Built along a sandy beach, Tel Aviv has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. People walk around in very light clothing, t-shirts, shorts and sandals, and move casually on electric motorcycles and skateboards. It's a pleasure. So that no one forgets that the country is at war, the anti-rocket alarm sounds. Not like in Mexico City, where the seismic alert is reproduced on each pole. Here it is heard far away, powerful, deep and mysterious, like in an apocalyptic movie. Something was shot in our direction.
At the open-air Savidor bus terminal, the passengers around me show not fear but annoyance at the setback. We only leave our place in line because the guards rush us towards the shelter, which is 20 meters away. It's underground, but no one goes down, because while it is true that there is some chance of someone getting hit in the head by the projectile, there is a much greater chance of breaking it when falling due to the rush.
We squeeze into the entrance, whose doors do not close. A young American tourist pushes her way through the crowd to look outside. The experience is unique! He's lucky: with his cell phone, he captures the exact moment when the missiles from the defensive shield explode the rockets in the air, which are handmade. We all hear them thunder and want to see what they recorded. In the heights, just above us, float the smoky traces of the two explosions.
Less than a hundred kilometers to the south, there are no alarms ringing and no one taking the noise of a drone or plane lightly. Entire neighborhoods are destroyed in a single bombing. Not rockets fall, but JDAM missiles with terrifying explosive charges of 910 kilos, built by Boeing - the company with giant airplanes - and impossible to intercept. Large families disappear in an instant. Nobody forgets the war.
This morning I took too long in the shower, when I left my room I abandoned a ramen noodle soup that tasted terrible. An hour and a half to the south, they have imposed a blockade that has left 2,300,000 people without water or food. Nobody here imagines themselves without electricity or fuel. There is none there.
This society is shocked, overwhelmed, by the cruelty of the extremist Hamas militia. Yesterday and today I accompanied the relatives of the 224 hostages who are in Gaza. The bombings, the white phosphorus, the lack of food and drink threaten to annihilate them too. There are victims on both sides.
There are very conscious activists, that Israeli left that has not allowed itself to be crushed despite all attempts and insists on a political, not military, solution to the conflict.
But the vast majority of people continue their daily activities. The death of others is relativized and justified. The death of one's own, deeply valued. But the family members of the hostages are also being left alone.
As in Mexico, the searchers for the disappeared are alone.
Mexican traditions regarding death are very different from those of Israelis.
Social indifference is very similar.
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