Jerusalem Reality Check

Sirens went off in Jerusalem yesterday.  I was sitting with the writing team in our Wednesday lunch meetings, chowing down on salad, fruit and leftover birthday brownie with sprinkles, when alert started.  The siren was faint and no one moved or even acknowledged the noise as we continued eating and chatting about our current projects.

Arie, the Spanish desk head, rushed past our meeting room and yelled in Hebrew that we should not ignore the sirens.  Still the two Americans, Canadian and Brit on the writing team had almost no reaction.  The Canadian, our team leader, lives in Gedera, an area that has been barraged by rocket attacks.  Her kids haven’t gone to school in weeks and she just couldn’t be bothered.  All of them agreed that there was no real threat since Hamas doesn’t possess weapons that could reach Jerusalem.

It turns out that the sirens were a mistake.  They were working on the system and someone set them off. Oops.

My day to day reality hasn’t changed.  I have my routine of gym (well gym in theory at least), work and out with friends and that hasn’t changed.  I get around by bus and go to popular places in Jerusalem.  None of my friends have left the country and most of them are actually planning on staying a few months after our program ends.  The changes I feel are subtle.  It’s the extra hug that I give a coworker because her husband was sent into Gaza, it’s the extra phone call to my friend stationed in the north on reserve duty, it’s the second thought before going to the Old City, it’s taking my boss’s kids to the science museum so she can actually get some work done. 

I’ve been trying to keep up with some of the American media. Many of the articles are about the humanitarian crisis which is definitely a huge problem.  People living in Gaza are essentially trapped in the war zone.  Israel drops pamphlets warning them to get out, but where are they supposed to go?  The area is tiny and all borders are closed. I read one article in the New York Times about a doctor who lost his wife and son because they were caught in crossfire.  Most of these people didn’t elect Hamas based on their hate for Israel.  If that was the case, they probably would have chosen a much more extreme group like Islamic Jihad.  They chose Hamas because at the beginning, they were building schools, setting up welfare programs and creating other opportunities to help the Palestinian people.  Today, despite 20 days of fighting and over 1,000 Palestinian deaths, Hamas is continuing to fire rockets into the south.
Unfortunately, there was no better solution to the problem.  Israel needs to defend its borders.  No Israeli wants their family member put in harms way, especially in the face of an enemy that has no value for human life.  Everyday Israelis read the news hoping that today will be the day they will finally end this thing, that today their brother, sons, husbands and friends will get to come home.  Israel doesn’t want the territory; they just want their citizens to be able to live without constantly having to run to shelters.  Hamas makes it so there is no way to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.  They store weapons and hide themselves in schools and hospitals, so that when Israel fights back, the headlines create International outrage. Hamas brought this on the Palestinian people, not Israel.

This is the reality in Jerusalem.  Everyone is continuing to live.  It’s only when we catch the fleeting seconds of vulnerability that we really understand that affects of this fight go far beyond the death toll.