Thank you to all those readers out there who expressed concern over my absence.

John & I spent a gloriously cool and wet month in England visiting my daughter, son-in-law and their first child who was born 7 October. Everything is grand with them. Two people completely perfectly matched. A new baby, whose problems and concerns are gone despite his rocky start. I think they’ll be a lovely family -and we get a grandkid with a British accent.

Beginning with the last 24 hours and moving backwards in time, a small recap: We arrived home in Israel Thursday night. It was the last night of the Ramadan festivities and at 6pm every Israeli of the Muslim faith must have gotten into a car to celebrate ‘somewhere else.’ The highways were all gridlocked for hours. It was worse than trying to leave downtown LA on the 5 at rush hour.

We were asked if we were afraid to return to Israel by myriad Britains. No. We are not afraid: slightly nervous as to the course of events, but not afraid. Tensions in the Middle East had been rising exponentially over the past weeks. After Israel made a targeted surgical strike on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus killing some top level IRGC commanders, Iran vowed to soon retaliate.

As we were flying, intelligence reported that there would be a massive Iranian attack on Israel within the next 24 hours. Friday morning brought us an early morning shopping to replace everything in our empty fridge. John has taxes to file. My son, who had been called back to reserves, was given leave for the weekend as his unit was way over staffed. I dove into cooking meals for Friday & Saturday. Unpacking. Cleaning.

We welcomed a day of complete rest on Saturday. Saturday night, after Sabbath, we received messages – notice from Home Front Command that all schools would be closed. Large gatherings prohibited. Stay close to a bomb shelter. We decided to relax and watch a movie and get to bed really early. We were supposed to be at the kennel to pick up our dog first thing in the morning. The text messages started to flow around 11 and a further announcement and reassessment of the current situation would be made at 6am.

Shortly after 11:30, we heard the jets mobilized, screeeeeling overhead. Strafing the sky. Lots of them. Flying low, directly overhead. Iran had launched 50 UAVs. Then 80 suicide drones were launched. And more to come. They would take 3-4 hours to get here. Then we got word of multiple cruise and ballistic missiles launched and headed our way. It was a matter of a couple hours all told. So… our safe room was fully ready. How would we react?

Of course, we prayed. Especially Psalms 27, 83, 91 & 121. We prayed specifically for our leaders, our soldiers, our citizens, our borders. John and Max discussed scenarios – the what, when, why and how. And possible outcomes. Prime Minister Netanyahu and the War Cabinet’s plane was in the air. Israel closed airspace almost immediately. Planes en route to Israel were turned around. Iraq and Jordan soon followed, closing their airspace.

We were completely exhausted. What could we do? We decided to trust whole heartedly in G-d for protection. None of us felt any real anxiety at all. If there was a siren, we’d hear it and move downstairs. We went to bed around one. So much for an early bedtime. And because John & my batteries were low on phones and iPads ((John & I were sharing a power cord that gave up the ghost Saturday sometime), our phones were silenced and powered off.

We woke up at 6 am to a huge amount of texts from news outlets, home front, family and friends. The rundown:

331 drones and missiles were launched around 11:30 by Iran at Israel. 185 out of 185 explosives laden suicide drones were shot down by Israeli, US, UK and Jordanian forces before they could even reach Israeli territory. Of 110 ballistic missiles, 103 were downed. 36 out of 36 Cruise Missiles were shot down. 7 ballistic missiles were shot down or fell over Israel, mostly landing in fields and vacant areas. There was quite a bit of activity in the Golan Heights. Miraculously, only 1 person was injured- a young Bedouin girl in the Negev (no shelter) who underwent immediate surgery for a head trauma. She remains in serious but stable condition and I pray she recovers quickly and fully.

Yes, it was a miracle. Truly G-d’s hand was at work protecting the land, the defenders and the people. He deserves great thanks. As does our magnificent IAF, Iron Dome, David’s Sling and all other defense operators.

This morning, the people at the kennel and several folks we encountered today told us they heard hugely loud booms around 2am. Alarms sounded numerous times in Jerusalem, Beersheva (in the South) and Tel Aviv areas. The Houthis had also fired to the south- one aim was to take out Dimona nuclear reactor in the desert. However, very few people experienced fear or terror. Most folk had put their trust in the L-rd and the IDF and stayed calm.

But- hear me out. This is just my personal theory and opinion not news. Just things to think about:

1) Acting on intelligence, Israel did eliminate top IRGC leaders. So Iran had to retaliate in order to save face. It’s always a tit-for-tat volley of getting even here. In order to stay in the power game, Iran had to have a show of strength.

2) The Iranian terror regime, verified by US and Israeli intelligence, promised a massive retaliatory strike within 48 hours on Thursday night. If you want to do real harm, do a surprise act. Do not announce plans in advance. That’s just idiotic. And strange-

3) It gave Israel time to reinforce, suit up and have allies in place (unannounced). Defensively, all was in order.

4) Iran had moved missiles and troops in advance as recorded by satellite imagery. They announced the launches within minutes of their happening, giving our planes time to scramble.

Coincidentally, simultaneously happening pro-Hamas cease-fire rallies throughout the world (Toronto, London, New York) quickly turned into a “full fire” Death to Israel and Death to America mob scenes…

5) Everything airborne from Iran was shot down by 2:50 am and an all-over/all-clear was sounded in Israel. Air space was reopened by 6am. Coast clear. This attack didn’t last long-

6) Biden declares joint US and Israeli victory. He instructs the Israeli War Cabinet to just “take the win” and not retaliate. Despite an ultimate act of war (or Iranian propaganda), Israel is to move on. Nothing to see here. Nothing doing. Now can you increase Gaza aid?

7) Biden touts his ironclad relationship with Israel and his role in minimizing escalation and maximizing protection- just defensively, not offensively. He wins with both pro-Israel crowds by US air support and with pro- Islamist crowds for calling for an end and vowing not to support an offensive stance. Fair enough. We do appreciate US help. The UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and UAE also assisted as well as Cypress.

8) Iran begins televising the total destruction of Israel completely engulfed in flames on their national programming. The celebration is also picked up by Memri TV. Except they turn out to be film from past Texas and California wildfires. Iran declares victory over Israel.

9)Sec Gen of UN, Gutierres, condemns Iranian attack

10) China, while not calling it an act of terror or act of war, calls for restraint.

So…. Was it all political posturing and wrangling? A test of iDF readiness and resolve? An invitation to escalation? An attempt to for Iran to show itself a global powerhouse? Just things to think about.

The Israeli War Cabinet meets this evening in a couple hours. They will discuss the next steps in all of this. We pray for them to make right, just and g-dly decisions.

Because events de-escalated rather rapidly ( we slept through the action!!!), our son was released from active reserves. Classes resumed this afternoon and he had a debate team to coach tonight and class to teach tomorrow at Uni. We drove him down to the TelAviv area and came back up North this afternoon. Still have tons to do and I’m still completely wiped, so we are calling another early night.

I shall write more tomorrow. Until then, May we have peace and quiet.