Bullets in the Laundry -- Should that be Normal? No.

This morning I found live bullets in the washing machine (which explained the banging noises I heard while the cycle was going). Suitable for a semi-automatic machine gun (M-16 to be exact) the bullets seemed to have enjoyed their time in the suds, came out looking quite clean and ready for “action.”

Why was I not so surprised? My oldest son, Adin, was home from the army this past Shabbat. That means laundry.  Theoretically there are washing machines on his base, but he wasn’t on his base, and anyway, he came straight home after spending  about ten days on the border with Gaza.

Now, I have been a parent for 22 years, and thus have been doing other people’s laundry for quite some time. But bullets? That’s a first.

My initial reaction was “wow, glad that all that shaking around didn’t cause the gunpowder to explode.” 

Second reaction: “hope the washing machine didn’t get damaged.”

Finally I realized I had just found machine gun bullets in the laundry. And that is not “normal.” Chewing gum – super annoying, but normal. Wrappers from various candies, ice creams, potato chips – have pulled all those things from the laundry.

Seashells, pebbles, sticks, leaves, yup all those too.

But bullets? Gevalt.

Israel has lived far too long with a level of “normal” that has hardened our senses. When I take a bus on a Sunday morning to Herzliya or Tel Aviv and I am surrounded by machine gun toting soldiers, I accept that as normal. When my kid’s youth group goes on a trip need to order a guard with a gun strapped to his wait to accompany us. OK, he also has first aid training but don’t think he is killing mosquitoes with a magnum .45.

I am not starting a discussion here on gun control laws – but there is nothing normal about a society where guns are so prevalent. Sure, statistically we have less civilian gun violence in Israel than in the US, but that’s not saying much.

The reason our soldiers carry guns with them at all times is because the “front line” is potentially every street corner. In a tiny country (land mass wise, not ego) where at the narrowest the State is less than an hour’s bike ride. We have over the past twenty years endured waves of terrorism reaching every public gathering place (malls, restaurants, beaches, etc.).  

We have “normalized” our situation (purposefully not getting into here the potential ways out of our situation) and go about our business as if 18/19 year old kids walking around with machine guns in the public sphere is  “normal.”

Our army experience is very different from the US and many other countries. Our soldiers come home on average every two weeks, sometimes every week (and there are those who are not in combat units that often live at home – but still usually carry guns). And yes, we do their laundry.

All I am saying is – it should NOT be normal to find bullets in the washing machine.