‘”We survived Pharaoh, and we’ll survive this, too” is a line from a popular Israeli song by Meir Ariel from the 1980s. It’s used by Israelis during challenging times: it’s been heard a lot since Friday’s attack on Iran.
Four days on, the country has quickly shifted into full-scale war mode.
The Iranian ballistic missile attacks are pure Russian roulette – they can if not intercepted land anywhere, at any time, and no one is safe. The most noticeable change is the eerie quiet that has descended over the country. No one wants to stray too far from their safe room or bomb shelter (apartments built since 1992 are required to have a safe room, while older buildings have a communal bomb shelter).
Non-essential work places are closed, along with schools and universities. Most people are only leaving home to stock up on basic supplies. Joggers have stopped jogging and walkers have stopped walking: no one wants to be far from home when the sirens sound.
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The people who are out and about look exhausted. It’s become normal to be woken once or twice at night by the alerts of incoming projectiles. Many people can’t get back to sleep even after the “All Clear” message is received.
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Israel’s air space has been closed since the opening salvo in the early hours of Friday morning. Many thousands of tourists are stuck. There are some 200,000 Israelis waiting to return home and the numbers are growing. Many have made their way to Athens and Larnaca in Cyprus hoping that emergency air lifts will be authorised, but as of Monday the military says it is still too dangerous for flights.
Some of those desperate to return home are flying to the Egyptian resort of Sharm El- Sheikh or the Jordanian capital Amman and returning overland, but the Israeli authorities stress that serious security warnings for Israelis are in place in both of these neighbouring Arab states.
No public gatherings are allowed. This week, Israel’s basketball final was postponed, as was the wedding of Avner Netanyahu, the prime minister’s youngest son. This is a popular period for weddings and bar mitzvahs, but no such gatherings will take place until this conflict is over.
The tourism industry has been devastated by the Gaza war, and those hotels that are still open rely on domestic Israeli tourism for their custom. No one has been in the mood for taking holidays since Friday. Ironically, the hotel industry may be saved by the growing number of families made homeless by the missile attacks – they are being sent by the government to hotels.
The only apparent positive change is that traffic jams have disappeared - for now at least.
