Hi friends,
I write this to you with a warm nana (mint leaf) tea on a quiet Jerusalem evening. 48 hours ago, the feelings were very, very different. For the last 2 weeks and really the last 6 months its been generally tense as Israel has been at war with genocidal terrorists to our southern and northern borders. Groups that have been funded and directed by the evil Iranian regime.
The last 2 weeks were particularly tense since Israel rightly struck an IRGC (an internationally recognized terrorist arm of the Iranian military) building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Syria where a few of their “generals” were convening. Iran had been threatening to strike Israel directly since that day and I went into the first 2 Shabbatot of April with my phone close by in the event of an emergency situation akin to Oct. 7th.
Finally, this past Saturday night - at about 11 pm Israel time - it became known that Iran had launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise rockets at Israel. We paused the movie we were watching, read Tehillim (Psalms) which are prayers of salvation / protection, and continued about our evening. At 1:50 AM, as I was in bed (unable to properly sleep), I heard a loud boom that sounded like a car bomb. A few minutes later I heard an even louder one and within 30 seconds, the red alert alarm began blaring all over Jerusalem. I quickly woke up my roommates and rushed to our bomb shelter which we thankfully have inside our apartment. We closed the door and began hearing boom after boom. If you’ve been in Israel when terror rockets are raining down on civilians, you know that these sounds are the result of the Iron Dome, David Sling and other defense weaponry which are exploding the rockets + drones mid-flight in the sky.
I checked in with family and friends both in Israel and abroad and prepared to spend the night in the bomb shelter with my 2 roommates. We read more Tehillim, made a few jokes to lighten the mood, and eventually went to sleep.
In the morning, we found out that with the Help of God, our allies (the US, France, UK, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia), 99% of the attack failed utterly. Most of the impacts were felt in Iran itself with failed drone launches, Iraq, Jordan, and the Negev desert in Israel where an Arab Israeli Bedouin child was critically injured by a rocket. She remains in the hospital fighting for her life, may she speedily recover.
That following morning it really hit me.
The Islamic Republic of Iran does not and has never cared about the Palestinians, other Arabs or their own people. Their primary care in this world is to kill as many Jews as they can and destroy the only Jewish state. It hit me that fear does nothing to benefit us. It hit me that faith in our protectors and the One Above in moments like these are the only way to move forward. It hit me that part of their aim is to damage our unity and wage a psychological war where we cannot sleep in peace knowing that there are rockets and missiles heading towards our homes.
The next day there was an utter sense of gratitude amongst everyone in Israel that we had collectively survived in the face of utter destruction. Gratitude to God, to the IDF, the Air Force, to our allies, and to each other. Restaurants were open, busses were running, and the nation returned to living life as if nothing had occurred.
Living in Israel carries this paradoxical sense of resilience that life must go on - if not for us, for our children. If not for our children, then for our enemies. So they can see that nothing will deter us. Nothing will bring us down.
It hit me that while Iran wanted us to be afraid, they are now the ones that should be living in fear of the Israeli retaliation for this unprecedented attack on our nation. It hit me that they are playing a role of attempted destruction of our nation that so many have tried before and every single time they have failed. It hit me that in this pursuit of destruction, the Islamic Republic is simply asking to be included as the main antagonist in our next holiday.
Am Yisrael Chai is not just a phrase or a slogan. It’s our battle cry that has been chanted since the days of Moses and continues to this day.
May we know no more despair, no more fear. May we continue to be unified and may we fight until we reach complete victory. HaShem is bringing the Redemption and we each have a responsibility to do our part in completing the Task. May we be blessed to feel this moment to the fullest and see the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our days. Amen.
- Meyer Grunberg | מאיר אליעזר בן צבי
@jewishistoryguy