Turning Point 5

As you may have heard, Israel is conducting military preparedness drills called "Turning Point 5" today--5 because it is in the fifth year, having started in 2007.  It is a nation-wide defense drill involving everyone with drills in the morning during the work day and in the evening at home.  We were warned repeatedly about the impending drill (they will sound the air raid siren in all Israeli cities at 11:00 and 7:00 p.m. today) so I was a little worried about how the day would go.  If I had been alone, it wouldn't have been so scary--when the sirens sounded we went to the shelter/copy room on our floor and waited for 10 minutes--but my co-workers did their best to make me wish I was back home and safe in California where all we have to worry about is natural disasters.

While we were in the shelter, staring out the window at the traffic below, my co-worker turned to me:
"Do you know how it was? Back in 2006?  They sounded the siren and you didn't know if you were going to be hit or not.  They sounded it whenever a projectile was detected and they didn't know what type or how fast it was going.  You didn't know if it was a 5km range missle that was going to hit the far north or if it was powerful enough to travel all the way to Haifa.  They would sound the siren everywhere at all times and you just didn't know where it would land.  Now they are able to tell the missle type and the trajectory, they think, but back then, sirens were just part of life."
"Some times you were caught outside [when the sirens sounded] and then what could you do?   You could continue driving or you could stop but you weren't safe.  You had to make calls like that every day.  And it didn't really bother people.  The adults, well, they/we are all soldiers so you didn't worry.  Everyone has faced down worse.  But the kids, that's what you had to deal with, the kids didn't know what was happening.  You had to keep them safe."
"How long of a warning did you have?"
"About 10 minutes, you didn't know."

The intercom announced the end of the drill.  They thanked us for our participation.  Apparently last year, many employees didn't even play along with the drill.  "We follow the news; there are no rocket attacks today."

Outside the window I saw firemen setting a large pile of wooden crates on fire in an empty lot.  Others were tending to a "victim" on a stretcher or as my co-worker called it "a tanning bed."  Occasionally a fireman picked up a crate on the edge of the fire and heaved it into the flames.  "That's interesting," I said.  "In the US we don't usually set fires for our fire drills."  "The wood has to go somewhere," he replied.  "They don't want to haul it back home, that's for sure."

What a strange country!  I can't understand the threat of rocket attacks that lasts for months or a nation where everyone is a brave soldier in the home and in the workplace.  I couldn't live here knowing that some one hates me, my city, my home enough to inflict that kind of torture.  Thank goodness that Operation Iron Dome has had some success shooting down the missles.  My co-worker tells me "it's amazing what you can get used to."  I hope I never have to try.