A British emcee stopped a young couple at the Western Wall (Kotel) and asked how long they had been in Israel. Two weeks, they said, pushing a stroller, beaming in the November sun. He asked what it felt like. Their answer was simple. For the first time in a long time, they felt safe walking around. The interviewer called it surreal. Safe in a place that headlines still label a war zone. I do not find it surreal at all. I find it clarifying. Safety is not a GPS coordinate. It is the sum of mindset, community, vigilance, and the hard lessons of history.

That clarity is starting to shape policy. Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration was told to prepare for a large wave of immigration. Not a whiteboard drill. A real planning cycle with exercises, schedules, and responsibilities. At the end of November, the ministry ran a comprehensive drill with the National Emergency Management Authority. The scenario modeled tens of thousands of immigrants arriving in a short span, hundreds a day. The team walked line by line through reception at the airport, temporary housing, absorption centers, medical care, food provision, social support, and interagency coordination. Senior officials did not call it hypothetical. They called it realistic. The trigger they had in mind was rising antisemitism and instability in countries with large Jewish communities. The plan drew on lessons from past waves and a visible uptick in global interest in Aliyah.

On Sunday, December 10, the minister, Ofir Sofer, summarized the drill at the President’s Residence during a ceremony honoring new immigrants who have made outsized contributions to the country. An hour later, two terrorists opened fire at a Chanukah ceremony on Bondi Beach. Fifteen Jews murdered. Dozens wounded. It happened in the place that many of us still reflexively describe as far away and safe. That reflex is now dangerously out of date.

Australia ranks low for Aliyah in absolute........

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