In Israel he continued with his life on autopilot. It all dawned on him on Friday evening when he was home in Emmen. “That was partly because a motorcycle drove into the street. That gave the same sound as a siren. I thought siren: I have to go to the basement. Eeh no, Sjonny, you are home, it is quiet. Then I broke down. We are down-to-earth Drenthe. Tears don’t come easily, but they came to me on Friday evening.”
Sjonny Lübbers has been in a relationship with an Israeli, Ayelet, for nine years. She stayed in Israel. “That is very difficult. It is double, very double. You want to be with her, you want to support her.”
He did ask if she wanted to come with him to the Netherlands, but she had no desire to do so. Lübbers fully understands that. Two of her sons have been drafted to help in the army. One of those two is in the unit that is one of the first to enter the Gaza Strip. “Then you have fear, fear for your family members.”
They speak to each other every day. She is doing well, Lübbers knows. Today she is teaching for the first time again. She is an English teacher. The lesson is not about the war. She’s talking about having something enjoyable, to take the focus off the children.
It will be a while before he can go to Israel and his girlfriend again, he thinks. “That will take at least a month.”