Rockets, combination locks and kids playing basketball

When the sirens went off the other day, I had a minor inconvenience as I sprinted the remaining 25 metres to my house to reach the safe room in time. You see, when we moved in, we had to find a way to let all the kids in our blended family get in without the worry of lost keys. So we installed a combination lock. It’s been a great solution.

But when Hamas fired yet another barrage of rockets towards civilian communities including ours that afternoon, punching in that combination took seven of the precious 90 seconds I had before possible impact. And just to think, in my haste, I could have easily made a mistake in those numbers.

But I didn’t. And I made it inside where everyone had already reached the safe room. As my wife held the handle ready to close the door behind me, I caught my breath as we waited for the inevitable sounds.

We heard the bangs, the sirens stopped, we waited a few minutes and came out shaken – and a bit stirred. But compared to us in Bet Shemesh, where we’ve had just over a handful of alerts, those closer to the action are virtually glued to their shelters. Those living closest to Gaza where the unspeakable atrocities took place on Simchat Torah, as well as those in the nearby town of Sderot, have just 15 seconds. They don’t have the option of punching in the wrong combination.

And it’s not just the disruption of the siren and sitting in the safe room. It’s the small noises such the door closing when someone goes to the bathroom or the boys playing basketball across the road … or the bang of Iron Dome intercepting a missile a few kilometres away that doesn’t threaten our own community. And don’t even think about testing out the sounds on your phone’s Red Alert app. I can’t tell you what that does for anxiety levels around here.

I’m thankful for our community and the solidarity we’re experiencing during this difficult time. We’re all in the same boat. I’m worried and concerned for our soldiers who are out there protecting us, many of them children of neighbours and friends. I can’t fathom what their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters are experiencing right now. I’m proud of my daughter and her fiancé who have volunteered to provide support with their own military experience and are waiting to be called. I’m proud of the untold number of ordinary people cooking, donating and delivering essentials to soldiers on the front line. I’m proud of my wife and step-daughter who have given free beauty treatments to young wives of soldiers in our community. I’m proud of hard-working, underpaid supermarket workers who are making special efforts to smile and be nice to customers. And I’m proud of my co-workers who are dedicating their vast creative talents to tell our human story to the world to combat those – who like Holocaust deniers – are trying to twist truth and attribute blame to the very people who have suffered the brunt of atrocities.

So as we begin a new week, where we continue to long for the banality of complaining about normal things like annoying combination locks, I have a humble request. Please do what you can to share the story of those who like you, want to live peaceful lives and bring up their children to be good world citizens. Shut down those who plead morality but preach hate. Help open the eyes of ordinary people to the evil of Hamas. And spread the message that they need to be stopped.