Are We All Making Believe??

Arab terrorists are aiming rockets and missiles at Israel's towns and cities. Israelis are sleeping in bomb shelters. Homes have been destroyed. Children are traumatized by the incessant missiles.

The Israeli Air Force is trying to destroy as many Gazan terror targets as it can. The Israeli Army is poised outside Gaza, waiting for further instructions. Every family has a father, son, brother, cousin, neighbor who has either been called up for "Tzav 8", emergency reserve duty or has been told to "be ready". At the checkpoints, every single car - Jewish or Arab - is being stopped. 

I think we can say without exaggeration that things are pretty tense in Israel today.

So, imagine how strange it is to walk around town with Arab workers on their building sites, as if nothing was different. How weird it is to be in the supermarket and watch Arabs enter, boisterously kidding around, as if the Mets are on the way to the championship. How bizarre it is to see Arab women leisurely lunching in the Mall as if it's a perfect autumn day with nothing having changed but the color of the leaves on the trees.

I keep wondering, "What are they thinking?" 

I can't even venture a guess.

On a regular day, we shop together, we drive on the same roads, we order from the same menu. But these are not regular days. And yet, we are all pretending that nothing is happening in Gaza and Ashkelon and Sderot and Ashdod and even Gush Etzion.
How long can we pretend?

Photo courtesy of Devorah Horev.