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TEL AVIV, Israel – We arrive early Thursday morning for our son Yosef’s wedding in Israel. He is a soldier in an elite combat unit, but he has been given a leave of absence for his wedding. He is not on the Gaza border, thank God. His older brother, who had been called up immediately while the October 7th massacre was ongoing, is not as lucky and is stationed right by Israel’s worst enemies.
Rochel Lean and Itamar were visiting his parents on 7 October, Simchat Torah, in Ashkelon. They woke up to a terror hellscape of rockets, bombs, and marauding terrorist savages and barely survived. Now they join me in going to see the places of the carnage, courtesy of my friend Amichai Eliyahu, Israel’s Minister of Heritage, who will be meeting with survivors and local leaders in the South to see how the government can help.
We walk through. The kibbutz is completely decimated. The sickening stench of death is all around us. The bodies of the victims have been removed. But the blood is everywhere, as are bodies of the terrorists that are covered in plastic. It is the same message we hear from the Mayor of Sderot whom we visit right thereafter and whose police station was taken over and whose senior officers were all murdered. Out of 37,000 residents, ninety percent are now war refugees spread throughout Israel. He remains with a tiny remnant.
A few hours later we are back to the relative safety of Jerusalem. It is Friday and I am preparing for my son’s Shabbat Chatan, wedding Sabbath. We have rented an apartment in the Old City of Jerusalem but we have not been informed that it has faulty pipes. There is a flood on the floor. I walk down the stairs, fly up in the air, and feel a bang on the back of my head that is the worst of my life. I am stunned and in shock. I feel the back of my head and my hand is covered in blood.
I decided, amid a healing broken arm, and the terrible gash and staples on the back of my neck, to ride a bike along the Tel Aviv seashore. I need to feel that there is still all the natural beauty in Israel that I so love and not just consumed by war and terror. The streets are empty. The beaches, amid the most glorious weather, are empty too. Tel Aviv is a ghost town. The Tel Aviv port, normally a huge hub of activity and fun, is a deserted waste land with one corn-on-the-cob place open.
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