What does a ceasefire mean to the average Israeli? Well, for me it means not having to rush through a shower anticipating that an alarm will cut that short, my hair covered in suds.
It means I meet a neighbor on the street, a kid that I've been sheltering with regularly for 12 days, and we take a moment to talk, to exchange words of hope. We both hope the ceasefire lasts.
You know, right, that there's an 8-hour time difference between Chicago and Tel Aviv? We here in Israel are 8 hours ahead. This does not get in the way of talking to the people we love, in my case back in the Midwest. FaceTime, WhatsApp, it all works. Not as great as being physically together, but the next best thing.
I feel their anxiety.
My brother and s-i-l (sister, really) like to call around 9am. I'm often working at that time and have to message:
Working, will call later.
I call back yesterday thinking we will be celebrating the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but no, the reports in the US have successfully polluted their American interpretation of events.The American bombs did not take out the uranium, they tell me. The Iranians can still develop their bombs. They may even have a few nuclear bombs stashed away somewhere in those hills.
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| Maxar photo, B2-bombers, 6 holes on the nuclear reactor site |
The problem is that you caught a virus, I say. Iranian propaganda is a virulent virus. What is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei telling his people? Is it that the Americans obliterated their nuclear program, that they have effectively lost the war?
Uh, no. That is not how dictators communicate. Honesty is not their strongpoint. What Khamenei tells his people goes something like this:
We won! We brought the Israelis to their knees! They begged for a ceasefire.
LOL.
Adorable.
This as Israeli planes fly overhead in Iran, the sounds of jets in the ears of every Iranian. The IAF, the Israel Air Force, still proudly owns Iranian airspace.
All this mishigas (mish-ih-gahs, craziness, nonsense, Yiddish but also Hebrew) about how American bombs failed their mission (they weighed in at 30 tons, I believe) is poppycock. It is to save face. Political, of course, telling the people that they won. that there is no substantial damage to their nuclear program. Brilliant, too, because even if the Iranians don't believe it, the Americans surely will.
Iran will not (I tell my family) break the ceasefire, either. Breaking the ceasefire would mean that they didn't win, and they won, right? So everyone in the Middle East can shower in peace now.
They want you to be afraid, I tell D and T.
In Israel the cultural spirit is courage, not fear. We respect fear but look it in the eye, a Zen idea, too, honor it and get ready.
Israelis have done and continue to do what our forefather Jacob (Yacov) did over 3000 years ago.
Yacov is about to meet up with his brother Esau (Genesis 32:21). Esau a powerful, violent guy most likely intent upon revenge, killing Yacov for having grabbed the birthright, finding the nearest camel, and run. Yacov has had time to come up with a three-pronged plan.
When faced with the enemy
(1) placate with gifts to soften him up
(2) prepare for war
(3) pray
We pray, as should everyone, that the war is over, that no more lives are lost (7 Israeli soldiers, only yesterday in Gaza). So no, we are not celebrating, we mourn and we pray for the return of those still in captivity in Gaza, the hostages.
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| Our dear hostages, you are not forgotten, 22 Israeli, 1 Thai, 1 Nepali |
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| 7 gone in Gaza yesterday |
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