People are talking about a war with Iran. Just today, when I went to the laundry, a man wearing a kippah or skull cap stopped me on the street. He asked me something in Hebrew and I said, "English." He switched to English and asked me where I was from and wanted to start a conversation. I wanted to share a conversation also. Unfortunately, his English was very bad and I could only understand a word or two that he was saying.
He seemed to be proselytizing about Hebron being the burial place of our fathers. He also seemed to be talking about war, but I couldn't make the connection between war and a burial place. So I excused myself and continued on with the chore of taking laundry to the Laundromat person. It is common in Israel to leave clothes at a Laundromat rather than doing our own cleaning. The cost is about the same and I prefer to pay the extra few shekels for the convenience.
It is indeed a chore. It is a very long walk, which I enjoy. However, the suitcase that I'm dragging which is full of dirty clothes is heavy. Hot weather makes the suitcase seems even heavier. When I get home, I have to pull the suitcase full of clean clothes up three flights of stairs. Once in the apartment, all I can do is lay listlessly on the floor for about an hour. This is for those of you planning to visit Israel, come in October or have plenty of air conditioned transportation.
I have read that people are readying bomb shelters, and maybe that's true, although I have no idea how one readies a bomb shelter. I took a walk the other evening and saw that in a nearby apartment building that the lights were on in the basement which I presumed to be the bomb shelter. As far as the bomb shelter goes in our building, it is locked and the entrance is blocked by scrap wood and furniture. The old couple in Unit 4 safeguards the key.
In response to a potential threat from Syria, the article also stated that gas mask sales are going through the roof. Even though the other day I saw a man carrying half a dozen boxes of gas masks; I doubt the veracity of the report. Israeli citizens don't have to purchase a gas mask, they can pick one up for free at the post office. So why would anyone buy a gas mask that they can pick up for nothing?
Another time, I saw a man bring home a grocery cart full of bottled water. It took me a few moment to process that he was probably stocking up on water...just in case. Not a bad idea. David and I talk about stocking up on food and water, but haven't done it. I am keeping a large toilet paper supply handy...just in case.
For most Israelis, impending doom is business as usual, and they are cavalier about the whole thing. The guy who owns the shwarma place where we go for lunch all the time was talking about war.
“It's going to start after the New Year,” he said as casually as talking about the start of football season.
"Israel is going to attack Iran?"
He seemed absolutely certain it would happen, and didn't have too many concerns about the whole thing.
"What if the United States doesn't want or can't help Israel?"
"We can do this without the US."
"What if Russia and China get involved?"
"They won't, they have their own problems. Syria and Iran mean nothing to them except to buy their weapons, so they welcome war."
Then he stared at me, "But you, you've never been through this before. You should go back to America for a month or two."
I know an Israeli woman who invites me over for a coffee every once in awhile. She is very old and shriveled and has completely lost her shape. Just by looking at her, l would guess that she is about ninety. She, like many Israelis, is multi-lingual. She speaks Arabic, Hebrew, German, Yiddish, English and a teeny bit of French. I actually may speak more French than she does, but that's not saying much. Her family came to Israel in the 1930s from Germany as part of a Zionist group.
Her husband was in the Israeli navy and died about 20 years ago. He was in a shipwreck in the Bermuda triangle. I couldn't exactly understand what he was doing in Bermuda rather than the Mediterranean; but according to the woman a huge storm literally tore his ship in half.
I asked her about upcoming war. She sized me up as a spoiled American who has never seen adversity. In response to my question, she shrugged.
What could she say? You live in Israel, this is what it is..
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