As political analysts debated how Israel should respond to the barrage of some 300-plus drones and missiles fired by Iran at Israel over the weekend, Israelis who live in Atlanta were watching in horror.

“It was the scariest night of my life,” said Yael Manes, an associate professor of history at Agnes Scott College. “I was on the WhatsApp group of other Atlanta Israelis and we were completely freaking out. It took me back to 1981 when Iraq attacked Israel with Scud missiles and I heard them whistling over my apartment in Tel Aviv.”

With eyes glued to U.S. news coverage as well as an Israeli channel, Manes contacted family members who live in northern Israel and are more accustomed to rockets coming in from Lebanon.

“I feel a huge sense of relief at how well the air defense worked, but the fear is not gone,” Manes said. “What is Israel’s response going to be?”

Dotan Harpak, another Israeli residing in Atlanta, said he’s still “living in fear, both for the safety of my family and friends, but also I know that this isn’t over. It didn’t end with the missile attack. I’m afraid of what this Israeli leadership will do. What I have seen from the last few months is that the people who are supposed to defend Israeli lives, aren’t. The government isn’t prioritizing the end of the war.”

Harpak sees the Iranian aerial assault as a continuation of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack when 1,200 people were killed, thousands wounded and more than 250 taken hostage. Dozens are still missing.

“For me, it’s not about one event,” Harpak said. “It’s a continuation of actions by irrational actors on all sides.”

Harper said the attack was in retaliation to the alleged Israeli killing of top Iranian generals in the Iranian embassy compound in Syria less than two weeks earlier. Now he’s afraid of how Israel will respond to the Iranian attack which he called unprecedented because it was launched from Iranian soil directly to Israel.

His concern was echoed by the Israeli Consul General to the Southeast, Anat Sultan-Dadon. 

“The vast majority (approximately 99%) of the hundreds of UAVs, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles launched by Iran in its unprecedented attack on Israel, were intercepted by IAF [Israel Air Force] planes and Israel’s air defense system, as well as through the assistance of the military forces of numerous countries, including the United States, that stand with Israel in its fight against Iran and its terror proxies in the region. Israel appreciates the U.S. and all the allies for standing with us and assisting in thwarting the Iranian attack,” said Sultan-Dadon.

Israel has reported only one severe injury to a child and little actual damage from the April 14 Iranian attack. But as Harpak points out, Iran telegraphed its intentions including when it launched slow-moving drones headed to Israel, allowing militaries from the U.S. and its allies to intercept most of them before they reached Israel’s borders.

“The thing that scares me the most is a sneak attack from Iran,” said Harpak, who received a heads-up about the Iranian attack when his sister texted him that the Israeli Home Front authorities announced that schools would be closed the next day. “Something’s probably happening,” she wrote to him hours prior to the attack.

Israelis who remain depressed and traumatized by the Oct. 7 attack have now been “retraumatized” by the Iranian attack, said Harpak, who blames Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for both the Hamas and Iran attacks. “Nothing he has done shows me that he intends to end the war.”

It’s been a long six months for another Israeli couple living in Atlanta. Nofar Shablis and her husband Sagi own Ali’s Cookies at Emory Village. Since Oct. 7, their bakery has been the target of repeated online and in-person anti-Israel and antisemitic attacks, alleging genocide by Israel which has retaliated against Hamas in Gaza, killing thousands.

The night before the Iranian attack, the outside of the bakery was vandalized with a swastika. Nofar said the attacker whose face could be seen on their security camera tried to throw paint on the camera but failed.

“I called the police but I don’t know if they caught him,” Shablis said.

The Shablises were able to open their bakery Saturday morning, but she said, “It’s been over six months. I’m ready for it to end.”