Howard has dedicated his days and nights for the last 30 years to steward the organization through truly historic periods in the US-Israel relationship.
For years, AIPAC was attacked for being too left or too right, both within Israeli and American politics. The truth is that AIPAC stayed determinedly apolitical in both countries. That is what enabled not just the ballistic missile defense funding to be approved year in and year out, but the foreign aid package too, including President Biden’s recent emergency request for $14.3 billion in military aid, which Congress approved last month. Credit for that discipline, leadership and ironclad commitment goes to Kohr. This is the AIPAC that Elliot Brandt will take over at the end of 2024. Elliot is an exceptionally talented leader who will take the reins at a time of immense challenges on both sides of the ocean.
At the moment of truth, as we huddled in our safe room, we knew that AIPAC’s lobbying activity stood the test of time and of political polarization. A U.S.-led coalition of unlikely allies held together during a defining hour, helping save many lives and preventing an escalation into an even more devastating regional war.
