Shalom all,

The dictionary defines “normal” as usual, customary and expected, along with other terms. Can threats from a neighbor, who wants you to completely leave the neighborhood where you both live, and who carries through with his threats by sending deadly missiles, rockets and armed drones in your direction on a daily basis, be considered “normal”? If we treat this type of belligence as “normal” and fail to do anything about it, then, for us, this “new normal” would definitely be “abnormal”.

This is, to our great regret, becoming our daily reality. This past weekend, Israel celebrated Yom HaKippurim (the “Day of Atonements”), Judaism’s holiest day of the year. And yet, the sounds of silence were broken by the ear-piercing, air-raid sirens and metal rain from 320 Hezbollah rockets that were fired into Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome Aerial Defense System. 

Last night, a missile and rocket barrage passed over the skies of Haifa. It included an armed drone that managed to sneak into Israeli air space and landed about 20 miles south of us, taking the lives of four young men, all 19 years of age, and caused varying degrees of injuries to a total of some 67 people, seven of whom are seriously wounded. Is this normal? Is it OK to want to attempt to remove Israel by force? If these deadly projectiles were sent into your property every day for more than a year, wouldn’t you act to put an end to it and retaliate, as necessary? Of course you would. So would everyone in his right mind. If your friends and other neighbors tell you to slow down, back off, don’t fight back, wouldn’t you ignore them, particularly if you were the only one being told to “stand down”? Of course you would.

So, when Israel is attacked simply for existing, and exhibits incredible patience, trying to tell our neighbors to cease and desist from their belligerency towards us, why are we told to do what no other civilized nation would do when attacked, namely, “OK, fight back, but not too hard”? It is simply because we ARE Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people. This tiny stretch of desert sand is where we first settled as a nation. And despite the millenia of dispersion, God has brought us back to our ancient land. We have prospered and established ourselves as a nation that turned the desert green, developed industry, produce, high-tech systems and innovations that have benefitted not just the State of Israel, but the entire world. We help under-developed countries establish clean water systems. We send agricultural experts to countries suffering from famine and instruct them how to plant and reap and develop agro-cultures to feed their people. We export oue scientific discoveries and technologies that have benefitted vast multitudes, including our enemies. And yet, our desire to live in peace is spurned by most of our neighbors, who act out their threats to destroy us a people that the name of Israel would be no more (Psalm 83:4). 

And some here have yielded to the threats. Many have seen the death and destruction carried out against our people by our enemies, and decided to pick up and leave for greener pastures, where deafening air-raid sirens and deadly missiles, rockets and armed drones are things made up by Hollywood, but which are far from the normalcy of their new locations. At one time, leaving the country, or doing “yirida” (going down or emigrating) as opposed to making “aliya” (or, going up or immigrating), was frowned upon by most Israelis. But, times have changed and leaving the country for an extended period of time, and even for good, is considered as “relocation”. However, when the numbers of those leaving exceed those coming in, it will obviously have an impact upon Israeli society as a whole.

War is part of life in Israel. Not a wanted part, but a “no choice” part. Extending our hands in peace has been ignored or slapped away by most of our neighbors. Our ideologies are different. Our perspectives are different. Our ways of worship and the God whom we worship, are different. And it is those differences that our unfriendly neighbors view as being unacceptable. God raised up Israel in the midst of a neighborhood that is a sea of Islam. We ARE different. We have a lust for life, which contrasts sharply with the exaltation of death and of those who are willing to martyr themselves to remove us from the neighborhood.

When an air-raid siren blares, Israelis look for secure shelters. When a deadly projectile manages to get through and lands on or near a building, the damage is usually considerable. If people are near, or in, the building, the loss becomes enormous and a price cannot be placed on it. The lives of the young people killed last night were snuffed out by an exploding drone before they had a real chance to live it. They were IDF recruits. There seems to be a never-ending supply of projectiles in the possession of Hezbollah, who have fired over 14,000 missiles and rockets into Israel during the past year. That number boggles the mind. Is it any wonder that Israel finally said, “Enough!” There is still a lot of work to be done to disarm Hezbollah and eliminate its ability to continue to attack Israel. The IDF says that only about one-third of Hezbollah’s missiles still remain. That still leaves them with some 80,000-plus projectiles pointing towards Israel, according to an assessment of the Israeli Alma Research and Education Center, who estimated that only five months ago, Hezbollah then had 250,000 projectiles, including “several thousand precision ones.”

During my time abroad this past August, I was continually asked “How long will the present war last?” It was an all-encompassing question that no individual could properly answer. In various meetings, I pointed out that Israel is fighting on seven fronts. That was before the latest IDF press commenced against the leaders of the Hezbollah and its ground operations in Lebanon. 

We continue to fight against Hezbollah, this time inside Lebanon. We’re on the offensive and that does not find much favor with a lot of people, who continue to tell us not to go further, not to attack the enemy who wants to kill us and who makes no secret of it. The IDF continues to find terror tunnels in southern Lebanon leading to the border with Israel. It also found an extensive 800-meter-long tunnel that served as a command and control center for Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces, who were planning a massive October 7th-style invasion into the northern communities in Israel.

Israel’s responses in Lebanon were not anticipated by the Hezbollah, who boldly threatens that if Israel continues to strike Lebanon, the terrorist group would  intensify its attacks against Haifa, who would be targeted like the northern Israeli cities of Kiryat Shmona and Metula.

So, should we listen to fair-weather friends, who align themselves with the all-weather enemies of Israel and tell us to back off, to slow down, not to hit hard and knock our enemy out? Such a policy shows their ignorance of how countries in this area of the world relate to each other. Backing down is a sign of weakness and even worse, of cowardice.

With the benefit of both hindsight and experience, we can glean words of wisdom and guidance from the only woman Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir. Speaking during a closed Cabinet meeting that took place one month after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, she spoke to a group that included the then Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and several senior generals, and made the following statements:

“Many things will be forgiven, but one thing will not—weakness. The moment we are marked as weak—it is over.” She then related to how she was told by individuals from the United Nations that the Arab countries were exploiting Israel’s concerns for those of her sons who were taken captive, who were “like the apple of your eye.” She clarified that the response of the Arab states to the return of their prisoners was different from that of Israel: “So what, should we stop caring about people? But here we are definitely not equals, and I hope—I will accept that they will rise to our level, but God forbid we fall to theirs. This means that for them, when it is necessary [to make an effort to free prisoners of war], not for humanitarian reasons but for political reasons, they call it ‘face-saving’.”

The 1973 Yom Kippur War exacted a tremendous toll upon the country and upon the daily life of its citizens. Multitudes of families and livelihoods were affected. Despite efforts of our citizens to return to a normal life while thousands of reservists were still at the front lines, Golda reminded them that a time frame could not be given when the soldiers would be able to return to their normal lives in family, employment and education. “I don’t think we can come to the soldiers and tell them ‘One month, two months, six months, a year’…There is no alternative. I know what it means for the large number of people now on the front. And life in the country cannot go on. … But we can’t have both war, and regular life and endurance. Somehow, all of this must come together…The people need to know, and it’s the government’s role to tell the people clearly. We need to see ourselves as mobilized for a time, I don’t know how long. But this is not a matter of days.”  (my emphasis)

The more things change, the more they remain the same. 

May God comfort the families of those who were killed during our on-going fight for existence. May His hand of healing be upon those who were wounded. May His grace be extended to the hostages who remain alive and bring about their release without Israel displaying weakness before her enemies. May we become a people united in purpose and accomplishment. 

As the roar of jet fighters pass over our neighborhood, may they go out and return in peace, after they accomplish their goals.

“When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” (Golda Meir, A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography)

“There’ll be a time I hear tell when all will be well, when God and man will be reconciled.  But until men lose their chains and righteousness reigns, Lord, protect my child.” (Lord Protect My Child”, from the Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3″, recorded by Bob Dylan, Special Rider Music [1983])

Until that time, may our “normal” be to bless, be blessed and be a blessing.

Marvin