It seemed almost inevitable. The Ayatollahs continued to denigrate Israel and the USA, calling us the ‘Little Satan’ and the ‘Big Satan’ respectively, pretending to negotiate terms for reducing their nuclear weapons programme while not actually doing anything of the sort, and the USA continued to build up its potential to attack in the region. I personally never believed that the massive American potential to strike would be disbanded without being activated.

And so it was. The only surprise was the timing. We had half-hoped for an  ironic twist to the Purim story, with the denouement coming on the anniversary of the day we celebrate the dastardly plot to kill all the Jews of ancient Persia two and a half thousand years ago. But Netanyahu and Trump jumped the gun and launched their attack on Iran, the successor of Ancient Persia, two days earlier, i.e., on Shabbat morning. Oh well, there goes another quiet weekend, we thought, and sadly faced having to forgo our usual Shabbat morning chamber-music concert in Ein Kerem. A huge sacrifice, I admit, but necessary under the circumstances. What the outbreak of hostilities means for us is that our lives are put on hold, we have to stay at home with quiet times interrupted by trips to our basement shelter when the bomb alarm sounds.

And so we spend the day hovering between our chilly basement shelter and our comfortable sitting-room as alarms rang out from our phones, radios and TV sets, as well as outside in the public arena. I feel sorry for the journalists in the various TV news studios who spend the days talking endlessly about what has happened, is actually happening, and might still happen, trying to make sense of a situation that is changing constantly.

A few minutes after each alarm and the descent to our shelter we hear the loud boom from somewhere outside as the missile is intercepted meaning that after a while it is safe to leave the shelter. Throughout the day this pattern continues. So we endure days and a nights of alarms and excursions.

We don’t know how long this situation will continue. Some people say it will go on for several days. Others that it will last weeks. Everything depends on what President Trump says and does. During the previous war last June, he called for an end to combat just as our planes were on their way to a crucial bombing mission, leaving the job of finishing off the evil Ayatollahs’ regime incomplete. There’s no knowing how and when he will react this time, but we can only hope that the whole sorry situation can soon be brought to a successful conclusion, with the overthrow of the regime that has threatened to destroy Israel and has done its best to wreak havoc throughout the Western world. But for that to happen the Iranian people will have to take action themselves, which may come at a heavy cost.

So we’re back in a holding situation at home, glad to be under our own roof and hoping it won’t be the recipient of a five-ton Iranian bomb.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)