What the ceasefire teaches about the heart and soul of Israeli identity.
Life goes on in Israel, ceasefire or not. We hear sirens, head to the miklat (bomb shelter) or mamad (apartment safe room), hear bombs bursting in the air, wait for the “event has ended” signal, exit, resume our meals, take a shower. Ceasefire; we do the same things, minus the inconvenience of sirens interrupting our routines or missiles landing in our neighborhoods, on our homes, apartment buildings, streets. We suffer less death and destruction. Still, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers are in Lebanon, Gaza, and G-d knows where else.
I’ve lived in Israel for a little over nine months now and am just beginning to crack the code to what it means to be an Israeli. But experiencing 128 incoming missile alerts in five weeks– many in the middle of the night–running down three and a half flights of stairs to my building’s miklat or the nearest public shelter, seeing missiles streak across the sky, hearing their booms, and feeling my apartment building rattle have been a crash course in Israeli identity. Still, my experience pales in comparison to those who have been going through this since October 7 or to those who lived through the Intifadas, the Yom Kippur War, the 1967 War. Next to those Israelis, I’ve got much to learn. So I listen to conversations around me, talk to people at the Shabbat table, cafes, grocery store lines, and compare what I hear to my own thoughts. Ceasefire? There is an array of feelings out there, and as I discovered, a unified force that defines who we are:
Relief—Thank G-d
Thank G-d. Now Gan will start up, and I can get the kids out of my house. I have to work. (The answer to my question, “What do you think of the ceasefire?” posed to a working mother at Carmei Gat playground, as others looked on and nodded in agreement)
Frustration
I’m frustrated. We need to get the job done. Let’s just get it over with. (Two women in a Jerusalem café, their laptops open, talking to each other)
Aggression
I’ll go through it again if it means getting rid of Iran. (A friend declared at the Shabbat table)
Catching cynical breath
I’m grateful for a chance to breathe and regroup before it inevitably starts again. (Comment from a WhatsApp chat group)
Sacrifice
I’d rather deal with this for the next two months than rush into a cease-fire. (Eavesdropping on a conversation in a Jerusalem café)
Endurance
I’ve kept a log. I’ve been in my mamad over 60 times (A friend’s response to my question, “What do you think of the ceasefire?”)
What ceasefire?
What ceasefire? Someone should tell Hezbollah. My son’s in Lebanon. (A mother snapped at me after I struck up a conversation in the grocery store line)
Emotional blur
What happened to Passover? (A friend’s greeting to me a few days after the ceasefire took effect, before I even had a chance to ask what she thought of the ceasefire)
Humor, Israeli style
We’ll bitch about the road works because we can’t bitch about our safe rooms anymore (and delight in living in the best place on earth). (An answer to my question posted to a WhatsApp chat group, “What do you think of the ceasefire?”)
Jewish humor
“The Iranian regime is like a sinus infection. If you take half the antibiotics, you feel better. But then it comes right back a little bit later.” (Danial Pomeranz, Reality Check)
Pragmatic
I have a wait-and-see approach. Enjoy the quiet as long as it lasts. (A friend’s response to my question)
Then there’s the politicians:
It ain’t over till I say it’s over
“Israel ‘has more goals to complete,’ says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement after a ceasefire between the US and Iran is announced…“We will achieve them,” he promises, ‘either through agreement, or through renewed fighting.’…Israel, he says, ‘is ready to return to fighting at any time.’ ‘The finger is on the trigger,’ he warns.” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-we-have-more-goals-to-complete-the-finger-is-on-the-trigger/)
A diplomatic disaster
“Israel wasn’t even at the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security.” “There has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history.” (Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid)
It only helps Iran
“MK Avigdor Liberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, warned that ‘a ceasefire with Iran gives the ayatollahs’ regime a break and time to regroup.’”
Donald, the duck
“Donald, you came off as a duck!” (Netanyahu coalition member MK Zvika Fogel, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, wrote on X).
But it was historian and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, who, in a recent Substack post, best revealed how these sentiments capture the Israeli character:
Hope
Endurance
Depression
“The depression felt by a great many Israelis on the day of the ceasefire now appears to have been fully justified…In the Middle East, victory is defined not by an army’s performance but by its enemy’s ability to survive. For the Iranian regime, like Hamas and Hezbollah, victory is established when the successors of assassinated leaders can emerge from the rubble and flash a “V” sign…Many Israelis would be willing to endure another six weeks—and more—of sleepless nights, school-less days, and hours in our safe rooms to bring about even part of our vision of regional peace. Most would not be crestfallen if the current ceasefire fails and the campaign to defeat Iran in Middle Eastern terms resumes. The tens of thousands of IDF reservists who have already served hundreds of days in combat would readily serve hundreds more. Throughout, we would cling to the belief that “it’s possible”; that someday a jeep will pass by with soldiers shouting, “It’s over.” (“What Does the Ceasefire Mean in Israel?” Michael Oren, Clarity Substack post)
From Israel’s inception to the present, the Jewish State has existed under an existential threat from regimes that have sought to wipe it off the face of the map. But this genocidal plot has backfired on Israel’s enemies. Living under such conditions has instead instilled fearlessness, Jewish pride, and sacrifice in Israeli character. These attributes are among the reasons I made Aliyah. I wanted to be in a country where Jews were not only proud of their identity but were also unafraid to do what it takes to fight Jew hatred. With few exceptions, I found these attributes lacking in American Jewish communities and, certainly, in Jewish legacy organizations.
A couple walking down HaRakevet Road, Jerusalem.
But there’s something more that explains the heart and soul of Israeli character than fearlessness, Jewish pride, and sacrifice. I see it in the men and women who have chosen to embrace their Jewish identity by uprooting their lives in the United States, Canada, Australia, France, South Africa, England, South America, for a harder but more satisfying life in Israel. I see this something more in couples holding hands and in fathers and mothers pushing strollers as they walk down HaRakevet Road in Jerusalem, or Sderot Lachish in Carmei Gat. I saw it at the Kotel last night when we transitioned with prayer from the solemn holiday of Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, to the joyous holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day and then at Safra Square, where Israelis danced in celebration. My friend Marci Reiss offered an explanation of what this something more is in her weekly pre-Shabbat email to friends where she commented on the ceasefire. Her insight turned me around. Yes, we all have practical questions, but it’s “the real deal,” as Marci puts it, that matters:
“Will it last? Was it too early? We don’t know…We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But we never do. Now is no different…We should take comfort in what we do know…There is a real deal. And it isn’t with Netanyahu, and it certainly isn’t with Iran. We know that G-d is with us. We know that we are the chosen nation. We know that G-d shows us endless miracles if we choose to see them. We need to remember that there is a real deal. It isn’t about enriched uranium. It isn’t about the Strait of Hormuz. And it certainly wasn’t brokered by Pakistan. It’s a deal with the Creator of the World. And it’s a deal that will last.”
History has shown us that we, as Jews, cannot count on politicians and world leaders. But in the final analysis, we could always count on the real deal–the heart and soul of the Jewish people–because we, as Jews, have always outlasted our enemies, and Iran will be no exception.