Cracks of Light in an Ominous Sky

Children of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, tribe.

Yesterday I was talking on the phone with a client, who is the loveliest of women. For many years, she was a wildly successful reporter and more recently she has made incredible contributions within the field of mental health.

Our professional relationship is shifting because of the turn my work has taken, but I still help her refine her ideas for writing projects and she has begun to mentor me on a path that I hope will eventually include speaking engagements.

During our conversation, we had an exchange that stayed with me.

She said, “The one thing I’d tell you to do right now is to take very good care of yourself. In my career, I worked on a lot of intense stories of human extremity and it took a toll on me. I learned that I needed to compartmentalize — to come home and spend a weekend doing very intentional self-care. I had to step away from work, rest and recharge, and concentrate on other things for a while. You won’t be any good to the world if you’re not taking care of yourself.”

I knew there was immense wisdom in what she said and I did not disagree with any part of it. And yet, I heard myself saying, “But, in this one particular context, here’s the difference between you and me.”

“Yes? What’s the difference?”

And this is what I told her:

When you were working on a story, it was someone else’s story. You might have had very profound empathy for the people in those situations, but you weren’t one of them yourself. The story did not affect you directly. So compartmentalization was possible for you. Disengagement was possible. Turning away was possible.

But I’m a Jew, and this story is my story, and there is not a single moment of a single day when I don’t care what happens to Israel.

*

So I’m sure I don’t need to say this has been a very tough stretch of days. The deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers seem to have sparked a sea change in the composite calculus of this war.

Now, I fully believe that if it weren’t this, it would have been something else. The world called genocide and thundered its condemnation right out of the gate of this war, when it was thought that Israel bombed the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. Of course, when it turned out not to have been Israel, no one cared about it anymore.

Horrific mistakes happen in every war, and this was undeniably a horrific mistake. It was also exactly the catalyst needed to bring the universal censure of Israel into the stratosphere.

Beyond this, as I’m sure we’re all aware, a few major developments have taken place in the last few days. The first is Israel’s strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus and her elimination of three high Iranian commanders, including one of the top architects of the October 7th massacre.

Another is that the IDF has pulled all but one brigade out of Gaza. There has been a lot of speculation about what this means. Some very smart folks think it’s a signal that the war as we know it is drawing to a close; other trusted sources believe that the need to go into Rafah no matter what is still so imperative that it’s a virtual given.

Based on my understanding of the war, I still don’t see how Israel has a choice about finishing its destruction of Hamas. Without that, all this terrible bloodshed has accomplished nothing. Hamas’ credibility and strength will skyrocket if it’s still standing after the IDF has done what looks like its worst. Israel will be weakened on the world stage and her normalization with the Sunni countries afraid of Iran is likely to be fatally compromised. It’s my belief as of this moment that she must press on, even if she’s doing so alone.

Obviously this is a dark and threatening thought. But there are also a few glimmers of light within this ominous landscape.

I believe that attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus was an excellent move. It sent Iran the message that it can’t stand back and just sic its barbaric proxies on the Jews and escape retaliation itself. I devoutly hope Israel will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities next. The entire western world and even most of the Middle East desperately needs Iran to not have nuclear capabilities.

Some people believe, in fact, that the October 7th massacre by Hamas was largely a ploy by Iran to distract Israel and the West while it hurriedly finishes developing the atomic bomb it’s very close to completing. I find this more than a little bit plausible.

There was a ton of bluster from Iran in response to Israel’s strike, as well as a lot of noise about Israel bracing itself for a devastating retaliation, one that was almost certain to come within 1-3 days. But that was a full nine days ago now, and as far as I can tell, Iran appears reluctant to escalate directly with Israel.

Another glimmer of good news is that the IDF celebrated its “first operational inception” of its C-Dome defense system, the naval version of the Iron Dome, which successfully intercepted and shot down an enemy drone above the Red Sea near Eilat.

Israeli ingenuity is a continual marvel.

Finally, I just want to state my own take on the turn Biden seems to be taking in the wake of the WCK tragedy.

As of this moment, I still have the deep conviction that Biden is a good friend to Israel and I plan to vote for him with no ambivalence whatsoever. It’s my belief that he’s trying to thread an impossible needle here.

It is painfully ironic that the far left is sure his rebukes to Israel amount to little more than political theater, while the right is sure — and a lot of Jews are very scared — that he means it. I side with the former camp. I remain certain that President Biden sees the big picture and knows what’s at stake. And he himself was in the White House when the U.S. made its even more devastating mistake with the hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan — for which Obama was forced to issue many heartfelt and public mea culpas.

But Biden is no good to Israel if he loses the election. And I hope it goes without saying that Trump would be an unmitigated disaster. He will never forgive Bibi for acknowledging that Biden won the election, and he has telegraphed countless times in recent weeks that, going forward, he will not play the role of the ally he pretended to be before. And he would be a disaster on every other front as well: for our country, our democracy and our planet.

Okay, fam. I love you all. I’m suffering along with you right now, because we are one people.

Let’s stay strong and proud and resolute in the face of the world’s hatred. We will outlive them. Chazak v’ematz.

Am Yisrael Chai.