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In Tel Aviv, Still Life With Rockets

An Israeli journalist worries about a life of uncertainty for his young son

by
Allison Hoffman
November 16, 2012
Israeli children run to a large concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on November 15, 2012 in Nitzan, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Israeli children run to a large concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on November 15, 2012 in Nitzan, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Regular readers of the Scroll will be familiar with Amir Mizroch, an Israeli-born, South African-raised journalist who edits Israel Hayom’s English edition and moonlights as one of the more incisive voices blogging and tweeting from the region. Yesterday, we linked to a post he wrote in December 2008, as Israeli forces were preparing to invade Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Then, he was single, and preoccupied with the strategic efficacy and long-term implications of the war.

While so much about Operation Pillar of Defense raises the exact same questions, Mizroch is now married, and the father of a six-month-old named Yoni. “I’m not sure how I feel about anything,” he admitted when I spoke to him earlier today. “The only thing I’m thinking is I brought a child into this, and he’s got nothing to do with it.”

A few months ago, with war hovering on the horizon—whether with Hamas or with Iran, Mizroch wasn’t sure—he wrote this about how parenthood had changed his perspective:

“I’m having a crisis of faith about our country, Yoni. It’s a beautiful and special place. A miracle really. But it comes at a terrible cost. It’s had its ups and downs, but now things seem different to me…
There is so much talk of war here now. There’s always been war here, and in between, talk of war, but it’s different this time, bigger, more threatening, more existential.
To live a normal life here we’ll have to fight forever. We’ll have to fight against each other [there are many Israelis who see themselves outside of our state, its laws, and its norms] and we’ll have to fight against our neighbors.



And I don’t want to condemn you to a life of endless wars.”

Read the rest here.

Allison Hoffman is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine. Her Twitter feed is @allisont_dc.