Tel Aviv Rooftop

A few days ago, a flyer appeared on the front door handle. It carried the slogan "Protect Yourself - Right on Time" (sounds better in Hebrew) and showed a map of Israel (and the West Bank) divided into brightly covered sections. Each section referred to the amount of warning time you'll have to reach your "protected area...in the case of an emergency" (read: "if your area is attacked by missiles"). If you live in Kiryat Shemona you have zero time. Lucky Jerusalemites have 3 minutes.The rooftop and the rest of Tel Aviv will have 2 minutes. We don't have a mamad ( reinforced room) in this old flat but 2 mns would probably allow us to reach the bomb shelter on the ground floor in time - although the security window in there is stuck half open. If not, we'll head one floor down and seek protection in the stairwell. The folks from the Home Front Command advise us to keep water, food, batteries, first aid and even an internet link in our safe areas,...

"eych omrim, Iran o Iraq?" ("whatsitcalled, Iran or Iraq?") was a joke circulating around the time of the 1991 first Gulf War. It poked fun at the local tembelim (dummies) who were finding it difficult to distinguish between these previously vague entities who - especially Iraq - were suddenly new enemies. No-one 's asking that question anymore. It's Iran, Iran, Iran, and, as someone mentioned on the radio this week, we'll all getting pretty fed up with hearing the word. This week there was sudden buzz of heightened anticipation that Israel was preparing to attack Iranian nuclear facilities by the end of the year! Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of America's Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently paid us a visit but, according to Israeli officials, was not reassured by what he heard here. This is apparently why he complained on Wednesday that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be a high-risk move that could destabilize the Middle East. As...