Tel Aviv

A few hours before Iran launched missiles at Israel, America’s spy satellite saw Iran moving the weapons onto their launching pads. They told Israel (and leaked to the media) that an attack was “imminent.” They were right. Within hours, several hundred Iranian missiles were flying toward the Jewish State, just as they had in April. The earlier attack caused little damage — most of the missiles were intercepted — and early reports are that the recent attack met the same fate. Israel’s success shooting down the missiles is crucial, not only because it saved lives but because it does not require Israel to launch a full-scale counter-attack. Safety from the missiles did not protect all Israelis, though.

Tel Aviv Like most people, and most Jews, I’ve been experiencing the war in Israel and Gaza from thousands of miles away. I spent the weeks after October 7 with my face glued to my phone, rather than hiding in a shelter as rockets flew above. I experienced every wave of despair, every GoPro atrocity, every moment, hours away in another world; one that wasn’t directly affected by the chaos but was still consumed by it anyway. When the kibbutzim were being destroyed by gleeful Hamas militants, I was at a wedding in Barcelona. When Israel started to fight back, I was safely at my desk doing my work emails, ensconced in the security of distance.