“The day care has added a new bomb shelter inside the infant room,” my daughter told me as she was describing the day care center she is planning to use for our Israeli grandchild. I gagged when she told me. She had a giant smile on her face, impressed that an outside donor made the effort to keep the up to 17 infants in this center safe. Before this specific bomb shelter was built, she informed me that the day care providers would have to run and grab all the babies and get them to the shelter that was in the area near the toddlers. Now it will be so much easier to get the babies to safety! UGH.
I guess it is a matter of prospective. The idea of a bomb shelter in the infant room is great if you are constantly under bombardment. Thus, I agree having this room right near the infants is wonderful. My gag was in response that my grandchild has to be in a day care center with bomb shelters.
In fact, my gag went father then that. When we finished our call, I ate six Oreo peanut butter chocolate cookies. I have not eaten six cookies at once in over a decade or more. But today in an moment of anxiety, I snarfed them down, not even realizing I ate so many till I looked at the new box of cookies and realized how many were gone. It will take me a week to work off these six cookies. But then it will take me forever to come to terms with my grandchild in a day care that has two bomb shelters.
It was bad enough that my daughter gave birth while the Houthis launched a ballistic missile to Israel. We had to take cover in the mamad, while my daughter labored in a birthing room that was also a bomb shelter. (See blog below.) They were safe, we were safe, but it really it was indicative of the Israeli lifestyle. Just keep living around the sirens. But is it really ok? NO, I don’t think so.
I am so frustrated with the constant denial of what the Israelis have endured for the almost 80 years of the country’s existence. Constant wars, attacks, barrages both military and in media. I feel like I am living in a split world where reality doesn’t quite reach into the world of Israel.
But then do the Israelis realized how much they should be suffering with all these attacks? Who knows?Israel still ranks in the top ten of happiest nations in a global survey. This past March it scored as the eighth happiest nation. (As per the World Happiness Report, see link below.) Israel was fifth last year.
Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Costa Rica and Norway are the only countries that were happier. And having been in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, I understand. When it is that cold, you just look at the world a different way. As I learned in Denmark. “There is not bad weather, there are only bad clothes.”
Perhaps in Israel it is “If you did not die, then it is okay!” I am getting sick of living in the world expressed by comedian Alan King’s joke about Jewish holidays, “They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s Eat.”
I recently met with two Israeli women who are traveling in the US to raise funds for schools for Moslem and Jewish children. We talked about the atmosphere in Israel. I said I think everyone in Israel has PTSD. The Moslem woman disagreed. She thinks everyone in Israel is still in the trauma stage. That they just are so used to being in this state that they don’t even realize it is not a normal way to live.
Israel has changed since October 7. The atmosphere is better since the return of the last of the living hostages. But the angst remains. How can it not. So many young people have been murdered. So many horrible stories of what happened. So many unable to bear the burden they have from surviving. Those that died by suicide are also victims of Hamas.
I was in Israel in November 2022. It was really a joyful place to be. The horrors had not yet occurred. The economy was booming. Tourism, tech companies, industry, agriculture, construction, life was good. I have been back twice this year. Tourism is down. Agriculture and construction have fewer employees so buildings stand with quiet cranes and volunteers pick the crops. But still there was always hope that the hostages would come home.
I went in May just before the war with Iran. I heard the bombers flying overhead. I had four trips to the bomb shelter.
I went in July and August. After the destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s missiles and drones. I only had one trip to the bomb shelter. Those Houthis!
Now that the hostages are home, I want it to end. I do not want my infant grandchild to have to be protected by a bomb shelter at day care. I do not want any child to have to grow up in a world where they do not realize that having a safe room in their home is normal. No child anywhere should live this way. It is not normal.
zicharonot 