If there is a surprise in this US-Iraq War, says the media, it is in the strength of the defiance coalition forces have met during the invasion. But I think the media is wrong. The defiance of the Iraqis is nothing compared to the defiance of the Israeli people now and in the last two years.
The Israel radio stayed silent this weekend, as it did last weekend and for the few nights we remembered to leave it on this past week. First created during the Gulf War, the silent radio was established to enable Israelis to sleep at night, knowing that should there be an alarm, the silent radio would awaken them and send them scurrying to their sealed rooms. This happened many times during the first Gulf War, as 39 SCUD missiles were launched against Israel.
Each morning, I have awakened to the realization that no alarm sounded, no external attack was launched against my country. Nevertheless, I help pack my children off to school with gas masks in hand, and cellular phones for the older ones stored in backpacks. Complacency has set in, as the children give me half-hearted arguments and then accept that today, like yesterday, I won't back down. The attack never came; or did it? Isn't it an attack against human nature to anticipate or fear being targeted by chemical weapons? Doesn't threatening a country in order to instill fear mean that country is being terrorized? Wouldn't you consider having to put a gas mask on your child, even as a test, to be an attack of sorts?
For years I have tried to explain to friends abroad that a terrorist attack is not just about the split second it takes for a bomb to explode. It isn't even completely confined to the few hours it may take to clean a street, remove the broken glass, or tow away the decimated bus. I doubt the terrorists really know how much they succeed in terrorizing, or how completely they sometimes achieve their goals. There are subtle things that we do on a daily basis that are concessions to terrorism.
Like on Friday nights, when I lock my front door because I am all too aware of the times that terrorists have stormed homes and attacked families as they sat down to the Sabbath eve meal. And there was the time I left my teenage daughter in a store in the center of Jerusalem shopping and rushed to put more money in the parking meter, all too aware that if a bomb went off, I might be cut off from her. Fear as I had never known it stayed with me as I almost ran to the car and back again. All safe, no bomb, but terrorism triumphant nonetheless, because, for the five minutes it took me to get to my car and back, I was terrorized.
There are many political analysts that speak of the world before and after September 11. Even on that day, I remember hearing news commentators speak of a changed world. They knew what it took me weeks to understand: the post-September 11 world is one in which millions of people suddenly understand that terrorism is about fear, as much as it is about pain and death and suffering. Terrorism is about shutting down the skies over a country in anticipation of another attack and long lines of people waiting to be checked, even though it is highly unlikely that a terrorist would wait in line.
Terrorism is about changing your life to avoid the unspeakable. It is about driving somewhere on vacation instead of flying; shopping in a small, local store instead of a mall; leaving a radio playing or checking the news on a regular basis, in case something has happened. Terrorism is about all the little things you do, telling your children to call when they catch the bus, and when they get off it. It's about taking a certain road, even though another route is faster and shorter, and wondering what picture they might show in the newspaper if you, too, are ever caught in an attack.
And terrorism is about carrying gas masks around with you, taking children into a room and letting them see you put plastic on the windows. Terrorism is about putting a gas mask on your child's head, in the hopes that when the real attack comes, they'll accept this ridiculous contraption because they've experienced it under non-stressful conditions. That is what terrorism is. But what comes out of terrorism is a nation defiant.
It is not defiance that the Iraqis are showing the US. Were they to have risen up and tried to overthrow their tyrant leader, I would have called them defiant. As the Republican Guard wages battles against the Coalition forces, I would say they are fighting, perhaps fiercely, perhaps not. But defiance is about doing something in spite of the danger, not about meeting an army in battle, as wars have been waged for thousands of years. Perhaps they are resisting the invasion, perhaps they are showing great fighting skill. You defy evil, not liberation. To defy a chance at reform, democracy and freedom from an evil dictator seems rather counterproductive. I would not give the Iraqis the word "defiance." That is ours.
Defiance is about going to the mall anyway; taking that route anyway; and letting your children take the bus to meet their friends anyway. Defiance is about not leaving a place where you have lived for twenty or thirty years because the political climate has changed again, and now terrorists seek to enter your home and murder all those around you. Defiance is about returning with your children to a place where they were hurt, and teaching them to live there anyway. Defiance is about living as normal a life as possible, because you know that terrorism succeeds when defiance fails.
Last week, at my son's bar mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall, we had to wait in line to get a place to hold the brief morning ceremony. Five other boys celebrated their 13th birthday and their entrance into manhood with their families. Hundreds of people stood in the open and sang and danced and celebrated. To a small extent, that, too, was defiance.
Amidst the candies flying through the air and boys slapping each other on the backs, a single reporter approached our group. "Could I take your picture?" he asked my friend. She was about to set her gas mask on the floor when he protested, "No, with the gas mask!" That was the story, the image that the AP reporter wanted to capture. It wasn't about the bar mitzvah ceremonies taking place. It was about a single Israeli carrying her gas mask. The reporter thought he was taking a picture of terrorism, but he really captured defiance. We'll carry our masks, but we will go where we must go, do what we must do. We will answer terrorism with defiance.
As our group drifted away, our place was quickly taken by other boys and their families who had come to celebrate. Despite the concern that suicide bombers will target our buses, each morning I pass buses that are full of commuters. Our malls are full, our cafes bustling with activity. My son read his portion of the Torah loudly and clearly for all to hear. We threw candies in celebration of the sweetness of life despite the sorrow of the times in which we live. We celebrated the wonder of bringing a child to this wonderful point in his life in our free and democratic country, and we celebrated our defiance.
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Paula R.Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
The Israel radio stayed silent this weekend, as it did last weekend and for the few nights we remembered to leave it on this past week. First created during the Gulf War, the silent radio was established to enable Israelis to sleep at night, knowing that should there be an alarm, the silent radio would awaken them and send them scurrying to their sealed rooms. This happened many times during the first Gulf War, as 39 SCUD missiles were launched against Israel.
Each morning, I have awakened to the realization that no alarm sounded, no external attack was launched against my country. Nevertheless, I help pack my children off to school with gas masks in hand, and cellular phones for the older ones stored in backpacks. Complacency has set in, as the children give me half-hearted arguments and then accept that today, like yesterday, I won't back down. The attack never came; or did it? Isn't it an attack against human nature to anticipate or fear being targeted by chemical weapons? Doesn't threatening a country in order to instill fear mean that country is being terrorized? Wouldn't you consider having to put a gas mask on your child, even as a test, to be an attack of sorts?
For years I have tried to explain to friends abroad that a terrorist attack is not just about the split second it takes for a bomb to explode. It isn't even completely confined to the few hours it may take to clean a street, remove the broken glass, or tow away the decimated bus. I doubt the terrorists really know how much they succeed in terrorizing, or how completely they sometimes achieve their goals. There are subtle things that we do on a daily basis that are concessions to terrorism.
Like on Friday nights, when I lock my front door because I am all too aware of the times that terrorists have stormed homes and attacked families as they sat down to the Sabbath eve meal. And there was the time I left my teenage daughter in a store in the center of Jerusalem shopping and rushed to put more money in the parking meter, all too aware that if a bomb went off, I might be cut off from her. Fear as I had never known it stayed with me as I almost ran to the car and back again. All safe, no bomb, but terrorism triumphant nonetheless, because, for the five minutes it took me to get to my car and back, I was terrorized.
There are many political analysts that speak of the world before and after September 11. Even on that day, I remember hearing news commentators speak of a changed world. They knew what it took me weeks to understand: the post-September 11 world is one in which millions of people suddenly understand that terrorism is about fear, as much as it is about pain and death and suffering. Terrorism is about shutting down the skies over a country in anticipation of another attack and long lines of people waiting to be checked, even though it is highly unlikely that a terrorist would wait in line.
Terrorism is about changing your life to avoid the unspeakable. It is about driving somewhere on vacation instead of flying; shopping in a small, local store instead of a mall; leaving a radio playing or checking the news on a regular basis, in case something has happened. Terrorism is about all the little things you do, telling your children to call when they catch the bus, and when they get off it. It's about taking a certain road, even though another route is faster and shorter, and wondering what picture they might show in the newspaper if you, too, are ever caught in an attack.
And terrorism is about carrying gas masks around with you, taking children into a room and letting them see you put plastic on the windows. Terrorism is about putting a gas mask on your child's head, in the hopes that when the real attack comes, they'll accept this ridiculous contraption because they've experienced it under non-stressful conditions. That is what terrorism is. But what comes out of terrorism is a nation defiant.
It is not defiance that the Iraqis are showing the US. Were they to have risen up and tried to overthrow their tyrant leader, I would have called them defiant. As the Republican Guard wages battles against the Coalition forces, I would say they are fighting, perhaps fiercely, perhaps not. But defiance is about doing something in spite of the danger, not about meeting an army in battle, as wars have been waged for thousands of years. Perhaps they are resisting the invasion, perhaps they are showing great fighting skill. You defy evil, not liberation. To defy a chance at reform, democracy and freedom from an evil dictator seems rather counterproductive. I would not give the Iraqis the word "defiance." That is ours.
Defiance is about going to the mall anyway; taking that route anyway; and letting your children take the bus to meet their friends anyway. Defiance is about not leaving a place where you have lived for twenty or thirty years because the political climate has changed again, and now terrorists seek to enter your home and murder all those around you. Defiance is about returning with your children to a place where they were hurt, and teaching them to live there anyway. Defiance is about living as normal a life as possible, because you know that terrorism succeeds when defiance fails.
Last week, at my son's bar mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall, we had to wait in line to get a place to hold the brief morning ceremony. Five other boys celebrated their 13th birthday and their entrance into manhood with their families. Hundreds of people stood in the open and sang and danced and celebrated. To a small extent, that, too, was defiance.
Amidst the candies flying through the air and boys slapping each other on the backs, a single reporter approached our group. "Could I take your picture?" he asked my friend. She was about to set her gas mask on the floor when he protested, "No, with the gas mask!" That was the story, the image that the AP reporter wanted to capture. It wasn't about the bar mitzvah ceremonies taking place. It was about a single Israeli carrying her gas mask. The reporter thought he was taking a picture of terrorism, but he really captured defiance. We'll carry our masks, but we will go where we must go, do what we must do. We will answer terrorism with defiance.
As our group drifted away, our place was quickly taken by other boys and their families who had come to celebrate. Despite the concern that suicide bombers will target our buses, each morning I pass buses that are full of commuters. Our malls are full, our cafes bustling with activity. My son read his portion of the Torah loudly and clearly for all to hear. We threw candies in celebration of the sweetness of life despite the sorrow of the times in which we live. We celebrated the wonder of bringing a child to this wonderful point in his life in our free and democratic country, and we celebrated our defiance.
--------------------------------------------------------
Paula R.Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.