4th Israel Report: Tel Aviv at War

Israel Report #4 - Tel Aviv in Wartime

Tel Aviv seems, in many ways, the same busy city as always.  The front desk did give me extensive information about the locations of all the shelters in the hotel in the event of a rocket attack; the last siren was about two weeks ago, they said.  Jerusalem hasn’t had a siren in six weeks, my friends Rabbi Leon Morris of Pardes and his wife Dasee Berkowitz said at Shabbat lunch.  Their kids shared stories of the chaotic experience of heading for the bomb shelter as the sirens sounded, and being certain not to emerge too soon; they know of a young man who came out of a bomb shelter too soon, and was killed by shrapnel from the Iron Dome knocking out a Hamas rocket.  So, things are both normal and very much not. 

The posters of the hostages and the signs and stickers and displays demanding their return are everywhere.  Shops are open, and if business is low it seems not as slow as it was during the 2nd Intifada 20+ years ago.  The cafes of Tel Aviv were full, some with soldiers on leave, but in the middle of Dizengoff Square I found a display that was traumatic for me: not only the photos and names of the hostages, but photos and memorials to the many people, many of them young, murdered on October 7th by Hamas.  It continues to distress that theoretically neutral press accounts say “Israel claims that 1200 were killed” or “1200 were killed according to Israel” as though the facts, documented by the Hamas murderers as well as by Israel’s professionals and other countries, were in any doubt.  We have the names, photos, ages and all details of the many murdered Israelis, the lives brutally cut off, entire families annihilated.  Why, besides blatant antisemitism, is there any need to cast doubt on these horrifying verified facts? 

I’ve had several meetings today that have been both eye-opening and inspiring.  Shanna Fuld is a dynamic young journalist who has created the Israel Daily Podcast, which has quickly become wildly popular.  She was a guest on Too Jewish in October shortly after the atrocities, and is becoming a friend as well. She noted as we met in the lobby that many displaced Israelis are staying at the Dan Panorama hotel.  I has wondered about all the families with children, including dogs, who are staying at this oceanfront hotel in midwinter, but hadn’t quite figured out what was going on.  I did notice that the people were very friendly, unlike the average Tel Avivian, however; more typical of Israelis from the periphery than the big city. 

Shanna shared her observation that for all Israelis the sense of security they shared before October 7th is now destroyed.  I told her my historical perspective that in the long run, walls don’t work.  They create a false sense of security, and the societies that depend on them are always shocked when they are breached. The Great Wall of China, visible from space, didn’t stop the barbarians; the Maginot Line surely didn’t protect France from the Nazis in World War II; the Bar Lev line failed dismally in the Yom Kippur War.  Sooner or later walls don’t stop a determined enemy.  The only thing that really works long-term is turning neighboring enemies into allies, or at least neutrals.  But that seems far away right now.  Shanna spoke about her fear of the unity in Israel now turning into something else, jingoistic and unreflective of the reality; and she also talked about how when she goes to bed at night what keeps her up is thinking about the Palestinians without beds, without adequate food, electricity, water supplies, medical care. 

In the midst of all the war talk, she also shared that in the five years she has been living here there is a remarkable new energy to young observant Jews in Tel Aviv, whose practice might be described as somewhere between Conservative and Modern Orthodox, how the communal spirit is strong and active.  There is a vitality that wasn’t present in my past experience of Tel Aviv, to be honest, but is now. 

I also met with a representative of Leket, Deean Fiedler, an incredible organization that takes leftover food from food suppliers in Israel and feeds people in need.  I had hoped to meet with the founder and director, Joseph Gitler, a Cohon Award recipient in 2018, but tragically his 27 year old son-in-law was killed last week in fighting in Gaza.  Deena came in his place, and explained that an additional service of Leket now is providing food to homebound people who can’t leave the south near Gaza because they are immobile.  All the stores are closed, so Leket brings food to them.  In addition, in many situations, Leket has had to turn to buying produce instead of getting it donated because hotels and banquet facilities have emptied out during the war as tourism plummeted.  Leket has set up fruit stands for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis from both the south and north, and is providing buses to drive volunteers to the fields of the south.  As soon as October 7th happened the farmworkers vanished: the Asian guest workers went home, and the Palestinians who provided perhaps 50% of the work force could of course no longer cross over from Gaza.  The south of Israel now produces 70-75% of Israel’s food; finding a way to harvest that food has become a communal volunteer effort for the whole country.

Our first formal meeting of the Rabbinic Solidarity Mission was with Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Member of Knesset and an old friend.  He described the consensus that that of course there was a catastrophic failure on 10/6,  failure of security authorities and political authorities.  But is Oct 7 like the Yom Kippur War?   No, in his opinion it is much more like 1948, as Israel then as now faced an array of enemies bent on its annihilation.  In 1973, as awful as things were for the army in the first days of the war, it was a war against Egypt and Syria alone, and did not include the massacre of civilians.  This is a war against both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in the north, even if it is limited to a degree in the north.  They have now evacuated 150,000 Israelis from the north, the first time that Israel has done this.  There are threats in the Golan from Syria, in the West Bank from Hamas, and and attempts by Yemen of course as well.  It is a war with Iran and its proxies, and in a variety of theaters.

It is clear that Israel, for all its military capabilities, cannot defeat the entire coalition by itself.  It needs the help of the US and other allies.  He also noted the gap between the ardent support of the Biden Administration for Israel and the less fervent support of much of the rest of the American public. 

In addition, there is gap between the coverage of Israeli media, which understandably doesn’t show the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza.  It is yet another gap between Israel and the rest of the world. 

So, Kariv asked, What is the ability to present a liberal moderate Jewish perspective on the current situation?  Israeli society doesn’t really grasp what’s happening in USA and Europe and Australia around this war.  In Israel there is really only room for one left-wing Zionist party with Benny Gantz’ party, Yair Lapid’s party, the Arab parties.  If the various left-wing Zionist parties unite they can likely gain 8-10 seats.  Meretz, Labor, etc. have room to work, in that they can advocate for a “day after” the war vision.  There seems to be nothing much coming from Gantz or Lapid on the day after the war. 

Currently, are Israelis caught up in a situation so draining that it is beyond their emotional capacity to feel for the Palestinian civilians.  He noted in particular that the only real Israeli desire for a cease fire with Hamas is to save the hostages.  Most crucially—and remember, he is a Labor Party Member of Knesset, a left-wing Zionist himself—he reminded us that if hamas remains in power in Gaza it’s the end of the 2-state solution and the end of the Palestinian Authority.  It is a left-wing goal to destroy Hamas and strengthen the Palestinian Authority.  It was   Netanyahu’s policy to weaken the PA and strengthen Hamas.

We have a full day of meetings and visits tomorrow, and it will be emotional an eye-opening.  I appreciate all the prayers for my safety that I have received.  Frankly, I feel very safe.  Please pray for the safety of those engaged the brutal fighting in Khan Younis now, and for the families who are suffering loss and trying to recover from trauma, and most of all perhaps, for the hostages brutally held in Gaza.