Here I Am (29 page)

But then Julia pressed his hand. Not hard. Just enough pressure to communicate love. He felt love. Spousal, co-parental, romantic, friendly, forgiving, devoted, resigned, stubbornly hopeful—the kind didn't matter. He had spent so much of his life standing at thresholds, parsing love, withholding comfort, forcing happiness. She applied more pressure to her still-husband's hand, and held his eyes in the fingers of her eyes, and told him, “Your grandfather died.”

“I'm sorry,” he said, words that originated in his spine.

“Sorry?”

“Wait,
what
? I didn't hear you.”

“Your grandfather. Isaac. He's dead.”

“What?”

DAY 2

Asked to estimate how many are trapped in the rubble, the chief of Israel's recovery effort says, “One is ten thousand too many.” The journalist follows up: “Are you suggesting ten thousand?”

DAY 3

Statement from the Israeli interior minister's office: “This is not a time for petty squabbling. If the Islamists want control, they can have control. If they want their holy sites preserved, they can have that. But they cannot have both.”

To which the
waqf
responds: “The Zionists have a history of underestimating Arabs, and of keeping what it borrows.”

To which the interior minister himself responds: “Israel never estimates, and Israel never borrows.”

DAY 4

New York Times
public editor: “Many readers have responded to the use of the word ‘disproportionate' in yesterday's front-page projection of casualties in the Middle East.”

In Lebanon, the leader of Hezbollah gives a TV address that contains the sentence “The earthquake was not a work of nature, and it was not an earthquake.”

CBS Evening News anchor: “And finally, tonight, a glimmer of hope amid the rubble. Here is the story of young Adia, the three-year-old Palestinian girl who lost her parents and three sisters in Nablus. Wandering amid the ruins, without even a last name, she took the hand of the American photojournalist John Tirr, and refused to release it.”

DAY 5

The Israeli ambassador's response: “Perhaps we should ask the thirty-six Japanese citizens we ‘unilaterally, clumsily, and brutally' rescued, at the expense of our own blood, if they would prefer to be airlifted back onto the Temple Mount.”

Military analyst on Fox News, on the subject of Turkey's uncoordinated use of Israeli airspace for supply transport: “Israel's nonreaction is either an unprecedented gesture of cooperation or a sign of the unprecedented weakness of the Israeli Air Force.”

A twenty-two-year-old Arab Israeli citizen with four missing siblings explains: “The glass bottle is useless as a weapon, so it is deadly as a symbol.” The rioting, no longer spontaneous, is known as the “tdamar,” the resentment.

The Syrian president: “Taking effect immediately, the truce and strategic alliance will include the eleven largest rebel groups.”

DAY 6

In Rome, the Pope announces: “The Vatican will fund and oversee the restoration of the Holy Sepulcher.”

Response from the synod of the Greek Orthodox Church: “The Vatican will do no such thing.”

Response from the catholicos of the Armenian Church: “The ruins shall not be altered.”

The British Parliament passes a resolution “to condition the shipment of British aid to be delivered directly to the intended recipients, rather than through Israeli channels.”

Junior (and Jewish) senator from California: “No doubt Israel is doing everything in her power to oversee the broadest, most effective recovery effort. Clearly, Israel cannot hold territories and renounce responsibility for the population.”

The German chancellor: “As Israel's closest friend in Europe, we counsel her to use this tragedy as an opportunity to reach out to her Arab neighbors.”

Secret communiqué from the king of Jordan to the prime minister of Israel: “Our need for aid has become so extreme and urgent, we are no longer in a position to question its source.”

Response: “Is that a request, or a threat?”

Response: “It is a statement.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee announces the creation of two lists of public officials: “Defenders of Israel” and “Betrayers of Israel.” The first posting identifies 512 Defenders and 123 Betrayers.

Poster in Amman:
STOP CHOLERA
.

DAY 7

The Egyptian foreign minister's response: “With regard to the March of a Million, we cannot prevent free people from demonstrating their brotherhood with the suffering victims of the earthquake.”

The Turkish ambassador to the UN claims: “Israel has halved the number of aid ships allowed to enter Israeli waters.”

Al Jazeera claims: “Medical supplies intended for the West Bank are being held at Israeli-controlled border crossings.”

The American secretary of state claims: “Israel is fully cooperating with all good-faith partners.”

Syria claims: “We have moved ground forces to our southern border for the purpose of self-defense.”

World Health Organization statement: “Epidemic cholera, which has now been confirmed in more than a dozen cities in the Palestinian Territories and Jordan, poses an even greater risk than either aftershocks or war.”

In a phone call to the Israeli prime minister, the American president reaffirms his country's commitment to help secure Israel “with whatever is required, without limitations,” but adds: “This horrible disaster must inspire a fundamental change in the Middle East axioms.”

CNN anchor, forefinger to earpiece: “I'm sorry to interrupt. We're getting reports that just before seven p.m., local time, another dramatic earthquake struck the Middle East, magnitude 7.3.”

DAY 8

From the head of Israeli civil engineering's report, delivered by secure videoconference to the homes of Knesset members: “Among the critical structures damaged beyond use: the Defense Ministry headquarters; the Geophysical Institute in Lod; Ben Gurion International Airport; Tel Nof and Hatzor Air Force Bases. All highways have at least partial obstructions. North–south access was blocked for ninety minutes. Railways are inoperative. Ports are minimally functioning. As for the Kotel, the portions that collapsed have not compromised the integrity of the Temple Mount, but further geological events will likely lead to catastrophic failure.”

In the wake of the aftershock, Saudi Arabia and Jordan sign an agreement of “temporary unification.” Asked why Saudi Arabia's unprecedentedly large supply line of aid also includes ground troops, the Saudi king replies: “To assist in the recovery.” Asked why it includes two hundred combat aircraft, he replies: “It doesn't.”

Israel refuses to recognize “Transarabia,” thereby naming it.

Iran promises, “Jordan will know no greater ally than Iran,” thereby refusing to recognize Transarabia.

The UN Human Rights Council passes a resolution condemning “the catastrophic crisis created by Israel's unilateral, unannounced, and complete withdrawal from the Occupied Territories.” No member states abstain. No member states vote against the resolution.

Asked by what means Egypt is abrogating its treaties with Israel, the Egyptian Army chief responds: “All agreements and understandings were
created within a set of conditions that no longer exist.” Asked if Egypt would continue to recognize the State of Israel: “This is semantics.”

Chanting outside a Georgetown University lecture hall, in which a visiting Israeli molecular biologist is presenting a paper on differentiating pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells: “Shame on Israel! Shame on Israel!”

375 Defenders and 260 Betrayers.

“And finally, tonight, an update on a story that has captured the hearts of so many around the world—that of young Adia. It's with concern, but also hopes and prayers, that we report that the improvised orphanage in which Adia had been staying partially collapsed in yesterday's aftershock. It's believed that some of the building's occupants were able to escape, although, as with so many, Adia's whereabouts are unknown.”

DAY 9

Under the cover of repairmen, a squad of Israeli extremists penetrates the Dome of the Rock and sets it on fire. The arsonists are quickly detained. The prime minister of Israel issues a statement calling the “attempted arson” a “terrorist plot.”

Financial Times:
“Hamas's declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State marks another step toward the unprecedented unification of the Muslim world.”

From the Israeli minister of health's report to the prime minister: “Hospitals are operating at five-thousand percent capacity, and the influx of American supplies is neither fast enough nor large enough. A cholera epidemic is inevitable, as are dysentery and typhoid. As war approaches, it is necessary to make difficult decisions regarding priorities.”

In a hastily arranged speech in Azadi Square in Tehran, before a crowd estimated at two hundred thousand, the Ayatollah intones: “O Jews, your time has come! You have burned down our Dome of the Rock, and now your fire will be met by fire! We will burn your cities and your towns, your schools and your hospitals, your every home! No Jew will be safe!”

DAY 10

In his daily address to the nation, the Israeli prime minister says, “Our reasons for this morning's action are simple: by expelling the
waqf
from the Temple Mount and deploying the IDF to control it, we can show the world that the damage to the Dome of the Rock is minimal and protect the site for as long as it is in danger.”

Europe's three largest supermarket chains remove kosher food from their shelves amid fears over protesters. In response, a Tory MP tweets: “JEWS are not ISRAELIS! How DARE YOU! #JewsAreKosher.”

American political commentator, responding to the joint declaration of war by Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Transarabia: “It was a necessary response to the IDF taking the Temple Mount, but there have been rocket attacks and air skirmishes for a week. This only makes it official.”

The ultra-Orthodox population in Jerusalem spreads a rumor that “the Messiah is at the door.”

The American president, addressing a joint session of Congress: “Israel must immediately relinquish control of the Temple Mount to an international peacekeeping force, refrain from any military reprisals, and resume its participation in rescue efforts in the Occupied Territories. If Israel fulfills its responsibilities, she will have America's unconditional and unlimited support.”

AIPAC adds the president to its list of Betrayers.

DAY 11

Guardian
editorial: “The issue isn't so much who raised the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount, but why hasn't it been taken down? Israel's inaction seems designed to inflame.”

The caliph of the Islamic State declares temporary unity with the “infidel Syrian government and Hezbollah.”

Turkish Air Force spokesman: “The computer virus that attacked our air control system, leading to this morning's multiple crashes, was an act of war.”

The Israeli prime minister assures the American president that Israel neither created nor implemented the alleged virus.

The American president offers the Turkish prime minister unprecedented aid and advanced weaponry in exchange for a vow to stay out of the war.

Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen declare war on Israel.

The United States ends “executive hold” on the pending sale of 60 Harpoon missiles, 185 M1A1 Abrams main battle tank “upgrade kits,” 20 F-16 fighter jets, and 500 American-made Hellfire II missiles to Egypt. The State Department declines to comment.

President of Columbia University's Hillel chapter, commenting on the first anti-Israel demonstrations led by Jewish students: “The pursuit of justice, especially when it requires introspection and humility, is at the heart of our mission: to enrich the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.”

CNN: “We have confirmed reports that an American cargo plane, on its way to an airfield in the Negev, has crashed.”

289 Defenders and 246 Betrayers.

DAY 12

Cover of the
New York Post:
the still-raised Israeli flag beneath the headline
DOME OF THE MOCK!

Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, the Gambia, Guinea, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan declare war on Israel.

The Ayatollah publishes an open letter to “Iran's Arab brothers” that concludes: “Your reluctance to allow us into the theater of battle will be your own demise. Whatever our differences, this is our moment.”

The American secretary of state offers the Israeli prime minister “as much aid as is needed” in exchange for control over the war and Israel's nuclear arsenal. After summarily rejecting the proposal, the prime minister asks, “Why isn't the president on the phone with me right now?”

Young mother in Tel Aviv: “The rockets are relentless, but the city's sewage has flooded the shelters, so we just wait outside for whatever will happen.”

In Brussels, the president of the European Union delivers a speech in which he says, “The catastrophe in the Middle East reveals a failed experiment.”

Israel declares war “against all of those seeking to destroy the Jewish state.”

DAY 13

NPR: “The ‘March of a Million' has never been a fitting name. When it was a coherent march, it numbered fewer than fifty thousand. Now it is numerous, uncoordinated campaigns—many origins, with the shared destination of Jerusalem—which some have numbered at two million.”

A PEW poll finds that fifty-eight percent of American Jews believe the United States should enter the war.

Associated Press reports: “Several Bedouin tribes in the Negev claim that Israeli authorities are handing out potassium iodide to the Jewish population near the nuclear site in Dimona, but not to them.”

Israel offers no response to this, or to Turkey's belligerent rhetoric, or to claims that Israel is targeting civilian utilities in the largest cities of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Transarabia, or to the Transarabian Army's occupation of the tourist city of Eilat, or to the IDF's decision to categorically purge Arab Israelis from the Israeli Army, while simultaneously
conscripting all Jewish men and women above the age of sixteen for “paramilitary support.”