Is this a dvar? No. It is a response to the many texts, whatsapps and messages of concern.
First, the best way to reach Raf is email or Signal or Whatsapp:
- Signal/Whatsapp: // redacted for the web site
- Email: // redacted for the web site
-- If we have had email before, keep using that one.
Before starting, an acknowledgement: From the information available to Raf, this is the largest and most impactful attack on Jewish civilians since the War of Israeli Independence in 1948, and it may be materially larger than that (making it the largest such since the Shoah).
Q&A:
- Raf, Are you OK?
-- Yes. I have been in Jerusalem the whole time. I came for Shabbat/Simchat Torah (the same day in Israel). It is now Sunday evening. I plan to stay for at least a few days and possibly the entire war.
- What is visible to you?
-- The war started at 6:30 AM on Saturday. The signs visible to me were air raid sirens in the 7 or 8 AM frame. In the neighborhood I am in, these sounded two or three times. There were some distant booms (I think from the anti-missile system.) The active duty soldier in the house (home for the holiday) was called up at around 830 and had to head out in a hurry (he only got home from partying at 4AM).
-- At that point we listened to the radio for a few minutes. From the interviews with people at or near the scenes, it was clear to me that this was large and unprecedented.
-- Jerusalem is quiet. Most people stay home. When I left the house around noon on Shabbat to walk to a friend's:
---- A guy walks out of a shul and says: "What is going on? Where is everybody?"
---- The streets were vacant. Only a few people out walking. Close to zero cars.
- And the news?
-- It is the first time I have directly witnessed the effect of wartime censorship. News infrastructure seems to be about 24 hours behind know-able-by-Raf reality. It was clear Saturday morning (from radio stations doing interviews with people living in communities directly impacted) that the scope was much larger than the newspaper web sites presented that day.
- What are you doing during the days?
-- The job is to stay calm and help. This is done by finding ways to volunteer. Having given blood (for the first time ever) a week ago, I have, so far:
---- Helped purchase & deliver a hundred+ dollars of groceries for an army base. (With so many reservists called up, base kitchens are short on supplies. I had a list to work from: Coffee, Tea, Cookies, Cakes, Soft drinks.)
-- Home yoga and workouts
-- Watched a Woody Allen film (Match Point)
- What are people doing?
-- Donating funds to Hatzolah, making sandwiches for affected communities, opening homes to affected families. It seems like everyone is involved.
-- Restaurants across the country are packaging meals for delivery to affected communities.
-- Everyone is volunteering in some way. By neighborhood. By profession. By industry.
-- Everyone is helping. Everyone.
-- To donate to Hatzolah, the ambulance and paramedic organization, you can do that here: https://israelrescue.org/
- What is it like?
-- In Tel Aviv (where I have not been) there were more sirens and more incidents of needing to take shelter on Saturday. I believe there have been no sirens today (Sunday). (How can I know if I'm not there? I have an app on my phone that tells me when there is an alert, and it is set for my home area of Tel Aviv.)
-- In Jerusalem it is quiet. Grocery stores and gas stations are open (I made purchases in both today).
- What does Raf hear?
-- Things too horrible to recount. Based on available information the horror is credible. For details, read gory parts of tehillim and the prophets. It's that. Perhaps worse.
-- If you are on social media (Twitter, Instagram, whatever), Raf suggests deleting apps and accounts. Material is surfacing that is horrible and difficult to un-see.
- What does Raf think?
-- A classic case of underestimating the enemy?
-- A country wrapped up in internal angst, unable to see what is happening nearby?
-- Politicians who value power and their positions more than the greater good?
-- The violence on the ground is real. It appears, to Raf, that the actual battle is long-term psychological: The data (e.g. video) of the violence will spread further (and Raf would expect will have more impact over time) than events on the ground this week. One way of understanding the actions of Hamas is as data-creation mechanism. (Why else wear body cams when going into combat?)
- Does Raf have a plane ticket back to California yet?
-- No. Nor is this foreseen.
That is the news as of today.
Raf