What's it like over there?

Everyone is asking what it’s like to be in Israel these days, during this operation, this war.

In some ways, it’s crazy. I was out with my brother the night the kidnapped boys’ bodies were found. Every store had the news on and everyone was discussing it. People were crying as they ignored customers and just watched the TV. There was a sense that whatever happened next was going to be bad all around, that this ending was only a beginning of something much worse. And that was true. But since then, I have not seen that kind of communal focus, and as this “operation” continues, people check the news all the time, discuss the situation, feel depressed, but must they go on with their lives.

So despite the war, and despite the craziness, Jerusalem feels wonderfully alive. Playgrounds are full of kids and it seems like every third woman is pregnant. Religious and secular mix, as do Arabs and Jews, on buses and in restaurants and throughout the city, though I definitely notice at times that I am the only mom on the playground without a head covering. Posters advertise the opera and theatre and special markets happening throughout the summer. Delicious smells waft from the numerous restaurants that cover the landscape.

One evening, we met friends at the new First Train Station. The fake sandy “beach” was closing down, but we caught the end of a volleyball game. Kids were climbing on structures and riding around on big tricycles and clambering up a rock-climbing wall. Adults were dancing to jazz and swing music in the open plaza. We fingered delicate jewelry and eccentric headbands at the artist’s stands. It did not feel like were in the midst of a war.

All around Jerusalem, there is building and improvement. The old train tracks have been converted to a wonderful long trail with bike lanes and running space. The train is finally running smoothly and the combination of the train and the conversion of downtown streets to pedestrian walkways has successfully decreased the car traffic and increased the foot traffic in the area. The open-air market, always full by day, is also now popular at night among a younger crowd who listens to loud music while dining on a variety of cuisines. Begin Road, or route 50, the new highway in Jerusalem, makes it easy and painless to get in and out of the city, and they have even improved the signage. These improvements (combined with Waze, an app developed in Israeli that allows drivers to share information about traffic and accidents), make it an easily navigable city.

Of course, there have been air raid sirens. Four in Jerusalem so far, but almost all in the first week. We feel like we have it easy compared to the south, of course, or the “merkaz,” the center, around Tel Aviv, where there are sometimes multiple ones a day.

We traveled north last week. It didn’t seem like the right time to take a vacation, with people risking their lives to defend the country and people suffering air raid sirens all the time. But we needed a break and wanted a family vacation. While Jerusalem is relatively quiet, it was nice to get away from the worry of rockets and sirens. But as we were leaving, we heard about a stone-throwing attack on route 2 on the coast, and about sirens are going off in the northern Galil, but during the day, away from the news and focusing on the pool, it felt like a real break.

That was, until we started talking to people. At Hamat Gader, we saw a family swimming and looking totally without concern. But when we spoke, we quickly learned that they haven’t been home for three weeks. They live in Kfar Maimon, a moshav near Gaza, and they have no safe room. The mother told me she can’t have her three little girls there, so they’ve been traveling from grandparents to friends to hotels. She wants to go home, but she knows that would be irresponsible.

Many tourist sites were offering free or discounted admission for residents of the south. Everyone is suffering from the decreased tourist activity because of the situation—our hotel offered an across-the-board discount hotel offered 25% off for Operation Protective Edge. Vacation during a war is cheaper, I guess.

And now back in Jerusalem, another two Arab boys attacked violently by young Jewish Israelis. Stories of cars being burnt in West Jerusalem neighborhoods because they had Israeli flags flying on them. I don’t like to talk about a cycle of violence, because I think that suggests that both sides in this conflict are equally implicated and equally violent. But I do think there’s a cycle of hate, and the more the conflict goes on, the more each side feels justified in their hate, becomes more extreme in their statements, and raises more children into a culture of hatred. How can we stop that cycle?

So here I am, in a shady, beautiful Jerusalem café, feeling safe and comfortable, listening to the people around me discuss the Iron Dome protecting us from rockets.