We Live.

It’s been a long while since I’ve written. Things here in Israel have taken a dramatic turn ever since we’ve attacked Iran. An even more dramatic turn since the US joined in and attacked Iran in the middle of the night. We woke up, rudely I might add, to a serious barrage of missiles in response to the US entering this fight to remove Iran’s nuclear threat. So first and foremost, thank you President Trump. Thank you and the American troops for doing an incredible job. But more than your firepower and your awesome B2s, thank you for standing with us.

I won’t mention the countries that have abandoned us – you know who you are and you should be ashamed.

While I sat in my daughter’s safe room for a good half hour as Iran did its best to hurt us, I thought about my grandparents who went through WW2 in concentration camps, and thankfully survived. I thought about the differences between Anti-Semetism back then, and today. Technology has made this fight scarier, in a way, as anti-Israel propaganda grows like a cancer and news media outlets have abandoned their vow to be neutral and JUST STATE FACTS. That ship has already sailed and issuing a retraction days after spreading false news is too little too late.

On the other hand, we have Israel. We have a badass army (with female fighter pilots no less) that has vowed to protect its citizens. We’re no longer wandering this Earth running from place to place as we get kicked around and persecuted.

Having our own state definitely tips the scales in our favor.

But while we fight for freedom, peace, and equal rights, there are Westerners who have never visited this region, and don’t have a clue of the Middle Eastern mindset, who are fighting for a regime that would imprison them or kill them in a heartbeat. They are demanding that we lay down our arms. That’s like saying “from the river to the sea” but wrapping it up in some colorful wrapping paper and a bow. It’s just a euphemism for, just lie down and take it, we don’t want Jews around anymore. Thank you for being so transparent: we get the message, and we’re taking your threat seriously.

It’s mind-boggling, and irrational. The question at the core of all of this is why do they hate us so much?

It’s not about land. It ceased to be about land a long time ago. It’s because we’re Jews – I know that, but what is it about being Jews that they hate so much?

British commentator Melanie Phillips said something about this that resonated with me. She said it’s because Jewish people LOVE who they are. They love their life, their people, their connection to their homeland, and they are willing to fight for it. It’s hard to destroy a people that has a crazy will to survive despite everything the world throws at us. And that holds up a mirror to who and what they are and what they stand for. And it’s an uncomfortable truth, which in turn angers them. She said something else: she said that in talking to many Jewish people, they often commented that they fight to exist with the memory, and the shadows of their ancestors right behind them. I think there’s a lot of truth to that. I exist BECAUSE of my grandparents, but I continue to fight to exist FOR them. It’s important to me that their fight wasn’t for nothing. My children, and my future grandchildren (God willing) are their ultimate revenge.

And while normally, any people that has been through the kind of nightmares and atrocities and death that we have lived through since October 7th would be demoralized and losing the strength and will to keep fighting, our spirit has not diminished.

I think more than seeing Soroka hospital get bombed, what would excite them more is to see us cower in fear. To slink back into the darkness and just give up. But instead, they turn on their social media and see groups of strangers DANCING in the bomb shelters. They see influencers making hilarious memes out of a not so hilarious reality. They see scientists digging through rubble at the bombed out Weizmann Institute to save important data that could save lives. They see us at the beach the next day, a little nervous, but not willing to let the enemy stop us from having an awesome day at the beach. We have chosen to find the light – to be a light.

And THAT’S what pisses them off.

Yes, we’re tired, sleep deprived, mourning our way-too-many-losses, shaken by the devastation of a destroyed hospital and residential buildings and homes. We are DESPERATE for our hostages to be returned. We are in desperate need of a true rebuilding: not just homes and structures, but the rebuilding of our day to day lives. We need quiet, we need peace, we need to go back to doing boring yet life affirming things like dance at a wedding, take a university exam, run a local marathon, or take a leisurely walk on the beach without mentally confirming where the nearest bomb shelter is.

But we know more than most people, life is precious, life is worth living, and it’s worth fighting for. And peace doesn’t come without a price. That’s another thing that a lot of people don’t understand. But we know this all too well. So we fight. Not necessary with a gun and a fighter plane or tank. Sometimes we fight with joy, with determination, with humor. With tears too, but we try SO HARD to find the good. A man lost his home in Tel Aviv two days ago. It was reduced to nothing but rubble. He was standing in an undershirt and pajama shorts and was asked by the news how he was doing. He answered, it’s just concrete. I’m alive, and I thank God for the miracle of that. Everything else can be replaced. Then he finished with: Am Yisrael Chai.

Or in other words: WE LIVE.