Duck and Cover

Today, as my Hebrew class drew to a close at 10 a.m., I was jolted by the ominous sound of air-raid sirens. Not to worry, it was only a drill. Sirens sounded throughout Israel this morning (with the exception of Sderot, Ashkelon, and other towns near Gaza, which are busy dealing with real rocket attacks) as part of a five-day nationwide home-front preparedness exercise that started Sunday. The Jerusalem Post described it as "the largest national exercise for emergency situations in Israel's history." It was also the first drill orchestrated by the newly formed National Emergency Authority, which was created after the Second Lebanon War.

Since I was in class at the time, I missed the televised instructions from the Home Front Command on proper emergency procedures. (I wonder if there were English subtitles for Hebrew-challenged Americans like me?) However, my Hebrew teacher explained that school children were directed to enter the nearest bomb shelters during the drill. "What about us? What are we supposed to do?" asked a nervous fellow student. Apparently we were not far from a bomb shelter or fortified area on the Tel Aviv University campus.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak reassured the public that the drill did not mean the government anticipated war in the near future. Still, the experience was a little unsettling for an American like myself. Not since the height of the Cold War have Americans felt it necessary to conduct drills of this kind (although I do remember a run on plastic sheeting and duct tape five years ago). Here in Israel, they are a grim but prudent precaution. Israelis have bravely faced missile attacks before: Iraqi Scud missiles during the Persian Gulf War, Hizbullah missiles during the Second Lebanon War, and of course the incessant barrage of rockets that Hamas continues to fire from Gaza. And, as The Forward recently pointed out, Hamas is increasing the range of its rockets. "It is just a matter of time before they reach Tel Aviv," warned Eyal Zisser, a terrorism expert at Tel Aviv University. Minister of National Infrastructures and former defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued a similar warning about Syria and Hizbullah this week. "In a future war," he noted, "there will be no place in the country" that is not within range of their rockets. Add to this situation the threats by Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map, and the need for home-front preparedness should be obvious.

Is all this making me reconsider my semester in Israel? Not at all. Under these conditions, coming here – even for a few months – becomes an act of solidarity. If Palestinian sniper fire didn't scare away a delegation of Canadian Jews last Friday, then a little duck-and-cover practice is hardly going to send me running back to Wisconsin.