July 24

Thursday Tel Aviv

Day 8

Second Week of the War

Counting and waiting. This starts week 2 of the war. No word from our son for two days, but the wisdom here is that no news is good news. My husband arrived here on the flight with Bloomberg, much better than counting and waiting alone, though the strip felt calmer today until the UN school. Not sure yet what happened there yet. We went to the mall to take care of a pesky cellphone problem. Small country the saleswoman remembered my husband: the one with the boy AND the girl. While there my husband heard his first siren since 1973, Yom Kippur war. In 2014 we have the Iron Dome, took care of everything, as usual . except for some small debris that hit ground on the corner of Dizengoff and Jabotinsky. When rocket hit Yehud, near the airport, the one that caused the FAA and European flight bans - I heard the usual interceptions, and one thud that was duller, rougher, ouchier. Still, one  injury and damage to a house. Not so bad. So when Kerry flew here, as CBS put it, defying  the FAA ban, his courage was matched by Bloomberg, my husband and hundreds of other Jews and tourists from 10 destinations just while I was there. How empty was the airport? I got a pretty good parking spot, but I didn’t manage a first row spot. Still on my bucket list! El Al might be sorry the ban was lifted, every flight of theirs was booked solid and they were raising their already high summer prices. Thanks, America. When Delta cancelled my flight, my husband just decided to come here instead, and we count and wait together. Today there were no soldier fatalitie announced on the evening news. 

Kerry quickly moved from Tel Aviv on to Cairo to talk Ceasefire. Israeli TV today said it would agree (again) to a ceasefire if Egypt can agree with Abbas (Egypt stopped talking directly with Hamas terrorists, but I met a college kid here who never heard of Abbas, only Abu Mazen, his nom de guerre.) To me a ceasefire sounds elusive. And a permanent agreement… I wish them the best. With a daughter paying shiva calls, and a son on the front, this can’t end soon enough for me. Let's see what week 2 brings, and I do hope there's a stop to violence by next Shabbat. Here's to no week 3.