Israel's real existential threat

Gaza City being rocked by explosions early yesterday as Israeli forces shelled the Palestinian territory. Amid the falling missiles, says the writer, Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel are violently attacking one another, and he wonders how they will overcome the hatred and fear. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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NYTIMES - Israelis are adept at the pretence of normalcy. We move with seeming ease between daily life and life-threatening crisis. Our home front has endured assaults from Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles, Hizbollah's Katyusha and precision missiles, Hamas' homemade rockets and the more lethal Iranian models currently falling on our neighbourhoods, along with suicide bombing and car ramming and stabbing sprees.

The Israeli ethos of coping is summed up in an ironic but heartfelt phrase, Lo na'im, lo norah, which means "not so pleasant but not so terrible".

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