LAST WEEKEND THE WAR PAUSED, but it is not over.
There was relief at the days of quiet between Israel and Hamas, and joy for the families reunited with loved ones, thanks to the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for prisoners held in Israel, which began last Friday.
But however long the ceasefire may be extended in return for the release of more Hamas-held captives, this war will not be over any time soon. If anything, it is likely to intensify.
It is too big to stop now, it runs too deep. And it has already turned Israel upside down.
You only have to spend a few days in the country to see that. The war is everywhere. In the airport, signs direct you to the nearest bomb shelter in case the siren should sound. Open Google Maps and, unprompted, it shows you where to go to take cover.
By the roadside, huge billboards carry patriotic slogans – “We Will Triumph”, “We Are All One Israel” – against the rippling blue and white of the national flag.
Use a taxi-hailing app, and it promises you: “Together we’ll get through this!” And everywhere, on every lamppost and wall, even on the display screens of the passport machines, are those same images of the hostages’ faces and the everpresent demand, sometimes shouted through megaphones at traffic intersections, sometimes on T-shirts: “Bring Them Home Now.”
On that, and on the war itself, there is a striking unity. Among Jewish Israelis, the internal dissent that greeted the first Lebanon war in 1982 and the second in 2006 is absent.
There is next to no opposition, even from those who stood against previous military operations in Gaza. This, they say, is diff erent.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 01, 2023 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 01, 2023 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
If kids get protected from online harm, how about the rest of us?
The Australian government has proposed a ban on social media for all citizens under 16.
'It's not drought - it's looting'
Spain is increasingly either parched or flooded - and one group is profiting from these extremes: the thirsty multinational companies forcing angry citizens to pay for water in bottles.
Life in the grey Zone
Neonatal care has advanced so far that babies born as early as 21 weeks have survived. But is this type of care always the right thing to do?
Out of tune? Band Aid under fire for Africa tropes as it turns 40
Forty years ago this month, a group of pop stars gathered at a west London studio to record a single that would raise millions, inspire further starry projects, and ultimately change charity fundraising in the UK.
Deaths shine spotlight on risks of drinking on party trail
Vang Vieng is an unlikely party hub. Surrounded by striking limestone mountains and caves in central Laos, it morphed from a small farming town to a hedonistic tourist destination in the early 2000s.
Different strokes My strange and emotional week with an AI pet
Moflin can develop a personality and build a rapport with its owner - and doesn't need food or exercise. But is it comforting or alienating?
Strike zone Waking up to the rising threat of lightning
When the Barbados National Archives, home to one of the world's most significant collections of documents from the transatlantic slave trade, reported in June that it had been struck by lightning, it received sympathy and offers of support locally and internationally.
Cheap pints and sticky carpets: the old-school pub is back
In the Palm Tree pub, east London, barman Alf is taking only cash at the rattling 1960s till.
Brain gain Can a radical tax scheme convince the country's brightest to stay?
In the autumn of 2018, I moved to Lisbon for a month-long course at the Universidade .de Lisboa.
Fear and sympathy in small town divided over asylum camp
A year after anti-immigration riots, a site for asylum seekers faces hostility while some locals try to help new arrivals
