But They’re Trying To Kill Me!

Someone once said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. The Israeli version of that maxim would be this: a right-winger is a left-winger who has just spent time in a bomb shelter.

When it comes to what Israelis and others call ha-matzav (the situation), I have always occupied a narrow, pointy place in the exact ideological center — and, given any particular situation, all too easily nudged into a more liberal or more conservative position. The three Israeli boys — Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frenkel — are kidnapped and killed, and I slide to the right.  A Palestinian boy — Muhammed Abu Khdeir — is kidnapped and killed, and I, despairing of what the Jewish people stands in danger of becoming, slide to the left.

I write this from Jerusalem, which just last night, was subject to an air raid from Hamas, firing from Gaza. At that precise moment, I was with a friend, on the way to getting coffee. The siren went off, and we went to the nearest apartment building and joined the other residents in going down to the shelter. When we got there, we discovered that there was a pile of children's bicycles blocking the entrance. To me, those bicycles at the entrance symbolized that no one thought that they would ever actually have to use the shelter. We crowded into the small, dank space, and the whole thing was over in five minutes.

This trip is, according to my estimates, something like my fortieth trip to Israel. In all those years, and in all of these trips, this is the first time that I have ever experienced the anxiety that most Israelis feel all the time, at least on this level. I have been here during several intifaddas. I have narrowly missed suicide bombings.

And yet, this was my first air raid warning.  In some ways, the most amazing thing about this has been witnessing the resilience and even the humor of the Israeli people. Five minutes afterwards, the streets of Jerusalem were busy again, humming with life and laughter. As for my friend and I, we never did get that coffee.

So, as I begin my shift towards the right (which might be temporary, or not), let's be clear. The barrage of rockets that have been emerging from Gaza has nothing to do with the horrific death of young Muhammed, whose blood has stained all of our hands and put massive dings in our moral sensibilities. The steady barrage of rockets has been business as usual, Hamas style. Consider: In just one day, more than a hundred missiles were fired from Gaza. All of Israel is targeted. We were simply amazed that the cities of central Israel — Tel Aviv, Rishon L'Tziyon, Hadera, among many other places — would become targets. This is Hamas' ongoing war against Israel. No country would ever tolerate such an invasion of its borders and security. Israel, for sure, will not and should not.

And what would lubricate my slip towards the right? The fact that there were Palestinians cheering the rockets. The fact that there is a large Nazi flag flying over a Palestinian town