For 2 years I posted a daily blog reporting on the hostage situation, survivors and families, the soldiers killed and injured, the devastation of Gaza and the tens of thousands of non-combatants killed there.

And during the 12 day war with Iran in June, people/friends were aching for real-time information about what was happening and not the filtered news, and what we on the homefront were going through. I began a live real-time report to about 100 people through Whatsapp. It helped them get a better picture of what their friends and relatives were experiencing and helping to support us spiritually.

Since the end of February, I again began giving live updates and reporting on every missile alert from Iran, every rocket barrage and drone intrusion from Hizbollah. I post the pictures and videos and offer commentary as well.

Every day- the deaths, the maimed, the destruction, the uprooting of families from their destroyed homes.

Enough! Enough! Enough! When will it end? When will we get this war mongering and evil corrupt government out of our lives forever?

We put on our faces, we try to go about lives and manage our new abnormal normalcy, but there is nothing normal about it. We are all in waiting mode, waiting for the next missile alert and being ready to go to or enter safe spaces. We have to calculate when and for how long to take a quick shower, not to be caught mid shampoo with a siren. Driving somewhere means we have to think about where it will be safe to stop the car and run for cover. There have been too many people killed or injured getting out of their cars and being hit by other cars who don’t stop.

When people like me take our dogs for a walk, even this mundane chore must be calculated. If there is a missile alert, do I have enough time to get to a safe space. Nothing we do can be taken for granted. It has become second nature and that is wrong. Nothing about this should be so routine that we are desensitized to the abnormality about it.

But we are Israelis, we have enormous resilience and face abnormal situations like this in an abnormal way that is normal (kind of) for us.

Strangely, we Israelis, who can complain about anything and argue about everything don’t bitch about these forced wartime routines. We’re too busy thinking about how to protect our families and get out of this unscathed. So many families have had their homes destroyed but the overriding thought is that they survived and are alive. It’s hard to think about the objects that someone loses, all their possessions and mementos when the biggest worry must be to survive a missile, rocket or drone explosion.

With each live report I post of the missile and rocket attacks, the most important part is after the attack. Was anyone injured or killed? Too often, there have been injuries and deaths and lately, soldiers killed and injured each day in Lebanon.

We had a few months respite from war with the Trump agreements that brought home all the hostages but it wasn’t the end. We still have troops holding over half of Gaza, new army outposts in southern Lebanon and a government and prime minister who know nothing about diplomacy beyond war.

Netanyahu began this new part of the war announcing successes immediately that have nothing to do with what will be the final outcome. Due to the lack of strategy, the moving goalposts and no endgame plans, this war has no exit strategy either. And the worst part is that Netanyahu has also abandoned Israel’s independence. The outcome and ending of this war are in the hands of one person and that person is the most unpredictable and unstable leader in the world, Trump. From statement to statement, he changes his mind about the next steps of the war. One moment, he talks about negotiations to end the war and the next he talks about a massive deployment of 10,000 ground forces to take over the oil producing islands of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, which he wants to rename the Trump Strait. Netanyahu has put the entire fate of Israel into Trump’s hands.

We all know by now that the bottom line will be that the Iranian regime will not fall, their ballistic missile program will not end, and the future of the nuclear program is a question. On the northern front, we know that we will not destroy Hizbollah, no matter how many bombastic statements Netanyahu’s lapdog, the defense minister Katz makes. We have continually underestimated Hizbollah’s rocket capabilities, both in volume and capabilities, and the best intelligence networks of both Israel and the US have totally blown it regarding Iran’s missiles production and capabilities (cluster missiles and 2 stage long range capable of ranges up to 4000 kilometers).

Any more consideration of obliterating the capabilities of both Iran and Hizbollah means years, not months of war, bombings, missiles, ground forces, and countless deaths. It is reminiscent of President Johnson’s Defense Secretary relentlessly convincing him that with more soldiers and more bombings, the North Vietnamese will be defeated. That war saw 500,000 American troops fighting with almost 60,000 soldiers killed, 153,000 wounded and around 2 million Vietnamese killed.

The Iranians themselves have said that this war with them will turn into Israel’s Vietnam. Didn’t we learn our lesson after 20 years in Lebanon.

Enough, enough, enough! This war must end. The IDF chief has made it clear to the cabinet that the army and the reserves are being crushed, in particular due to the lack of Haredi draft and the rest of the population bearing this continuous burden.

The economy is failing, the skies are closed, the population running back and forth to shelter. Going to bed at night is always with thoughts of being lucky enough to sleep through the night without missile or rocket attacks. This is not normal and should not be accepted as normal.

Protests have begun in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and the police are arresting protesters with the claims that the demonstrations are illegal because they go against the Home Front Command directives. That is true. Along with that truth must be the warning bells that sound, saying this war must end and it must end sooner rather than later. The country is tired and the accomplishments of this war are very questionable at best. Of course, the Netanyahu narrative will be quite the opposite, lauding all of ‘his’ successes just as he did back in November. Those proved false as these will, as well.

Enough, Enough, Enough!  Let us have our country back, our lives back, our freedoms preserved before they are all taken from us. End this damn war!

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)