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Our phones woke us up at 05:30 this morning - a preliminary alert that soon became a siren. We sat in our safe room for a bit more than ten minutes, until the all clear, and then went back to bed. Tzippi got up early to get to her Pilates class (that started at 08:00) and I crawled out of bed at 08:45 after trying to get a bit more sleep after waking at 08:15. Since then the television has been open with continuing reports of missiles to the middle of the country. I don't know (yet) of damage, but at least a handful of people have been slightly injured.
By us it's (still?) quiet, and most of the day is devoted to some Pesach cleaning. We did some substantial cleaning before Tzippi's brother arrived, so we have less to do now, but there's always something dirty, or at least not clean enough, and we'll be busy with this throughout the day, along with preparing some food to bring with us to Nir-Oz where Hila's kibbutz (a conglomerate of a few garinim) will be holding a modest seder. The intent was for the kibbutz, including those who haven't yet returned, or aren't returning, to gather for the seder, but that would have been about 350 people, even without "guests" like us, and a gathering of that size isn't permitted.
Meanwhile, Trump has said that he's willing to end the military campaign against Iran even without opening the Strait of Hormuz. I guess that he has no problem declaring victory for achieving a worse position now than when he started the war. It's worth remembering that he cancelled Obama's nuclear deal that even if it had problematic loopholes was much better than what he got, and is getting, instead. These are truly impressive victories. Elsewhere on the wonderful victory front, in this morning's news that I saw while still in our safe room, Netanyahu, who almost totally refuses to be interviewed by the Israeli press, gave an interview to NewsMax in which he explained that the only long-term solution for Hormuz crisis is rerouting pipes to the Mediterranean. I can think of a cheaper and more effective long-term solution, but it would entail some sort of peace agreement and international backing, and that's something that truly doesn't interest Bibi.
It's now 21:15, and I've just finished washing the floor. About ten minutes ago Netanyahu started a Pesach speech to the Israeli public, and he's just now finishing. He's told us that we've achieved a lost list of goals that his war has achieved. I'd of course argue with all of those, but I won't go into detail here, beyond noting that most of the "achievements" he lists aren't things most of us have no way of verifying. The Iranian regime is still in power, and its downfall, of course, was one of the main objectives of the war. Since Netanyahu can't tell us that this has been achieved, he told us that sooner or later this will surely happen. There was nothing new in this speech which, as expected, was all power and strength, including telling us that Israel is not only a superpower in the middle east, but even on a worldwide scale. There was never any reason for Israel to be a world superpower, and it's strange now to hear this (again, BTW) when we're isolated from almost every country other than the States. He also took the opportunity to criticize the media, and also the opposition, for not joining enough in the war effort. After all, at times like this we need unity, which in Bibispeak means that they should shut up and not question him. (On the whole he can't be questioned because he doesn't hold press conferences with Israeli journalists.) On the channel we're watching the channel's chief political analyst (I think that's her title) immediately afterwards said that questioning him was precisely the media's job. Another reporter (I think she's the chief Knesseth/internal politics chair) said that Netanyahu didn't say anything new and he basically spouted pat phrases. The head of the largest opposition party also got two minutes to respond. Sadly, though he clearly criticized Netanyahu for not having a political plan for after the war, he still said that he supports the war effort, even criticizing Netanyahu for not knowing how to win a war. He could have done better, but I didn't really expect anything else from him. FWIW, I should add that though we haven't had an alert since 05:30 this morning, throughout the day and into the evening, including during Netanyahu's speech, the northern border has been under constant shelling.
Our evening passed uneventfully. I'm out of the shower and ready to shut down. And maybe sleep through the night.
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