How the mundane morphs into the monstrous as two totally separate concepts find commonality for an anguished Israeli grandfather.

By Jonathan Feldstein

One of the best things in life is to have the privilege of taking one’s grandchildren out for ice cream. Even during a war.  Perhaps, especially during a war. 

This week, my daughter and son-in-law brought my four grandsons for a visit, partly as a fun outing and partly as a respite for themselves. Since the war began with Iran, all school and pre-school programs have been canceled, leaving parents of young children to figure out how to juggle keeping all the kids occupied without pulling their own hair out, and keeping them safe and close to home for the eventuality of having to take cover in the bomb shelter sometimes 2-3 or more times a day.

My kids have taken to putting their boys to sleep in the spare room that doubles as the bomb shelter, to avoid having to move them all in 90 seconds, and risking their waking up due to being moved and the jarring sound of the siren.

Moving little children to the bomb shelter is all the more complicated in families where one of the spouses had been called up for reserves, something that’s much more common in the past week, even more so than the recent previous major call up of reservists. Imagine being a young mother with three to four kids under seven, home alone, not only having to move the kids into the shelter one by one, but also having to get them back to sleep after an attack. 

Then there are the times during the day when they are awake, as happened again yesterday (and at night) and having to occupy and comfort them for at least 10-15 minutes, but sometimes for over an hour. 

Whether one or two parents with little kids, or empty nesters like ourselves, we are all operating bleary eyed from repeated nights’ sleep being interrupted.  Last night the “blessing” was that it was at 4:20am. The day before it was at 2:30am.  Sometimes one is able to get back to sleep. Sometimes (like me in all cases), not.  Good thing I am not operating heavy machinery!

With grandson #4 napping, and me more than a little envious, it was prime time to take the three older boys for ice cream, giving my daughter and son-in-law a few minutes of quiet. Bleary eyed or not, it’s always a pleasure to take the kids out and spend some time with them. Also, parenting never ends, and letting your own kids in their 30s have a break is important.

On the way out, my daughter said something I not only had never heard, but never could have imagined. In my life, I never would have put these words together in the same sentence.  “Make sure you know where the bomb shelter is at the ice cream parlor when you’re out with the boys,” the mama-hen responsibly reminded. 

Nope. I’d never have thought of it.  But we’re at war. Iran is firing ballistic missiles with massive warheads directly at our towns and cities. All the casualties in Israel have been civilians. Yet even while we are at war, there’s never a better time for ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles  – to at least bring also a “sprinkle” of normalcy on these young precious lives!

Also, for the first time, there was abundant signage in and around the strip-mall next to our house identifying where all the bomb shelters were – just in case.  As much as I’d never thought of including “ice cream” and “bomb shelter” in the same sentence, I never would have thought that whoever planned the architecture would put a bomb shelter right there in the ice cream shop.  But there it is, behind the bright pink walls and shelves of toppings. 

Just in case!

On the way home, my first-grade grandson told me about all the different ice cream flavors they have at home.  It’s a good parenting strategy to have ice cream to pull out even under missile attacks, maybe especially so.  While I joined them with a scoop of yummy pistachio today, I’m really feeling that I need something more along the lines of a rum raisin or bourbon-caramel swirl.

Maybe a double!

When it was time for my grandchildren to return home to their parents, I experienced feelings of ambiguity. On the one hand I did not want them to leave  – as I never do – but this time I wished they would hurry because reports were coming through that Israel had again successfully struck significant Iranian targets and I knew that this would soon – probably very soon – translate into a lethal response and our skies would again light up with Iranian missiles. This would send Israelis to the bomb shelters again – whether at home or in an ice cream store! When this happens  – as it inevitably would – I wanted my grandchildren at home in the safety, familiarity, and comfort of their own bomb shelter. 

This has become their norm, and all of ours.  The reality could not be more contrasting:

Israel issues warnings to Iranians living near various military sites that they should evacuate before an aerial attack in order to prevent the loss of civilian life while the Iranian Islamic regime deliberately fires dozens or hundreds of missiles at a time into civilian areas, targeting homes like where my grandkids live. 

Iranians are given ample notice to flee in advance of a military strike, and indeed we have seen massive traffic jams with them doing just that. On our side, the evacuation is wanting my grandchildren to leave early enough that they will be in the ‘comfort’ of their own bomb shelter when the jihadi missiles target us all.

I welcome the return to the day when I can again take my grandchildren for an ice cream and not have to think of a bomb shelter!

About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).