Israel: The New Normal

Of course, the threat isn’t anywhere near equivalent. The Israeli’s also seem to have warning, at least some of the time, of incoming missiles. It’s also not the first time the Israeli public has encountered Palestinian rockets. If the Israel-Gaza hostilities in 2006 seemed to prove a threshold, Hezbollah used them from Lebanon in ’96 and Qassams have targeted Israel as early as ’91. Still, the number, power and range of the recent barrage represents a new reality permanently altering the status quo.

If you look around, you’ll find many photos of Israelis encountering the aerial threat. This one stuck in my mind however for many reasons, mostly though, for the sense of vulnerability, a quality not often related from Israel. What makes it so iconic, I think, is the fact it’s all males, that the boys are barefoot and that the gesture of the boy in the foreground, like a frame from a horror film, so connotes “The Scream.”

From NYT slideshow: Gaza Conflict Enters Fifth Day

(photo: Pavel Wolberg for The New York Times. caption: An Israeli family took cover from incoming rockets near Ashdod.)