It is a different kind of violence, as politicians, army generals, and law enforcement officials are constantly reminding us. Now here we are, with the long summer finally coming to an end and the first rains beginning to fall, and the country is again besieged by violence. So when summer approached, we all lowered our heads and braced for the worse. It is the bitter punch line to an unfunny joke that wars in Israel invariably take place in summer. The memories of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 were still fresh in our minds: Heavy fighting in Gaza, rockets fired into Israel, alarming numbers of Palestinian casualties, IDF soldiers killed in action. That was the prevailing state of mind in spring 2015. “Summer is just around the corner, which means another war is coming,” people started to say. A few months ago, when the Israeli winter began to subside and the days got warmer and longer, our enduring cynicism raised its head. A look into the heart of the Israeli experience in the face of more violence, dashed hopes, and inner optimism where we least expect it.
