Rockets in my backyard
Israel was attacked by Iran last night, and I want to let you know what it was really like.
I moved my family to Katzrin ten years ago because it seemed so much like the New Jersey suburb I grew up in. The Golan has ample rain and is cool enough that the streets are lined with trees and grass. With only 7,000 residents, it is a close-knit community.
Security concerns were a large part of our decision to move. The Golan is socially diverse, with Druze, Circassian, Bedouin, Jews, and Christians coexisting harmoniously. There are no Palestinians in the Golan, and there has never been a terrorist attack anywhere in the Golan.
We are less than ten miles from the border with Syria, and the houses were built out of bomb-shelter-grade reinforced concrete with meter-thick roofs to ensure the safety of the residents, underground shelters were set up every hundred and fifty meters. But the Assad regime has been embroiled in a costly civil war for 13 years and is no longer a credible threat to Israel. The shelters have not been opened since the last Lebanon war.
This changed on October 7. The shelters were unlocked, and my wife stocked up on bottled water and canned food. We packed go-bags, and sirens sounded a few times when drones were sent over from Iraq. Kiryat Shmona, about a half-hour drive to the west, was pounded several times a week, but Katzrin was spared. I insisted that we lived in the safest place in the world for Jews.
That ended about two weeks ago. I was getting ready to travel by bus to Jerusalem in the afternoon when the siren sounded. The app on my phone said to shelter in place, and by the time I finished reading the warning, rockets began falling around my city. It was concerning but not scary.
Before Shabbat began, reports of an imminent Iranian attack began to dominate the news. Iran has never directly attacked Israel, and we were on high alert. Shabbat was far from peaceful as IAF jets flew overhead non-stop. But Shabbat has a special magic, and as soon as my wife lit the candles, I did not give Iran another thought.
As soon as Shabbat ended, I checked the news. Iran had not attacked, so it was clearly another false alarm, empty threats from the Islamist regime. But as I was getting ready to go to bed, I received a WhatsApp message from a friend telling me to check the news. No sirens sounded, and the Color Red app remained silent, but Iran had launched a massive attack against Israel. I knew immediately that this was not an attack we could sleep through. We woke up my 11-year-old son and had him get dressed and sleep on the couch. The entire family gathered in the living room, fully dressed and with shoes nearby. We pulled out the go-bags and the medical kit and began to wait. The boys slept, but my wife and I waited. I had served in the IDF, been under fire, and experienced countless sirens. Nonetheless, I am not ashamed to say I was scared.
Several hundred drones were on their way, but it would take several hours to arrive. We had no choice but to settle in and wait for drones to rain down death on Israel. Then, reports of ICBMs began to appear. And drones from the Houthis in Yemen. And rockets in the south. And then we began to hear rockets to the west, much closer than Kiryat Shmona.
Still, the Color Red remained silent. Videos of rockets over Jerusalem began to appear on the internet. Friends posted videos of rockets over their houses.
Finally, at 3:30 AM, I fell asleep on the floor in between my two sons. At 4:00, a siren woke me, and within a few seconds, the rockets began to explode nearby. There was no time to put on my shoes, let alone make it to the shelter. And within a few seconds, the rockets got closer. Much closer. The enemy was walking them in. Katzrin is not a large town but the largest in the Golan. The region is full of army bases, but they were not being targeted. Whoever was firing knew where we were and was clearly aiming for a soft target.
The news reported 30 rockets falling around my city, and I believe it to be true. I felt every single one of those 30 rockets. I felt the shift from heavy booms to a more trebly explosion that lit up the nearby sky. I knew that it was almost close enough to blow out my windows.
The IAF is flying overhead non-stop today, and there are deep booms. They sound more like artillery than rockets, which I would find reassuring if I knew for sure.
I moved to Israel 30 years ago because being a Jew is the most important thing in my life. Except my family. It seems perverse that I would have to choose between my family’s safety and living in my ancestral homeland, but that is the reality I faced last night.
Israel can be a paradise. On a normal day, it is. God says to choose life, and I am learning how profound that statement is and how many people do not choose life. Israelis are still a bit off-balance from October 7. Horror was thrust upon us. After many years of believing in peace, we suddenly have to cope with rockets falling in our backyards.
Today was a day of scrambling to reorder our lives according to a new reality. A rocket landed in our decidedly residential neighborhood on the next street over. By a miracle, no one was injured. I now know what a near-miss sounds like. Tragically, my children also learned what it feels like to have a rocket land nearby.
My day began with four cups of coffee instead of two since I had slept about three hours. Doctor appointments and music lessons were canceled. Stores opened late, if at all. My wife and I agreed she would not drive out of the town. My son asked permission to go to a friend’s house rather than go without asking, as he normally does. I am supposed to go to Jerusalem in two days, but that is on hold.
As I said, Katzrin is surprisingly similar to a small suburban town in New Jersey. But it suddenly wasn’t last night, and I am still unsure why that changed. We did not choose to change. 22 years ago, my wife, pregnant with our first child, was attacked at a bus stop by a Palestinian armed with a knife. Last night, rockets fell on my town.
I did not choose this. We chose life and will continue to do so as soon as we can, taking our children to music lessons and doctor appointments. I cannot understand why people in Iran, Gaza, and Yemen would not choose life and would choose to fire rockets at my city instead.
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