Thursday, January 17, 1991
Middle of the night – loud banging on our front door and shouting in the street: “This is the Civil Guard. The war has begun, get out your gas masks and open them BUT DO NOT PUT THEM ON.”
We had been told to expect the Americans to attack Iraq tonight as it was Rosh Chodesh, when the moon is the smallest and the skies are dark, the best conditions for the air force to attack.
And we knew that when America attacks Iraq – Iraq will attack Israel. It was accepted by the world as being an obvious cause and effect.
With shaking hands my husband and I took our collection of boxes of gas masks, which we and our six young children had been fitted with the week before. We put together the gas proof crib for our baby all the time praying we would never have to use them.
With no cellphones and no internet in those days- we watched and listened all night on our radios and televisions.
This wasn’t our war, and in fact, we had been told quite clearly not to get involved to enable the Arab armies which had joined the 42-country American-led coalition against Saddam Hussein to remain intact.
“Hashem yilachem la’chem ve’atem tacharishun’…just as it says in Parsha Beshalach. Hashem will fight for you and you will not have to take part in it.
As we saw 34 years ago that is exactly what happened. Forty-two SCUD missiles rained down on us and we didn’t retaliate; thank G-d very little damage was done.
Thursday night /Friday morning 3 a.m., June 13, 2025
Sirens rang out all over Israel and cell phones beeped their messages. This was our wake -up call (literally) that Israel had taken the initiative and was attacking Iran to finally rid us and the rest of the world of the atomic threat.
No coalition with America at its helm…just little Israel alone – but never truly alone as Hashem has shown us miracle after miracle. With stunning precision top scientists and Iranian government ministers were eliminated one after the other, aircraft destroyed, strategic buildings blown up and Teheran brought to its knees.
We watch on our various 21st-century screens as Iranians desperately try to leave Teheran for a safer destination as Israel warns them of impending attacks.
Yes we are paying a price, 24 killed in Iranian ballistic missile attacks is 24 too many.
As we wander from our beds to our safe-rooms or shelters, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, we feel safe knowing that our country, our government, our army and our air force are securing for us a safer future despite all the antisemitism, hatred and criticism still being leveled at us by most of Europe.
Those little children who we struggled to help put on gas masks 34 years ago praying that the missiles being thrown at us would not contain poisonous warheads, are now sitting in their secure rooms with their children proudly watching on their screens in real time, as our ‘boys’ deliver blow after blow to the enemy.
No one is telling us to sit back/stay away/keep out of it. In public, they are still condemning us, but in private – well, the journalist Douglas Murray said it all so clearly in his prophetic speech at Cambridge University 13 years ago.
And if you want to go back a bit further than 13 years, try Megillat Esther. On Sivan 23rd (which falls this year on Thursday, June 18 ), the Jews were given permission from the Persian (today’s Iran) king Ahasuerus to fight back against those who wanted to destroy every single Jewish man, woman, and child.
Our 21st-century version is not over yet.
But just as Hashem is not mentioned in the Megillah and His hand is not seen overtly, but is there guiding events from beginning to end, so we all pray that the salvation that Mordechai, Esther and the Jewish people in Iran of thousands of years ago witnessed will continue to repeat itself for us today.
