WAR updates number 2
- Micha Strauss
- Mar 3
- 8 min read
Dear friends and Sanga,
It has been 4 days since this war with Iran has begun. Days and nights are long with sirens and bomb shelter running, but we are used to this.
I wish to take a moment and elaborate on this last sentence.
When we were traveling the US last year on our once in a lifetime road trip we have been dreaming of for years, we found ourselves in the grand Tetons national park when the war with Iran broke out last time.
Strangely enough this was after we have been traveling the USA for more than two weeks by then and suddenly in a grocery shop buying food for the road Ayelet turned to me with big open eyes and said: "you know? I never took off those apps from my phone that warn from missile attack, let me do this right now"
this was a strange thought to cross her mind at that very moment because 2 hours later, if she still had those apps which have been silent since the war with Gaza and Lebanon ended that app would have made her phone starts screaming to take shelter because 2 hours later war with Iran broke.
How very strange when you stop to think about that…
That time was the first time in our entire lives that we were not in Israel when there was war. This was a very strange feeling for us. To be so far away from our loved ones who are now being bombed by ballistic missiles. All of our lives we were always here in Israel when there was war, no matter which one, we were always here.
Now we were very far away and that was a very strange feeling in so many ways. By then, those few weeks of being so far away among "normal" living folks who do not fear war, do not have bombs, rockets, missiles and so forth being rained on them in their towns and city, never running to bomb shelters to take cover, never having air raid sirens go off, never having any of these thoughts cross their minds in their entire lives. We have never experienced that.
For us, this is "normal" and all of a sudden, as we were so far away among normal people in a normal land this seemed so strange! How did we accept this kind of living as normal? How did we make all the excuses to normalize this?
Are we insane?
We must be.
🙏🙏🙏
To be so far away from this madness and looking at it from a far was a very eye-opening experience and we said we must have been insane to live there in Israel all those years and we must start planning our escape from that crazy land of violence war and bloodshed.
We started to dream what it would be like to live in the US and have a normal life and we begun to feel even stranger as we got more and more WhatsApp's from all of our loved ones and how they are being bombed by Iranian missiles. Ballistic missiles hitting everywhere, but they are fine! There is a bomb shelter nearby! And they have time off of work!
Wow.
From a far in a normal life and place, this seems insane and we were just like that too!
You must understand how small Israel is. It is a tiny spot on this earth; in your numbers it is about 8600 square miles. It is about the size of New Jersey.
When we were asked by our American friends we were staying at that time: "how far did those missiles hit?" we said about 15 miles away but for us that is far! Our friends are safe! And just as we said that, we both looked at each other and were amazed how crazy we are!
How did this become normal for us?!
We must be insane.
Then, as those 12 days of war with Iran ended, I had a powerful thought cross my mind.
We must get out of there but before we do that, we have one more goal to achieve and we should do everything in our power to make it happen, not for us but for the benefit of all beings! I had a vision of small wind powered prayer wheels, unmarked, spinning with all the mantras we can fit in them and all prayers from all faiths we have collected. If we succeed, we have done something meaningful in this short lifetime. Really.
________ ✨✨________
✨
That is when my mind started to put together all the different parts of how to do this, how to make this plan happen.
Upon our return back to Israel, for the first month and a half we could not do anything. We felt like coming back to a bad dream where all talk around us is full of violent words… we have been gone for 6 and a half weeks from this vibe and hung out in the most beautiful places the USA has to offer and were blown away by how stressed out this place is!
Wow!
How did we live here before? How did we accept this craziness as normal?! Holy moly… man can have really bad habits and this one takes the top! To normalize this craziness as normal human behavior. Having your phone scream at you RUN TO SAFETY NOW! Yeah, this is normal…
We must be insane.
And now, we are back here, USA road trip long forgotten, got used to this craziness again in a heartbeat, in a blink of an eye… All is normal again. Yes, sirens go off, missiles fly over your head and you stand outside and film it on your phone because the alarm did not say you might get hit this time… so it is "safe" for you to stand outside with your phone and take a video of ballistic missiles flying. In truth, that missile is about to land and explode with 1700 pounds of explosives or more and kill many and destroy homes and everything. But we are used to this once again…
Yesterday we decided enough is enough and we are going to the studio to craft prayer wheels. We must continue with our lives, be them as they are…
We took our bicycles with us so if the siren goes off, we can cycle fast to the bomb shelter because on foot, even if running we do not have enough time. And so, we took our most precious belongings, put them in a small bag (passports, cash, wallets in case our home is hit and we lose everything at least we have these with us) and went to the studio. I told Ayelet to hold on to my phone because in real time I would not hear all this with the dust mask on, noise reduction headphones, machine on, dust collector on… so I left it with her to let me know if the government app per-warning goes off. We spent the day doing what we know, crafting prayerwheels for the world. After a few hours Ayelet's friend invited us for a coffee and cake brake at her home which is a 5 minute by bicycle. We said sure!
Then we planed our route, which sidewalk to take to get to her house by where are the nearest bomb shelters along the road in case a siren goes off… she has a bomb shelter room in her house (Israeli law for new homes) so if we get there, we are safe.
How insane is that? And we take this for normal…
We got to her house safely and had coffee and cake with her and her husband as the siren started. It was a short 30 second walk in her house to the missile protected room. I have never been in one when a siren is going off, we do not have one so we run to the bomb shelter behind our house.
We sat there for 15 minutes till the phone told us it is safe to go outside. Here are photos of us in the bomb shelter room…
So, this is what is going on now.
At night we had a major missile strike at 1:00 AM when the phone woke us up. We ran outside and waited for the siren to let us know if this will hit us or "around" us… the new tech is such that once a missile is launched in Iran, this system calculates in fractions of seconds where it will hit approximately and to that area a massage is sent via screaming government phone app (which you do not know where it is on your phone and can not uninstall it because you never installed it yourself) to make sure you are "ready" to run to the bomb shelter if needed, then we have a nice view of the eastern front where the Arrow missiles (our out in space interceptors) launch. If you follow them up to space and wait you will see something truly spectacular. An explosion in space looks very different from an explosion in the atmosphere.
Then a new stage of the situation starts…
The regular warning phone app shows you the map of where the missile will likely hit, but if the Arrow out in space interceptor managed to hit it, we get a different map showing the places the debris will fall on… two very different maps a few seconds apart. So, we wait till the latest comes on and only if the sirens here go off, only then run to the shelter.
This is "normal" behavior. this is why we have video clips…
then there is the taking a shower routine… one of us goes in betting on will they strike soon or not, the other stays outside the shower with the phone to let the other know if we have to run… very short showers… we celebrate each one successfully done! Small victories! hooray!
We are still here, we will continue to do what we do no matter what till we can not do this anymore, be the reason whatever.
If our world peace project sparks interest in your heart and mind, please share this fundraiser with everyone you know, this is our only wish. We have nothing to gain here, just world peace.
For the benefit of all beings!
We love you all so much. Thank you for reading my ramblings and sorry if this is too much for anyone to read, what we find "normal" is not normal at all and we forget this when we live here.
Here is a short clip Ayelet took on the way to the bomb shelter.
Since we have the early warning government app, we have more time to go before the siren starts so we leisurely walked enjoying the flowers while sirens started all around us then started where we live, you can hear the volume of the siren get loud as Ayelet is getting close to me next to the bomb shelter…
How insane are we?
Here is the link to the fundraiser: https://givebutter.com/wGnpah
May peace come swiftly to ALL!
I will close here by quoting the late Golda Meir (Israel's prime minister from the past):
"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons, there would be no more Israel".
we love you all so much! stay safe and sane out there in the normal world :-)
Micha & Ayelet
Make the most of this day, your life, this world… all of it!
It ends so quickly… we take nothing...
Do keep sharing… it’s good to know you are safe for the moment. Praying for peace for all.