Tuesday, April 7, 2026, sent at 01:25

I set my alarm for 08:30 this morning. I had a few tasks to deal with, but nothing too demanding, so I allowed myself to sleep in. And even a preliminary alarm at 03:30 that woke us didn't really keep me from a good night's sleep. We heard the alarm and told ourselves that maybe there would be a siren, but continued to try to sleep, which in the end we did - without having to get to our safe room. After that (for us - I have to remind myself to add that important caveat) it was a regular day. Or sort of. We'd scheduled a Google Meet meeting with a financial consultant friend, presently in France, for 16:00, and it was easiest to do the meeting via Tzippi's laptop in our safe room. So we were there when there was a new preliminary alert, followed a few minutes later by a siren. Since we were already in the room we simply closed the door and continued our meeting. I assume we got an all clever a few minutes later, but we didn't see it on our phones, and the television news that I ordinarily open would have preempted the Google Meet. So it was only about an hour later than we learned that though nothing happened by us there had been substantial damage from a number of missiles (or from one cluster missile). Apparently only one person was seriously injured, though earlier in the day we'd learned that the four people reported missing after yesterday's barrage on Haifa were found dead. And as I've said too many times already, this is our normal.

Trump gave a press conference, or a speech, or some other sort of rambling, during our main evening news, and the news gave it live coverage - expecting that he'd say something important about a possible ceasefire. Instead Trump endlessly bragged about the amazing recovery of the missing pilot. Obviously, there had never been anything like this in the annals of warfare. It took the channel we were watching much too much time to realize that Trump had nothing to say and moved on to other issues. I did, however, hear him say how great this Easter was militarily. I've just devoted ten minutes to finding that start of his speech. I'd say that it's jaw-dropping, but that suggests that I'm actually surprised. I've attached the short clip below.

Meanwhile, we're still wondering what the end of Trump's latest deadline, and returning Iran to the stone age, will mean for us. Our news reports that Netanyahu is apparently urging Trump to push on and finish the job. I'm not surprised, though I am frightened. In just about all possible parameters things here are bad, but that doesn't mean that they won't get worse. On the civil front, for instance, our Sephardi chief rabbi called our high court an enemy of Judaism, and a former Sephardi chief rabbi called the justices "heretics and wicked people". Meanwhile, our Justice Minister refuses to respect the rulings of the high court, but he's not alone - numerous ministers disregard court rulings, or the decisions of their ministries' legal advisors or of the Attorney General.

And for another meanwhile, while our swift victory seems to drag on well beyond its expiration date, schools have been out since well before the Pesach vacation that ends at the end of this week. Our education ministry still has no plans for kids getting back to school, and frankly doesn't seem to even be trying to make them. I'm considerably less stressed by this than much of the rest of the country. Yes, some studies show that wars, like Covid, cause major learning losses, but I'm not really convinced. What is clear, however, is that for a very extended period of time Israeli children have been without a social framework, and that's a real problem (though much less on kibbutz than in other places). This is just one of the many ways in which our government apparently assumes (and sadly, often correctly) that Israelis are happy to make sacrifices if it's in the name of a glorious victory.

It's time for bed.

to: Wednesday, April 8

to: main Iran War letters page