Musings on rockets, Bibi, Trump, the mullahs… and everyone and everything else that lately kept me awake nights

Freshly righted, this car was blown through the air by a cluster bomblet that landed around the corner from the writer’s home. (Lawrence Rifkin)

Between February 28 and the cease fire reached a couple of days ago between the United States and Iran, much of life here came to a halt. Greater Tel Aviv saw five or six rocket attacks a day (sometimes more, sometimes less), and they came at all hours, meaning a lot of us were walking around half asleep (and still are).

Gatherings of more than 50 people were forbidden, which ruled out most work and almost all recreation. My painting group and lecture series went on furlough, as did my wife’s volunteer work at the country’s wildlife hospital. We also kept having our theater, concert and guided neighborhood-walk dates postponed, and we were left to wonder about the order in which they would eventually play out.

This is not to say that we ourselves suffered. The 23 civilians in Israel who were killed (read on) and the dozens more who were badly injured certainly did. So did the people who lost homes or other property, as did the parents of young children locked out of school for weeks, and those tending to aged parents or otherwise older adults who could not run to safe spaces easily or at all.

Civilian suffering was certainly a reality anywhere the war was taking place.

MOST OF THOSE HERE WHO ventured into the streets did so to purchase groceries and other necessary goods. They stayed local and moved with determination, and generally had the location of the area’s bomb shelters mapped out in their mind. Those who came under attack while driving were advised to pull to the side and seek shelter, or otherwise get out and lie flat somewhere at least 25 feet from the vehicle, whose gas tank or electric battery could make the danger immeasurably worse.

Rockets occasionally got through our varied array of air defenses. Those tipped with half-ton warheads decimated entire buildings – even when they did not explode. Many had warheads that opened at medium altitude and unleashed up to 70 submunitions, even after the rocket itself had been intercepted. Some of these so-called cluster bomblets carried as much as 10 pounds of explosives, which was enough to upend and heave the family sedan to a distance of 20 feet or more.

There was also plenty of plain metal debris falling from the sky. Some of it was white hot and razor sharp. Other pieces could be the size and weight of a large refrigerator. You did not want to be hit by any of it.

Which reminds me that the war did not stop one of my own volunteer activities. I’m on the municipality’s search and rescue squad. Our training and tools allow us to get under and into rubble to search for survivors or victims. We were called out several times, though the most damage we saw came from those cluster bomblets, which did indeed upend........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)