In Israel, Stiff Upper Lips and Gallows Humor Greet the Coronavirus

Here in Israel, we are in semi-lockdown at the moment, with the threat of total lockdown looming. And the weird thing is that every time a high-pitched motorcycle whizzes by, our hearts stop for a millisecond, falsely anticipating the sirens to go off.

For Israelis, the combination of staying at home, obsessively listening to the news, and constantly feeling a nagging uncertainty and some sort of underlying dread is strangely familiar—even though we know it from somewhere else. Like Pavlov’s dogs, we anticipate the sirens and the missiles. The biggest difference is that during coronavirus-lockdown you can stay in your old and smelly pajamas, because you won’t need to run outside and meet all your neighbors on the stairwell or in the bomb shelter. Oh, and instead of wearing gas masks, people on the streets are sporting surgical face masks like they’re about to operate.

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