Matti Friedman: A Siren. And a New Middle East.
After hustling my children into the safe room and checking my phone, I saw that the siren indicated not that we were being attacked—but that we were attacking. (Wisam Hashlamoun via Getty Images)
It’s a cliché to say that the Middle East is at a turning point. But sometimes it’s true. June 13, 2025, is one of those times.
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5 mins
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Over the past 18 months, since the beginning of the regional war in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, we Israelis have become used to sirens warning of incoming rockets—in recent months, mainly ballistic missiles provided by Iran and fired by Iran’s proxy, the Houthi militia in Yemen. The sirens wake us up at night and send millions of people into bomb shelters as the military fires interceptors that work most of the time. This happens several times a week.
Tonight, here in Jerusalem, we woke up to a siren that sounded the same but turned out to mean something completely different.
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