In northern Israel, residents of Safed are “preparing for the worst”
While a war seems on the verge of breaking out between Israel and Hezbollah, the inhabitants of this border town in Lebanon, center of Kabbalah (the ancient Jewish mysticism), have been arming themselves for months. And fear an attack similar to that of October 7, says “The New York Times”.
When he steps out of his pink house in the early morning, Eyal Ben Ari, a 44-year-old man, adjusts the strap of the heavy assault rifle he carries on his shoulder, hoping not to wake his wife or his six children.
As he heads toward one of the synagogues in Safed, a city high above Lake Tiberias that has been renowned for centuries as a center of Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish mysticism, he admits he doesn’t feel very comfortable with his rifle.
At night, he sleeps with the gun tucked under his pillow, and he’s afraid it’ll be stolen. When his 13-year-old son came home with a toy rifle, Ben Ari considered returning the real thing, and he wonders if he was right to join the new civilian militia that gave him the weapon.
In the synagogue, men in black suits and graying beards—all also members of the Chabad movement, an ultra-Orthodox sect of Judaism—welcome Ben Ari by tapping him on the shoulder. They are happy to see him. To see his rifle. Which is the only one in the synagogue, but not in Safed.
“People want guns”
In this small town near the Lebanese border, which has often suffered rocket salvos from Hezbollah in recent months, citizens have rushed to arm themselves, prey to the same feeling of vulnerability as their Israeli compatriots.
Like all of Israel, the residents of Safed fear a repeat of October 7. Before the attack, most
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Source of the article
The New York Times (New York)
With 1,600 journalists, 35 foreign bureaus, 130 Pulitzer Prize winners and more than 10 million total subscribers, The New York Times is the leading daily newspaper in the United States, in which one can read “all the news that’s fit to print” (“all information worthy of publication”).
In its Sunday edition, we find in particular The New York Times Book Review, an authoritative and unrivaled book supplement New York Times MagazineThe Ochs-Sulzberger family, who took over the management of this newspaper, founded in 1851, in 1896, are still at the helm of the centre-left daily.
As for the web edition, which alone claims more than 9 million subscribers at the end of 2023, it offers everything you would expect from an online service, plus dozens of specific sections. The archives bring together articles published since 1851, which can be consulted online from 1981.
