A few days after Iran, the government said it was time to return to normal. So we have, in large measure, and the rage has returned.

Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis · Jul 14, 2025 · 1m

One of our grandchildren turns four this week, so his parents threw him a birthday party last Friday. It was family from “both sides,” aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and so forth. Over the course of Friday morning bagels and munchies, I got to talking with someone (a former F-15 pilot back in his army days) I see mostly at these family events. First we caught up on life, travel, kids and all that, and then, as it invariably does in these parts, the conversation turned to the war.

“Nothing to say,” he said to me. “Just a pointless disaster.”

Then he looked at the crowd of young…