The Worst Blood Libel in History, and the Reason I'm Hated Most in Israel

The one stand I took a year ago and cost me the eternal hate and suspicion of virtually every Israeli, and why that is | the latest in my Leaving Israel series

The sirens did not immediately wake me up on October 7, 2023. It was Saturday morning, and my daughter was at her mom’s house in Tel Aviv. I was at leisure to enjoy a slow morning in my Yaffa rental (great location, great price, building under heavy, thorough renovation). I slept well that night, so when the sirens went off I didn’t let it bother me: it was common knowledge Hamas rockets couldn’t cause much damage in central Israel, and there was no reason to suspect war with Hezbollah (involving their much bigger, deadlier rockets) had just broken.

At around 7:30 am, I looked at my phone and saw the initial reports about a Hamas attack in the south. Understandably, it took some time for the magnitude of the event to be realized: mostly terrified, censored, and in the dark, the media was trying to convey the feeling that things were not good but not catastrophic either, and generally under control.

By 10 or 11 that morning the truth was starting to drip through the tiny cracks in the narrative control apparatus. Then it dawned on me that the shakey framework, or makeshift foundation, that had held Israel in place for decades of falling into darkness, was no more.