Earlier this year, I took the first Delta nonstop flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv, a city where I have spent a considerable amount of time, and one that I consider to be among my top three favorite cities in the world (Melbourne and Mexico City are, irrelevantly, the others). The Atlanta-based airline resumed direct flights to Israel because of deep ties between the two cities’ booming tech sectors and a marked increase in tourism to Israel during a period of relative calm.
After my trip, my friend Trevor Williams of the wonderful local publication Global Atlanta asked me to write about the experience, giving special attention to the ongoing domestic protests against the proposed judicial overhaul by Israel’s right-leaning government.
On Oct. 2, my story was posted on Global Atlanta, and I got great feedback, especially around the playful way I compared Tel Aviv’s unrivaled food scene with Atlanta restaurants. (Other than work, my main activity in life is eating out. Anyone who knows me knows that most nights you can find me sitting at a local restaurant working on my laptop.)
On Oct. 7, I woke up to an iPhone screen full of news alerts. Any “relative calm” had been shattered, and Israel was under attack from terrorists who, successful in their mission, made that day the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
As the horror of what was happening began to sink in, I texted my friend Christina who landed on Oct. 6 on her first trip to Israel, stocked with my curated list of culinary recommendations. “Where are you? Just woke up,” I wrote. She was safe in her hotel in Jerusalem, but suddenly my dining advice seemed even more trivial than ever.
I checked in with my former Israeli colleagues and friends and sat transfixed on CNN, asking myself how this could be happening. My friends were all safe, but nobody was okay. Every Israeli and every Jewish person is traumatized. (Here’s how you can engage.)
A left-leaning Jew who opposes the current Israeli government and wants to see a two-state solution in Israel, I identified with the months of protests against the right-wing government, but the sheer brutality of what happened on Oct. 7 has rekindled the existential fears that generations of Jews, including my European ancestors, have felt.
It’s become clear to me that terrorist organizations like Hamas, which repressively governs Gaza, not only say they want to annihilate Israel, but are organized and willing to act upon doing so.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, my friend Michael Morris, publisher of The Atlanta Jewish Times, encouraged me to speak out and condemn the actions of Vladimir Putin. “Ukrainian people need to know that the world stands with them.” I wondered why it mattered that a small, local publication in Atlanta wrote about Ukraine. “When they search for news, your stories will show up for them, and they will know that they are on the right side of history,” he said.
My heart breaks for the innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives that have been, and undoubtedly will be, lost. I stand against Islamophobia, against antisemitism, and against hate.
But when terrorists invade Israel with the goal of killing, kidnapping, and torturing civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, I stand very firmly with Israel.
