At least in Israel anyway-its a way to keep one's spirits up till Hamas finally gets the message that shooting missiles at Israelis is a shitty way to advance their cause.
I am a daily reader of Haaretz. ( I have also been struggling to learn Hebrew, but the less said about that little adventure, the better).
Anyway……..
They published a cute article today about life under the rocket fire in Israel. Want to impress your girlfriend? Take her on an "Iron Dome Date":
The Iron Dome batteries are the hot spot of every city they are deployed in, the "'in place to be" is next to the Iron Dome missile defense units. Even knowing they're supposed to take cover during missile attacks, there are thrill-seeking "war tourists" who are camping out next to the missile batteries in the daytime and in the evening, staring and photographing. There are even reports of Iron Dome dates – couples taking a pizza and a bottle of wine and sitting next to the batteries waiting for them to fire. Seems like a pretty extreme measure to impress a girl. Sitting out in the open while missiles are flying seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do,and violates every Home Front Command order – but the spectators interviewed on television shrug it off and say watching the Iron Dome helps them "feel safe and protected." So grateful are residents of the southern cities for the rocket-busters that they come offering gifts and food to the troops manning them. One man in Ashdod even set up a full barbecue grill next to the Iron Dome today to cook lunch for the soldiers, and told his television interviewer he was "building a fire under fire." The food is often more than the soldiers can eat; they give the leftovers to the journalists who are also crowded there.
And of course, there is the awful inconvience of ill timed rocket attacks, which evidently have caught some Israelis, in flagrante delecto
After five days of war, there was finally a short but hilarious satiric segment by the folks at “Eretz Nehederet,” Israel’s equivalent of “Saturday Night Live,” with spot-on impressions of the grandstanding news correspondents and politicians, and a sketch on the embarrassing situations in a Tel Aviv stairwell during missile attacks – people seeing their neighbors in various states of undress, sheepishly taking shelter with their one-night stands.
And of course, after the fact-there are always the insurance companies to deal with. You think hurricanes are a problem? Try inquiring with your insurance company to see if you have "rocket insurance":
The barrage of missiles causing property damage in a swath of southern Israel will prompt questions over what compensation the government provides for those affected. Amir Dahan, who heads the Tax Authority's compensation department, provides some answers.
What is the actual role of the compensation department in the current Operation Pillar of Defense?
"We are responsible for identifying damage to civilian property, compensating residents and repairing the damage. When something happens and we receive a report of it, we immediately go to the scene. Our teams consist of a Tax Authority employee and an appraiser or engineer, who come to the site where a rocket has landed, access the damage and, together with the victim, fill out a claim form."
And finally, there is the not so well timed sports joke:
"So the IDF bombed a soccer stadium in Gaza where they were storing and firing missiles. Unfortunately, I have to note that this was the only victory that Israel has had on a soccer field this year."