While most Israelis support the attack on Iran, many around the world—and especially in the United States—are condemning American participation. Much of that opposition stems from a lack of understanding, and often a lack of empathy.

This is a picture of one of my close friends, taken in 1991. He was eight, living in Israel. I was seven, living in Lebanon.

The first time I truly understood what Israelis went through during the Gulf War was years later, reading Yossi Klein Halevi. He describes a country bracing for the unthinkable—families sealed in rooms, children sleeping with gas masks, waiting for missiles that might carry chemical warheads. He also writes about the Six-Day War, when teenagers were sent into public parks to dig mass graves in anticipation of catastrophic losses. That is the scale of fear Israel........

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