American expats in Israel determined to watch the live broadcast of the Super Bowl have to pull an annual all-nighter. Only the most die-hard fans will actually rustle up the chips and dips and keep the party going until the final score. Everyone else gets to see the replays in the morning and find out who took home the title.
Ditto the Oscars (does anyone still care?) and the presidential debates.
Election night, however, gives those of us in the Middle East a rare time-zone advantage: While most Americans will have surrendered to sleep before the outcome is known, we get to follow everything in real time as we go about our morning.
This year, with the stakes never higher, millions – not just Americans but concerned citizens the world over, perhaps none more than in the Jewish State – had a restless night on November 5. My Iranian-born Israeli dry cleaner, rooting for Trump as much as for the downfall of the regime in Tehran which he hopes Trump will hasten, told me he was sleepless with worry.
Thank G-d, Trump supporters woke up to good news, which got better and more solid as the day unfolded.
Surprisingly, the overnight anchors seemed sleepy and subdued, giving way soon enough to their unnaturally peppy early morning colleagues who dived into the unfolding story while the sky outside the studio was still dark. But the important thing was we got the 4-1-1. And I have to admit that besides our elation over America’s rejection of the woke left and the first heady signs of a return to sanity, security, and moral leadership in the world, I felt a tiny bit smug watching all this unfold while most of the electorate was still snoring in their beds.
There was an unprecedented get-out-the-vote drive here among American olim during this election season, and for the first time since making aliyah my husband and I decided to cast absentee ballots. Not because we thought those ballots would make an actual difference – have they even been opened yet? – or swing our home state blue (although Trump did amazingly well in New York). Rather, we felt compelled to use the available means to give voice to our grave concerns about the consequences of this election. The consequences, that is, for Israel and the Jewish people. A small act of hishtadlut which, if performed on a large scale, would hopefully arouse Hashem to save us from potential catastrophe.
Living here, I feel little connection to what goes on in America. I care about our loved ones and the greater Jewish community and wish the country well, but I don’t feel invested in its future. It is not our future.
But huddled in our maamad while the sirens blared, one after another after another, as missiles from Iran rained down across the country in April and again in September, brought home a sobering reality: Spiritual protection aside (which both times was nothing short of miraculous), no one – not even our supposed best pal America – has Israel’s back. No backup, no reliance. Not anymore.
It was a scary feeling.
It was also no mystery what had brought us to that point. And no mystery what needed to happen to change it.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Israelis were among the first to learn the results of this election – because it just might be that we had the most at stake.
Israel’s Channel 14 anchors went viral making a l’chaim and saying the Shehecheyanu blessing on air to celebrate Trump’s victory.
All I can say is Amen.
