Nine months into its war with Hamas, Israel is a nation in a state of paradox.
On the one hand, there is a deep-seated sense of failure. Hamas, though badly mauled, still exists. Its senior leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, are alive and issuing orders. The organization operates as a statelet, issuing defiant declarations while pretending to negotiate, through intermediaries, with the United States and Israel. It still holds 116 hostages, living or dead.
In the North, 60,000 Israelis remain refugees in their own country, as Hezbollah launches daily rocket attacks, rendering much of the region uninhabitable.
Beyond Israel’s borders, Houthi rebels attack Red Sea shipping. And of uppermost concern, Iran, the chief sponsor of all this terror, moves ever closer to acquiring weapon-grade fissile material for nuclear weapons. Israel seems unable, and its main ally the United States seems unwilling, to stop Iran.
And yet, in the midst of this overarching sense of failure, something else is going on in Israel, something subtle but evident to visitors.
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