May 25, 2007

I recently visited Sderot, a small city in Western Negev, a region in Southern Israel. This city lies a kilometer from the Gaza Strip, a 10 minute ride by car, and only 2 minutes by Qassam. The latter is a home-made steel rocket filled with explosives and launched, free flight, from Gaza into the Israeli town of Sderot. Over 200 artillery rockets were launched into Sderot in the last couple of weeks. The reason for this act of war is the instability of the Palestinian regime and the political competition between two leading movements in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas solution to this unsteadiness is to get the Israelis involved and to reunite with the Palestinians against their shared hated enemy-Israel. The means, though, is to launch Qassam rockets from the urban areas of the Gaza Strip and terrorize the residents of Sderot. If the Israelis respond and retaliate against the terrorists, the Palestinians could unite with Hamas against their Zionist enemy. This strategy is ancient and usually works. This time, the Israelis preferred to break the magic circle and stay calm despite the rain of steel terrifying Sderot.

On my visit, I didn't focus on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) or the Israeli Air Force which could demolish the Gaza Strip entirely. IDF does what an armed force has to do to limit terrorist activity. IDF placed electronic detectors in the vicinity to identify rockets being launched and to warn Sderot's residents via loud speakers (the system called Red Dawn). The sequence from identification to explosion is approximately 20 seconds, not exactly enough time to write a will. My interest, however, was more in the residents and their tolerance to constant threats. Can anyone live with rockets falling from the sky and exploding all around them? I still remember my visit to Israel last July, when Hezbollah launched rockets from Lebanon into the northern part of Israel. I was at my parents' home in nearby Haifa when a horrible noise shook the house and neighborhood. Luckily, nobody was hurt by that strike, but it was not the case in other incidents. I admit I felt an enormous fear. There was nothing I could possibly do against a rocket, and it didn't matter how well trained a person is. I felt helpless and vulnerable. I can only imagine how Sderot's residents feel.

The situation in which Sderot's residents have to go through their days is not ordinary, but neither are the residents. I was immensely impressed by their toughness and quite touched by their easygoingness. One of them, a 34-year old married male, an accountant by occupation, explained to me how they manage:

"Terror is a psychological situation," he started, "and not a physical military doctrine. The chance that I would get into a car accident is much higher than that of a Qassam rocket falling on my head. But yet, you wouldn't have come here for a car accident, would you?" he asked sarcastically.

"Probably not," I admitted. "How do you guys deal with this psychological situation?"

"You should live your life as if there were no Qassam threats and you should deal with the Qassams as if there is nothing else you do in life," he shared with me his simple theory. I, of course, didn't understand this viewpoint, so I asked for clarification.

"It's simple." he said, somewhat annoyed by my ignorance. "We prepare ourselves to deal with it."

"How can you prepare yourself to deal with a rocket that's half your size and contains between 10 and 20 pounds of explosives?" I inquired, remembering my fear from last year.

"Our entire family trained on listening for the early warning system and getting to the shelter on the ground level of our apartment building. We used a stopwatch, and we rehearsed it several times until everyone knew exactly how to get there and what to take with them in order not to waste precious time. We have a gym bag handy now with all the necessities we need for the kids. This bag stays by the door, and the first adult out takes it with him. We trained for every situation, and we use those 20 seconds we have until impact wisely."

"How can you train for every situation?" I asked. "What do you do if, say, you are in the shower when the Red Dawn system goes off?"

"We bought bathrobes for every family member and they are hanging in the shower. We know you can't wash the shampoo off in 20 seconds and get down to the shelter, so you just wrap yourself in the robe and run outside. The same plan goes for sex as well," he added, grinning.

"I can't imagine that." I said, laughing. "What about going outside, driving in the car, eating outside or dining out?" I asked, still trying to understand how people can maintain a routine under a blitz.

"It's simple. When you drive the car, you keep your radio volume low so you can hear the warning system. You also make mental notes of landmarks and structures where there are shelters or where you can hide. When you know where these places are, you don't waste precious time making a decision on where to hide. If we go out or eat outside, we check first where the shelter is and only then can we allow ourselves to relax and enjoy. It's annoying, but it doesn't affect us psychologically anymore as terror strikes used to do. We are not panicking."

While driving north to the relatively peaceful part of Israel, I thought about these people in Sderot living in terror and dealing with it on a daily basis. I thought about their way to avoid panic and to enforce empowerment. Unknowingly, they use John Boyd's OODA Loop and they use it successfully. They skip the panic of the first few seconds and spend the short time they have to deal with the threat directly and to reduce its potential. They mitigate terror by not allowing it to affect them.

OODA Loop should be deployed in any place and for any threat in order to empower the inhabitants with both the knowledge of what to do and how the threat of a terror act, a psychological state, can be defeated. How can one know how to deploy the OODA Loop wisely and against what threats? Join our upcoming workshop to learn more.

Tomer Benito