27

Ariel

The Calm before the Storm?

Tel Aviv—Ariel Levy

9:15 p.m. Jerusalem

No news or war experienced by this city in the past has ever created this kind of calm. I was born and raised in Tel Aviv. I have lived here my entire life (except for three years in New York to study and work). Tel Aviv is our only fortress in the world, and we safeguard it the way we safeguard our bodies. The bodies that were hunted by Nazi Europe. Yet, our desire to live and the way we held on to it triumphed over their desire to murder us. This is our fortress, and despite having one of the strongest armies in the world, fear has not left it.

I have written a lot about Tel Aviv and have lived through many wars. I was personally affected as well; my father was killed when his chopper exploded because of a technical malfunction during the war in Lebanon. I have known fear and have lived through strange days during which we believed, even if briefly during wars, that we only had two options: life or death. As if we were reliving the fear of Masada once again. “Masada Will Not Fall Again” was and still is the slogan that sums up the general mood here. Considering how foggy things are today, this slogan is on people’s minds more than ever. Everyone is on high alert. I experienced this personally before, during the two intifadas, the war in southern Lebanon, Saddam’s scud-missile attack, and the wars with Hizballah and Hamas. Let alone the bus explosions. But today is different.

The city that never rests, as its denizens like to say, rested for the first time in its history. Less than an hour ago, I made a second call to a source close to the leadership of the IDF, who occupies a prominent position. A. Y. confirmed that the initial survey of all cameras in public spaces showed no irregular movement on streets. There are no congregations of Arabs, or preparations to stage demonstrations. Nor are there traces of escape attempts from prisons. The circumstances of the “disappearance” (if this is the correct term for the situation) are still not clear. This is a source of extreme embarrassment for the government and security forces in the country. Do they not know what is happening?

Initial official statements do not indicate any embarrassment, but we will see the extent of repercussions in the next few days. These events, as more than one source said to me, could lead to resignations of senior officials in the security apparatus. But we have to wait and not rush.

A state of maximum emergency was declared in the country. Leaves for government officials and the army have been suspended, and reserves have been recalled. An initial examination of hundreds of thousands of e-mails and text messages that were sent to or from Arabs in the country hasn’t produced any leads as to the truth of what has taken place as of yet.

It might be speculation and not concrete knowledge to say that, regardless of the identity of the party behind it, something did happen and it was planned, but might have gone out of control. The admin of a very popular Facebook page here wrote her last post just before midnight saying, “We will not stay silent after today, and you will see.” The author, Badriyya, is a resident of Jaffa. She posts regularly about events in her hometown and writes stories about the lives and concerns of her people. Badriyya’s anger was palpable in her choice of words after the “Security Belt” law (aka “Precaution Law”) was passed. The law stipulates that any Israeli Arab who refuses to acknowledge the independence and Jewishness of the state, or commemorates what Palestinians call “nakba” instead of independence, shall be detained. Such persons, according to the law, will be placed in a security zone the government has set up in the south until their fate is decided.

Can we extrapolate from the writings on the wall? When right-wing extremists wrote hateful remarks and issued death threats against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, God bless his soul, no one took their threats seriously. The threats, this time around, were written on a virtual wall. Social media sites have helped cause major changes in the Arab world and ushered the Arab Spring, which has turned into bloody winter. Didn’t those people act after we all thought they were in eternal slumber?

What does it mean when some write, “We will not be silent anymore?” Does that mean that Palestinians will use force to realize their demands? Have they all united and planned something and outsmarted security forces? Were they able to penetrate the security barrier so easily? Or is it the exact opposite, and they all fell prey to a brilliant plan, designed by someone else, to get rid of them?

The minister of defense, possibly accompanied by the prime minister, will hold a special press conference at eleven, tomorrow morning, to appraise Israelis and the rest of the world of the latest developments. He will undoubtedly be joined by security and intelligence officials. An extensive search is underway to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Palestinians from the land of Israel. We are a few hours away from revealing the truth everyone is dying to know.

At any rate, whether Palestinians will reappear or not, what is certain is that their disappearance twenty hours ago (since the first official recorded instance was at 3 a.m.) will change things irrevocably in this country.

Ariel relaxed in his chair and took a sip of his wine after sniffing it. He checked the news again to make sure there was nothing new before sending the article. Alex was back behind the bar and smiled when she saw him consumed by his music and writing. He smiled back without saying anything. He read the article twice, fixed a few typos, and then sent it to the shift editor in New York.