We are living the event itself – without distance, without perspective – dizzy on an emotional roller coaster. In an instant, we were taken from the Knesset’s humiliating pettiness of a few days ago – busy with childish and vindictive boycotts, trading coarse and primitive insults – to the uplift of historic days in which the Zionist ethos is being reshaped.

The Israeli nation is rising with resolve, courage, and wisdom, indeed like a lion, above the heads of those who seek to kill it. A new chapter in Israel’s history is being written in our own hand. Of course, it is still too early to sum it up; the war has only just begun.

We are forced to hold contradictory emotions: oscillating between pride in the army’s astonishing capabilities, which have positioned Israel as an unrivaled regional power, and the frightening reality of huddling in shelters while missiles and drones swarm the skies seeking our lives – sometimes with deadly success, as happened in Sunday’s devastating direct hit in Beit Shemesh. Still, Israelis understand the need to pay an immediate, sometimes heavy,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)