Under Fire, part 47

Going out with a bang: Hezbullah makes a concerted effort to use up as many of their remaining rockets as possible. The sirens go off every few minutes this morning, making work (or anything else, for that matter) difficult. Since the Home Command instructs us to remain in our shelters for 15 minutes after a siren, and since the sirens are going off with only a few minutes in between, we never really reach the official "all clear."

Someone asked me why the sirens are stressful. That is sort of like asking why so many people enjoy the taste of chocolate. It is obvious, isn't it? But, as it was clearly not obvious (at least to this one person), I hereby offer this list of reasons:

1. The sound itself is a horrid, mournful wail of some impending catastrophe. Not quite as bad as fingernails on a blackboard, mind you, but still pretty far up there in the Annoying Sounds category.
2. In many cases, the siren is accompanied by a barrage that hits the area, but the inconsistency and uncertainty only go to strengthen the conditioned response (anyone still remember Behavioral Psych 101?).
3. The siren tells us that someone is trying to kill us. Try listening to that warning without feeling something!

It's this "duh!" factor that makes it so hard to answer these questions. "Why do you need to eat protein?" "Why is clean air important?" And now, Norway's Jostein Gaarder asks whether Israel has a right to exist. What?!

Everything changes: The world we live in is in constant flux. One decade's enemy becomes the next decade's ally. Even harder to swallow is the reverse: that a former ally can quickly become a virulent enemy. We rely on our past experience and ignore the current reality, and then are surprised that the same actions produce different results. Jews, who risked their lives to march shoulder-to-shoulder with Blacks during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, are now perceived by the next generation as the enemy. The peace movement and much of the Left has gone from visions of progress and equality to slogans of hatred and death.

Here, we fall into the same trap. The tactical reality of the Hezbullah rocket installations in southern Lebanon is completely different from the 80s, when we were last forced to go in to protect our northern communities. Those strategies no longer work. And the nation's report card for our prime minister is certainly going to reflect that.

So here we sit, perhaps just hours from a cease-fire, and I wonder what has changed, what will change, and what will never be the same again...