On the brink of wider war, the Middle East finds common ground in humor
Summary
As they brace for the next exchange of fire, residents of Tehran, Beirut and Tel Aviv pass the time by making fun of the antagonists.Just a few days ago, Diana Hillel was convinced she’d be stuck inside her Tel Aviv home for the better part of a month making sure her two children were safe from any attack by Israel’s regional enemies. But on Friday, the 34-year-old makeup artist got tired of worrying.
More than a week after Iran threatened retaliatory strikes against Israel, nothing had happened. She grabbed some girlfriends and headed to a bar by the beach, where they laughed about a week spent needlessly paralyzed by fear.
“We’re so used to living like this," Hillel said. “We know how to make humor out of everything."
The feeling was mutual in Beirut, amid speculation that the daily exchange of fire between Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Israel could escalate into a more intense conflict. If a war erupted along the border with Israel in the south, one person joked on X, “we’ll go to the beach in the north."
Even in Iran, the center of the current speculation around strikes and counterstrikes, people found fun in all the fear. “We Iranians did not take the response seriously," one user wrote in an Instagram comment section. “Why they take it so?"
A unique strain of dark sarcasm has emerged as people look for ways to cope with life in the crosshairs. The more serious the scare, the more searing the jokes, belying deep anxieties about the war that has raged between Israel and Hamas since late last year, and its potential to spill over into a broader conflict that could draw in Lebanon or even Iran.
Tensions reached their highest point last week after Israel killed a top military official for Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital Beirut, followed hours later by the mysterious death of the political leader of Hamas in the Iranian capital Tehran. The killings followed the deaths of 12 young people by a rocket strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah.
Both Iran and Hezbollah promised swift retaliation for the assassinations in fiery rhetoric that set off a diplomatic scramble to avoid a wider war. The U.S. moved warships and jet fighters into the region to help fight off any attack on Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. have launched a last-ditch effort to resuscitate cease-fire talks that have failed for months to pause the fighting in Gaza that is at the root of the current conflict.
The result has been a week of anxious waiting. And a field day of online wisecracks.
“Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a week," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on X on Monday about the timing of the group’s retaliatory strike, a seeming attempt to instill fear in Israelis. The bluster backfired.
“Sounds like my wife when I ask for sex," one user replied.
“Eat high fiber foods," said another.
In Tel Aviv, a market sells T-shirts reading “I Heart Iron Dome," a reference to Israel’s air-defense system. Bars and restaurants have advertised missile-related deals and drinking games.
It isn’t just Israel trying to take the edge off with laughter. A WhatsApp message recently went viral in Arabic-speaking countries poking fun at Iran and its allies for talking up their response while sitting on their hands.
“Would you love me forever?" the message asks. “Forever, until the universe vanishes, the stars burn and Iran responds."
In Lebanon, one X user posted a photo of a pair of ice-cold coffee drinks. “Waiting for the Iranian response," it said.
Even in Iran, where making jokes about the country’s authoritarian rulers is extremely dangerous, people took to X to do so anyway. “So when is the strike," asked one user who joked about needlessly stocking up on food. “We also filled the cabinet, pantry and closet."
As days go by with no response from Iran and its proxies, life in Israel is looking a little more normal each day. People buzz through the city on electric scooters, families picnic in parks, and the beach volleyball games go on.
Bar Shita, a 30-year-old business travel agent who lives in Jaffa, the traditionally Arab town now part of metropolitan Tel Aviv, spent his day off playing fetch on the beach with his dog, Lenny, rather than fretting about an attack that may never come.
“Maybe it’s my destiny, maybe not," Shita said. “There may be a higher chance that I’ll win the lottery than a missile will land on my head."
That isn’t to say people are taking the risk of war lightly. Hassan Haidar, who lives in the southern Lebanese town of Jarjouh, has stocked up a two-month supply of his parents’ essential medications and is repurposing money he had saved up to finish his master’s degree in Europe as emergency funds.
“When the 2006 war happened, we had little time to prepare for the worst," he said. “I won’t let that happen again."
In Israel, many like Shita are confident that the country’s missile defenses are robust enough to protect them from an attack like the one Iran launched in April, sending more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. The barrage was stopped with the help of a U.S.-led coalition that joined with Israel to shoot them down.
Israelis expressed confidence that allies such as the U.S. would come to their defense again. They are also well prepared. Cities like Tel Aviv are equipped with public bomb shelters, while many private residences have their own. Sirens sound out warnings of any impending attack, and almost everyone has an app on their smartphone that sends them alerts when foreign projectiles enter Israeli airspace.
By now, many Israelis are versed in the time it takes for rockets, missiles or drones to come within striking range, and plan to stay within a reasonable distance from shelter.
“It’s like Iran climbed up in a very tall tree, and they don’t know how to get down," said Or Weiss, one of Hillel’s friends who joined her at the beach bar on Friday. “I do think they’ll do something, but it’s OK. We have shelters. We know what to do."
Write to Feliz Solomon at feliz.solomon@wsj.com
