RSS
The View From an Israeli Bomb Shelter: 60 Seconds to Survival
A drone photo shows the damage over residential homes and a school at the impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Bnei Brak, Israel, June 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Chen Kalifa
In the 1970s, I arrived in Israel as an exchange student from Berkeley. The country was still reeling from the Yom Kippur War — having narrowly escaped annihilation. Confidence was shattered, every household had felt loss, and the optimism of 1967 felt like a distant memory.
What struck me at the time was how so many Israelis in the prime of life were desperate for any visa — especially to the US — as a way to escape runaway inflation and collective despair.
Today, circumstances couldn’t be more different. Despite being under siege by ballistic missiles, hundreds of thousands of Israelis –abroad for holidays, studies, or business — are now desperately trying to return. Observers have noted that this is the only country at war where people are racing to come home.
Those who are able to return are being greeted by a reality like my own experience last Sunday night — when a missile landed just a hundred yards from my front door.
I was below ground in a reinforced concrete bomb shelter, but its steel doors rattled like a tin can during impact. When I emerged in the pre-dawn light, my familiar neighborhood near Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market was unrecognizable: glass littered the streets, debris was piled around shattered homes, and storefronts were heavily damaged. In my sandals, I helped elderly neighbors walk back to their flats, treading as carefully as possible through the glittering shards.
Adrenaline kept me going, but as daylight fell and I absorbed the scale of destruction, the weight of the night hit home. My daughter, in New York, called in tears. “The airport is closed — how will you get out of there?” she sobbed. I responded firmly: “Should 7 million Jews pack up and go? I could do that, but you’ll have to say goodbye to your future.”
These past few days have been an exhausting blur of sirens, shelter drills, and rehearsed routines. Our neighborhood — laced with 1930s Bauhaus structures — was never built for war. After October 7, rocket barrages from Gaza became the norm. But now the threat has escalated far beyond that.
When the sirens sound, my wife and I have only 60 to 90 seconds: shoes on, phones in hand, down three flights of stairs, into the street, and into a nearby public shelter. Even in deep sleep, muscle memory guides us to safety without thought. What once felt almost routine — trusting the Iron Dome to intercept rockets — now seems fragile in comparison.
The reason is stark: Iran’s Fattah‑1 hypersonic ballistic missiles are changing the game.
Traveling at speeds up to Mach 13–15, equipped with maneuverable gliding warheads, they often evade interception systems. Launched hundreds of times, they are specifically targeted at civilian centers. While Israel’s multi-layered defenses — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow — still intercepts most missiles, those that get through inflict serious damage, sometimes even striking designated safe rooms.
Fortunately, because these missiles come from long range, our phones buzz early — giving us those precious extra seconds to reach shelter before the local sirens blare.
Inside the shelter, an unexpected sense of community emerges. Elderly neighbors shuffle in anxiously, attempting to navigate steps under duress. Meanwhile, children born shortly before and after October 7 — some mere toddlers when conflict erupted — play confidently, chattering with each other, hugging dogs, and passing toys. Their eyes show not terror but determination and spirit. These are the children of Israel: enduring, brave, noble.
I’ve witnessed Israel’s journey — from the despair of the 1970s through its revival, and now this current test. We are standing under a barrage of missiles, yet refusing to sacrifice either our values or our indigenous homeland to hate-driven terror.
There is no question that these hypersonic missiles fundamentally alter our security assumptions. They undermine systems designed for slower threats, strain the resilience of shelter infrastructure built to older standards, and force us to rehearse survival in a way we never imagined. Yet even as threats evolve, so do we — fastening shoes, teaching children to run, organizing neighbors, maintaining routine in the ruins. We show up, day after day.
In this shelter — not by accident, but by conviction — we are proclaiming to the world: we are here. We are unbowed. We will stay.
Dr. Ron Katz is President of the Tel Aviv Institute. He can be reached at tlvi.org
The post The View From an Israeli Bomb Shelter: 60 Seconds to Survival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
RSS
Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
RSS
UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.