Friday night, Day 9, of Israel’s “12 Day War,” while saying “kiddush” over the wine, I added the “Shehecheyanu” prayer, celebrating how blessed we were to have reached this moment.
My kids looked at me quizzically (not for the first time, nor the last), so I explained that, even then, before America joined and bombarded Iran, how much safer we – and the world – were than on June 12.
Moreover, we – and the world – are far safer than we were on October 6. Threats remain, but Israel restored deterrence, crushed Iran’s proxies, and exposed Iran’s dictatorship as weaker and more evil than most Westerners acknowledged – the mullahs have targeted Israeli civilians with over 800 ICBMs since April, 2024!
We’ve paid an excruciating price. Israelis flit between five circles of hell. The first circle is being killed or seriously wounded. The second circle is losing a close friend or relative.
The third circle is seeing close friends or relatives injured badly. The fourth circle is having your life disrupted, by losing your home, losing your job, enduring family separation, or – quite rationally – stressing about the hell our enemies gleefully impose and much of the world justifies, while threatening more, crying “Globalize the Intifada.”
Finally, the luckiest of us inhabit the fifth circle, knowing far too many in the four circles while constantly knowing that we and our loved ones are within millimeters or milliseconds of falling into a more hellish circle.
But with all that, there’s no place I’d rather be.
It’s strange. Danger keeps jumping around this small country the size of Wales or New Jersey.
Speaking to my heroic cousin Adele Raemer, hearing how “thanks” to Iranian ICBMs, many hesitant residents returned to her Gaza Border kibbutz, Nirim, all I could think of was the peripatetic pink spot in that literary classic… The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
Dr. Seuss ricochets the pink stain on Mother’s white dress to a wall, to Father’s shoes, then all around the room until the Cat blows the spot onto the snowy yard with a fan.
Similarly, menace imperils Jerusalem during terrorist bursts, then the Gaza corridor on October 7, then the Lebanese border for months, then, thanks to Iran, it reaches Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Beer Sheba, Haifa. Fortunately, our fan – the IDF – blows the evil back onto our enemies.
And that’s why there’s no other place I’d rather be.
We’re a resilient bunch. A young friend quips, “Ten years from now, an Israeli history quiz will ask ‘what canceled Israel’s 77th Independence Day festivities?: A. Hamas’s terrorism. B. Hezbollah’s bombs. C. Iran’s missiles D. Forest fires.’ No student will believe the answer: 'forest fires.’”
In Israel-under-fire, we laugh a little harder, hug and bless our kids more intensely, dance at weddings and other celebrations more furiously, and started rebuilding even as ICBMs kept detonating.
The restaurants and cafes that filled as soon as President Trump announced the ceasefire confirm that Israelis live the eternal Jewish lesson not to ask God for lighter burdens – ain’t happening so fast apparently – just broader shoulders… and wider smiles.
Israel is chock-full of nonchalant heroes on our battlefronts and homefront: consider our street sweepers.
Beyond cleaning debris so quickly when killers strike, they keep sweeping during wartime, cleaning our cities despite all the ugliness around us. These civilizing beauty touches represent the normalcy Israelis seek – and the superhuman determination, sacrifice, and sense-of-purpose required to achieve it.
So, my fellow Israelis are also why there’s no other place I’d rather be.
Then (sigh), the romance fades and illusions wither when we turn to politics. Donald Trump has a point. Although America’s president should not interfere in Israel’s judicial system, it’s time to drop the charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is a national hero
I’m updating a bargain I first proposed in 2017. Love him or hate him, Netanyahu is a national hero. He, leading our generals, spies, pilots, ground crews, intelligence analysts, resilient citizens, and super-brave Iranian assets, helped save Israel from Iran.
At the same time, he is utterly incapable of uniting the country, partially because of his divisive demagoguery and partially because of his opponents’ obsessive hatred of him.
I so respect the rule of law that I rarely get parking tickets. But what does Israel gain by jailing him – or continuing to distract our leader fighting multiple enemies with testimony about minor discretions that occurred or didn’t occur years ago? Netanyahu is 75. He balanced his inexcusable failure on October 7 with a winning streak culminating with his spectacular mid-June triumph, humiliating Iran, and saving us.
This round finally reunited Israelis. It would be a crime against Zionism if an overconfident Netanyahu shattered that unity by bulldozing through judicial reforms, haredi draft evasion, or territorial annexation. So:
A. President Herzog pardons Bibi or the prosecution dismisses the case, using prosecutorial discretion – a broad, purposely-ambiguous power.
B. Netanyahu retires in four months, and initiates Likud primaries.
C. Going to elections, Israel turns over a new leaf, as every party leader approves the deal while signing a pledge to seek unity and try healing the nation.
This is a challenge – not a prediction. But if our leaders are ready to negotiate this Grand Deal – along with an end to the Gaza war that’s safe for Israel and includes Hamas freeing every hostage immediately, most Israelis might also echo me, saying: “we finally have political leaders worthy of our people and that, too, is why there’s no other place we’d all like to be.”
The writer, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. His latest books, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath, were just published.