An Israeli visiting London while war rages in the Middle East.
By Sidney Victor Kaplan
If life is crazy in Israel these days, sometimes it is no less crazy for an Israeli finding himself outside Israel.
I live on a moshav ‘Manof’ in the north of Israel that has been subjected to endless sirens warning of incoming missiles, mostly from Hezbollah in Lebanon but also from Iran.
It is not that we are specifically being targeted but because we are situated near Rafael – Israel’s state-owned aerospace and defense technology company responsible for pioneering and producing such famed operational defense systems like the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and the Iron Beam – we are ‘included’ on a ‘hit list’ and I’m not referring to a collection of popular songs.
So, like all Israelis, I am armed by having a fully loaded cellphone, which has the lifesaving Home Front Command app that prepares you with a warning of an impending siren that in turn warns you of an impending missile. The only thing is, this abrasive ear-piercing rat-a-tat warning sound is loud, disruptive, intrusive and irritatingly inescapable.
To escape it – or so I thought – I went off to London for a week on my annual pilgrimage to watch cricket and listen to music.
MANOF TO MARLEBONE
So, there I was this past June ensconced at my usual seat, not watching the Ashes, which I try never to miss, but a 5 -day test between England and New Zealand at Lords, home of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).
The atmosphere could not be more different from Israel. Far removed from the soundtrack of war of sirens and planes flying above to a blend instead of reverent tradition, hushed anticipation and quite elegance all set against historic architecture, where the crowd’s deep knowledge and respect for the game shines through.
However, one can never really escape.
Despite being away, the mind never leaves Israel and so one is constantly tracking the news. It was refreshing looking at the sky above Lords, seeing only birds and the flight of a red cricket ball rather than planes and missiles. Also, no piercing warning and sirens, just the occasional “HOWZAT” when things were hotting up on the pitch. Meanwhile, I could see – tapping into newsfeeds – that things were ‘hotting up’ in the north of Israel, although all was quiet at Manof.
That was until that evening!
And this is where it gets crazy. I forgot to turn off my blaring siren warning app and off I went to the Wigmore Hall to hear a solo violinist performance of Bach. And, midway during the recital in this famed historic concert hall, my phone starts blaring, warning on an incoming missile – in the middle of a Bach concert!
OMG, I was stunned, immobilized, instant panic. What do I do? Nobody sitting around me, or more likely their parents or grandparents had experienced anything like this since the bloody Blitz!
I felt like Mr. Bean – How do I shut down this noise. The last thing you want in London is to advertise you are Israeli, which was exactly what I was doing. I wonder what people thought as they saw me shove my phone under my bum as I tried to muzzle the shrieking alarm competing with the solo violin.
To say this felt CRAZY is an understatement. There I was, absorbed in the beauty of a Bach solo, only to be suddenly yanked back to the reality of what was happening back home, thousands of miles away in the Middle East.
How do you explain this to someone? Sitting peacefully in a world class concert hall in London but technologically and emotionally tied directly back to an air raid alert back home in Israel.
You can’t even get away and relax overseas.
About the writer:
Sidney Kaplan is originally from Cape Town South Africa and a founding member of ‘Manof’, a moshav founded in the Galilee in 1978. Today, he is retired, having been involved in marketing in Cape Town prior before coming to Israel, and in Israel, one of three partners involved in the flower growing industry for export.
*Feature picture: Lord’s Cricket Ground, the most famous cricket ground in the world.
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).
