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Sheila Raviv: Back in the Mamad-Security Room
Well, here I am once again making use of a quiet moment in the mamad, rather than getting on with my Pesach (Passover) spring cleaning, as Iranian missiles have a way of interrupting even the best laid plans of mice and men. The cupboards remain only half sorted, the windows still waiting for attention, and I find myself sitting, thinking, and writing to you instead. In truth, I am feeling rather tired of it all. I am not an angry person by nature, but there are moments, like right now, when I have to admit that I am angry. What evil can make half of the world turn on us? People who have little or no idea of what is actually happening here, or what daily life under sirens and uncertainty really feels like.
A recent poll in March 2026, antisemitic incidents in the US during 2024–2025 were increasingly linked to anti-Israel activism, with studies suggesting that in 2024, 68.4% of recorded incidents were linked to far-left ideology. Apparently, liberalism is highly illiberal.
I don’t know who burned the Hatzolah ambulances in London, although the police have already caught 2, but incredibly, not only have the Brits given replacements but Keren Hayesod has raised a million pounds for Hatzolah.
And yet, even in this frustration at the outside world especially among those who couldn’t even find us on a map, life continues in small and familiar ways. Pesach preparations will resume, the cupboards will be finished, and the rhythms of home will carry on as they always do. Perhaps what we are feeling is not only anger, but a deeply human longing for normality, for understanding, and for a little more honesty and compassion in how the world sees one another. Even in the mamad, with spring cleaning on hold, these quiet moments remind us why resilience, patience, and hope remain so important.
Tel Aviv, Rishon le Zion, Arad, Dimona, so many places that have suffered physical damage, the trauma of those saved by their mamad or miklat only to leave and find themselves homeless, their home utterly destroyed, is enormous, but at least the cost in human life is miraculously low.
That’s the downside, the very serious side of the last few days, but there is an upside! When there is a hatra’a, a warning, Zvi and I go into the mamad and I always turn to channel 13 news to see what where and when the siren is about to go off and the Iranian missile is about to be intercepted and very large pieces of fall to the ground. When the siren is in Tel Aviv, the reporters, obviously, go into shelters or in this case into underground car parks that serve as shelters. As the cameras roll you see people coming down the escalators chatting, as if going to a party, no panic whatsoever, leaving their restaurants and bars, still holding their wine glasses, enjoying a sip as they toast each other, smiling even under these circumstances, some even managing to dance. Perhaps there is little more surreal than being in a very crowded supermarket, when everyone’s warning alerts, that loud tch tch tch sound, go off together, we traipse slowly into the shelter, usually the store room, and then when we get the all clear we just go back to our trolleys and keep right on shopping!
By the way, the Iranian demands before a ceasefire are limited, limited but impossible to fulfil. Full control of the Straits of Harmuz (without thought of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates), Reparations from the USA and Israel, A complete cessation of all attacks on Iranian officials and allies (Hamas and Hezbollah) by Israel and the U.S, including no repeat of war against Iran. From their demands, it is patently clear that they have no intention of stopping the aggression.
So that’s it! I promise that I will write in greater detail on Friday but in the meantime, I wanted to reassure you that we are alright. I even had a visit from Rachel and Yosef this afternoon, which gave me a wonderful break in my Pesach cleaning, better than stopping for a missile or two!
To recognise the 900th day after October 7th, I ask you to remember Bar Cooperstein, who was serving as a guard and paramedic at the Nova Festival and was kidnapped to Gaza. Bar’s father had a severe brain injury after an accident and I’m sure that you remember his determination to speak a few words when he heard his son was coming home after 738 days of sheer hell. This song, performed by Bar and his brother Elizur is both honest and emotive.
–My name is Sheila Raviv and I live in Jerusalem, Israel’s beautiful Capital City. I made Aliya from Wales in 1990, fulfilling a dream from my first visit to Israel in 1963. During the Second Intifada I came to understand that Israel’s story was not being told by the international media and somehow the Israeli Government was not succeeding in their information machine, the true story was not being told. I started writing, at first to family and friends, describing the situation on the ground here and then to leaders and politicians who asked to receive my updates, when I created the motto “If the media doesn’t inform you then you must inform the media” I firmly believe in the power of one, of each and every one of us to change the world for the better and to persevere and transform the perception of what Israel stands for. I have three wonderful children and my husband Zvi has two wonderful boys. Between us we have 14 grandchildren on three continents. The work we do is for them, to ensure that their world will perceive Israel as the amazing, generous and moral country, the epitome of Tikun Olam, that she truly is.
If the media does not inform us we must inform the media
My Website http://www.theviewfrommyveranda.info/
Facebook Sheila Silver Raviv
Involvement http://www.impact-se.org/
