So many rabbis and Jewish scholars I respect are imploring us to remain optimistic about a resolution to the Middle East war. They remind us of a myriad of challenges to the Jewish people’s survival throughout history and how our people withstood those existential threats and rebuilt what was lost. Of course, it’s heartening that we still exist. But it does not stop me from being heartbroken about Israel’s predicament today and the suffering its people are enduring in a war that I’d venture to guess nobody thought would still be going on.

I’m heartbroken that Israel’s weary soldiers must fight on so many fronts; that on what was already a bittersweet Independence Day in the midst of war, forest fires blazed, marring the celebration even further.

Ironically, on that day an article from an Arab website about the fires appeared on my iPhone. “Israel Helpless Against Wildfires, Rushes to Blame ‘Terrorism,’ ” the Moroccan World News.com website proclaimed. The article went on to say: “The state with bombs for Gaza lacks firefighting planes at home, desperately seeking European rescue as flames advance unchecked.”

The author’s undertones of glee at Israel’s suffering were also heartbreaking. I asked myself, “How can one people fight this cascade of ill will?”

And then on Sunday, May 4, a missile hit in the vicinity of Ben Gurion Airport and airlines started canceling flights—some for a few days, others for a few months!  As CNN reported that day, “The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack saying it was carried out ‘in rejection of Israel’s crime of........

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