The Morning After: Is Israel in the Clear? Caveat: The ayatollah regime is still with us. P. David Hornik

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Morning. A little more than 24 hours ago, yesterday morning, we were in the bomb shelter in the basement of our building — for the third time in quick succession. Iran was firing missiles in a staggered sequence, and our Home Front Command seemed confused by it.

It was during that third time in the bomb shelter, here in Be’er Sheva, that we heard the tremendous bang of an interceptor hitting a missile not far overhead. Out of two missiles arriving here in that sally, that was the one that was downed. The other was not downed — instead pulverizing an apartment building and killing an 18-year-old soldier who had been training in an elite unit, his girlfriend, his mother, and an older woman who was an active protester for the hostages in Gaza.

That was how the “ceasefire” began for us — with Iran sneaking in some last missiles and snuffing out four lives, including two very young people.

When, about three hours later, the ceasefire having formally begun, Iran fired still more missiles, this time at northern Israel, our leaders thought — as any leaders would have — that we had to react. That was when, with the warplanes on the way to Iran, President Trump had his now-famous, profane tantrum at Israel and lambasted our prime minister over the phone, and all the planes were recalled except one that executed a minor, purely symbolic attack.

So where do we stand? Is it time to celebrate the defeat of Iran, the demise of its nuclear and ballistic-missile endeavors? Or too early for that, with disturbing reports saying too much of Iran’s means of destruction have survived?

Here in Israel we barely had time to ponder those questions before — just about 24 hours after the deaths in Be’er Sheva — we got the news that, yesterday, seven soldiers had been killed in Gaza when “a Palestinian terror operative planted a bomb on the Puma armored combat engineering vehicle the soldiers were in.”

If anybody was feeling jubilant, it was enough to shatter it.

And it has been that way since the Israel–Iran war — the war pitting Israel against Iran and its proxies — began with the calamity of October 7, 2023. An indescribable rollercoaster of feelings, from abysmal despair to amazement and glee at our astounding intelligence and military achievements.

And this is what it’s like when you’re at the cusp of civilization and can’t just theorize about, make excuses for, or even endorse barbarism, but have no choice but to fight it — while getting widely reviled for doing so.