Thank you t9 all those who reached out the past few days with your emails, phone calls and direct replies to my blogposts. Thank you for your readership and support.

The past few days have been quite interesting to say the least. To recap, my husband and I came home on a full flight to Israel last Thursday knowing the “threat level” from Iran Anna her proxies was extremely high. My son had been called up to reserve duty again for the last week. Friday, he was released from duty as they were way over staffed in his unit. We spent the day unpacking, shopping, cooking and doing chores (out of control jungle of a garden).

It was really a lovely welcomed Shabbat. We rested. Just slugged around all day, talked about our trip and my son’s plans for being a madrikh/ counselor at a US summer camp and his future plans for grad school next year – he’s trying to decide between two UK universities for the fall. In the evening we got the news from the home front command to stay near our safe rooms/shelters. We decided to watch the last part of the AppleTV series we’d been enjoying. At around 11 pm, we got the news that Iran had launched their suicide drones, but it would take 3-4 hours to reach Israeli airspace.

Max and John thought it was pretty funny that they would have alerted the US and conferred with Turkey days before, basically giving away any element of surprise. That’s not how wars are fought or won. And they were hysterical and cracking jokes about how it would give the airforce time to pick them off one by one. Drones are easily spotted, and very slow. Also not able to maneuver out of the way, so are easily shot down. They said it was a political stunt for the ayatollahs to save face and appeared tough and for ratings boosts in the upcoming US elections.

We heard the IAF jets take off, scores of them overhead as we are in a major flight path. Missiles had been launched. But we have Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and a slew of o the defense capabilities. I made sure all the necessaries were near the saferoom. We prayed and recited our Psalms of protection, and because we were all so exhausted and besides, what else were we going to do? Any missile would take a couple hours to arrive anyway? We put our trust firmly in the L-rd to protect us and went to sleep….missing all the action!!!

After speaking with many Israelis over the past few days, this is the takeaway: only 3 of the 30 or so people I spoke to were concerned or shaken. One has just arrived as a new immigrant from Mexico. She truly thought there would be a war, stayed up and heard loud booms in the sky around 3:30am. She thought it was the beginning (or the end: I couldn’t figure out which). Another friend has two very special needs children. They live in an apartment building in Modi’in in the center of the country between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Julia’s husband is in the reserves in Judaea/Samaria, which is a hotbed right now). Julia and the children all spent the night in the saferoom (Odaliya’s bedroom) and were scared when they heard multiple sirens and multiple loud booms in the middle of the night.

Most people went to bed, stayed up to watch the news, or sat on the balcony waiting to see the sky show. Some in the Jerusalem area were not disappointed as they got to see several missiles being taken down. That’s Israeli’s for ya. Fearless. Wanting to see the action. And thankful to G-d for His miraculous protection.

Whether it was the fact the United States, the UK, France, Cypress, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Jordan!!!all teamed up to help by letting Israel use their airspace, coordinating strikes, or keeping communication direct and accurate…it was all miraculous that 99% of all that was thrown at us was shot down. It was miraculous that there was little to no structural damage. We are sad that only one little Bedouin girl in the Negev was injured by falling shrapnel (tents, no shelters), and we pray for her full recovery. But look:

It’s amazing that more damage wasn’t done. Everything was back on and open for business as usual early Sunday morning. We picked the dog up at the kennel. There was Tai Chi in the park. Kids were horseback riding in the mountains nearest our house at spring day camp. Because the weather was absolutely glorious, we went on a nature hike. Then we took Max back down to the Tel Aviv area. There were tons of people on the beach and out doing Israeli things: sitting at cafés and shopping and working.

Last night the rumors began floating in and by this morning it was all substantiated by various articles I trust. The Biden admin and Iran had been in close communication throughout last week. The Pentagon knew there would be an attack on Israel. It was all well coordinated. I will try to post one or two links or articles on this or a follow-up blogpost. It’s from Memri news outlet. I’m not sure of the accuracy, but I will try to find more direct source info. The other is from Arutz 12.

The jets have been flying around nonstop. We are keeping busy gardening – I harvested my lettuces and carrots and beets. I’ve planted my spring veg garden mostly. Cleaning out the cabinets and oven to remove any products with leaven or grains before Passover. This morning John made lactose-fermented pickles…two kinds: garlic dill and one with spice.

Last night he grilled up our Little Gem lettuces and we drizzled techineh on top. Marvelous. I served it with schnitzel (using up the breadcrumbs) and humus (chickpeas are Passover verboten in an Ashkenazi household) with chopped Israeli salad. And rice (also not Kosher for Pesach). It was delicious. Tonight I’ll use up the pasta and we’ll see what else we can consume to clear out the house.

I still haven’t finished unpacking… or mailing off birthday boxes to my daughters… or cleaning… or finishing off two other articles for publication. We are not scared. We live life to the fullest and face what comes squarely (or sleep and miss it all). We put our trust in our amazing military and in our G-d. We are Israelis.

I hope to get in another post before Passover this Monday. There will be an empty place setting at our table in remembrance of the hostages, still held in Hamas captivity in some Gazan hell hole. If anything exciting happens, I shall let you know, but am praying for quiet days. Hopefully we’ll visit friends in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ashdod over the holiday. It’s supposed to be very hot and sunny.

May we have a peaceful Passover holiday.