Perhaps it was also the result of the long Shabbat that presented time for a midday nap, but at one point, it seemed like all the country's citizens lay awake last night in anticipation of the "great attack" from Iran. In general, since the beginning of the war in Gaza - and perhaps due to the constant conflicts Israel finds itself in - it seems that 70% of the population have become military commentators.
Based on the numerous reports coming in from former army chiefs, military commentators, and Middle East experts who've spent their entire lives waiting to weigh in on an Iranian attack, it appeared that Israel had laid a huge trap for Iran, which the latter fell into following the elimination of the senior Quds Force officials in Damascus at the beginning of the month.
The air force commanders used the opportunity to praise Israel's defense capabilities and point out that we're the only country to boast such impenetrable defenses. They may, in fact, be right on this point, but the sentiment in of itself points to a very low expectation of ourselves and our country.
Years of excuses
For years, both the political and military echelons have insisted that the reason they fail to finish off Hamas and Hezbollah lies in the fact that these are terrorist organizations hiding within civil society and making it impossible for Israel to launch a pre-emptive strike and destroy them.
In the same breath, they always told us that if only we were fighting wars against independent and powerful countries, we would prove our extraordinary fighting capabilities and our formidable military prowess. Well, we were fooled.
Of course, we cannot ignore our abusive stepfather - the United States, whose flabby old leader will prevent Israel from putting on a tour de force in Iran and winning back at least a little bit of our former honor, but our leadership also shares a big part of the blame.
Israel's response - a test of the Middle East
If it was purely about lost honor and ego games, so be it, but since we are located in a region of the world where your every move is being watched and analyzed by a million predators waiting to pounce, it's been a catastrophe so far.
As mentioned, when it comes to the war in Gaza, our neighbors realize that the international community is against us and our hands are tied. But how can an attack by a strong and independent country like Iran not be met with an overwhelming response? That's like committing suicide before the fight has even begun.
So many commentators praised the military capabilities of the Air Force and the fact that 99% of the Iranian rockets were successfully intercepted without referring to disturbing images of dozens of missiles obscuring our skies. While I understand that people are happy to see that their country is capable of dealing with such a threat, they may be forgetting that we were not supposed to reach this point in the first place.
Netanyahu, who took every opportunity to denounce the Iranian threat, who supposedly radiated strength in the face of it, revealed that it was nothing but words. A situation in which Israel is OK with hundreds of missiles launched at its territory is intolerable and proves how deep we are immersed in this faulty conception and if the State of Israel does not recover quickly and stand firmly against Biden and the US, things will only get worse.