‘Bring It’: Israelis Shrug Off Iranian Threats

Jerusalem, 5 August, 2024 (TPS) -- As the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel hangs over the Middle East, Israelis remain determined to go about their ordinary lives.

Iran has vowed to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran on Wednesday. The assassination has been widely attributed to Israel, though Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Potential missile and drone attacks from Iran and its proxies have prompted Israelis to stock up on food, water, batteries and more. The run on stores was reminiscent of the days leading up to Iran’s barrage of hundreds of missiles and drones in April.

“I know that if [Iranian leader Ali] Khamenei says he’s going to do something, he usually follows through,” Yael Sasson, a 56-year-old homemaker from Ashkelon told The Press Service of Israel. “The question is just what form the attack will take, and in my opinion, the news channels have overreacted a bit to this whole situation.”

A mother of two, she said her family is well-stocked. For now, Sasson notes, Ashkelon’s parks and beaches are still full of people.

“We’re trusting in the defensive abilities of the IDF, and God-willing everything will be fine,” Sasson says.

Nick Gottlieb, a 26-year-old US immigrant who works at a tech VC firm in Tel Aviv told TPS-IL that life continues in Tel Aviv.

“If there’s a war, someone forgot to tell Tel Aviv. It’s business as normal — the beaches, shuk, and bars are still full,” he said.

“There’s definitely a low-level stress in the air, but people are still going about their lives. I’m not going to not show up to work over this.”

Gottlieb told TPS-IL he is fully confident in Israel’s defensive abilities.

“I think that Iran is a house of cards resting entirely on income from oil and weapon sales to terrorists. If Israel gets the green light to attack them back, their regime is done,” he said, emphatically.

“To put it into just two words, Bring it,” Gottlieb said.

In the southern town of Gan Yavne, Noa Halifa, a youth movement educator said the ongoing state of alert is more grinding than specific threats from Iran.

“By and large we’re stuck in a state of anxiety since October 7th, and everything that’s happened since then just perpetuates that and pours gas on the fire. The fear isn’t because of the Iranian threat exactly, it’s something perpetual,” the 24-year-old told TPS-IL.

“For me, the thing that actually helps bring back a sense of safety and security the most is getting notifications about military successes from the IDF. It gives me the sense that there’s something to rely on,” Halifa added.

Halifa said she sensed the anxiety from the children she has worked with during the summer.

“We just finished a week and a half long summer camp, and there, I could really feel the stress,” she explained. “We were stressed, the kids were stressed, the parents were stressed, everyone was wondering if something was going to happen while we were there.”

The war forced the camp to change its activities.

“We usually do the camp in the woods, but this year, for the first time, we did it at a youth center, so that the kids would have access to bomb shelters,” Halifa explained. “The kids were stressed, they had panic attacks, and they were less independent overall.”

But she added, “Life still goes on, but we’re all needing to adapt ourselves to the current, difficult situation.”