I’m Douglas Alden, and I’ve been a journalist for much of my working life.
This past December 27th, I moved to Israel in order to witness, explore and write about what life is like here during the country’s war against Hamas. This publication is the real-time result of that exploration.
First a quick graph about me, and then what I’m doing in Israel and why.
I began my career covering politics at ABC News, and after two years moved onto producing sports profiles and feature stories with Dick Schaap for both ABC News and ABC Sports. I later produced, directed and wrote documentaries and features for NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, ESPN, and Classic Sports Network, where I was a founding member. I’ve also worked in technology, written profiles for a number of national publications, and most recently written a novel that was serialized by ESPN. (Some of my work can be found at www.Alden.Media.)
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“Life During Wartime” isn’t about the war. It’s about humanity.
Over the coming months I will be profiling the people of Israel—Jews, Arabs, Druze and others—who now find themselves living on the home front during an existential war. My goal is to create portraits of the lives of people who are trying to hold themselves together, so that they can hold their country together.
“Life During Wartime” will feature both written profiles and video portrayals of individual Israelis from all over the country, and of every socioeconomic status — artists, actors, musicians, students, teachers, tech entrepreneurs, lawyers, accountants, bartenders, bus drivers, sanitation workers, mothers and fathers, and children — anyone who has a gripping story that I can find and tell.
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Let me be upfront with you: I have a dog in this fight.
I believe in the need for the state of Israel to exist—not only because of its importance to the Jewish people, but also because of its importance to the dwindling number of Western democracies—and I also believe in the now fading dream of a “two state” solution.
But this is not a publication about my opinions, nor for that matter about politics. It’s about people.
My goal with my dispatches for “Life During Wartime” is to give voice to the people of this country. To try to see the world through their eyes, and to help you do the same.
I am detailing their daily experiences—both their external and internal lives—their hopes and their fears, their dreams and their nightmares, their laughter and their tears, their love and their hate. Most of all their hope.
In turn, I hope to be sympathetic to the people that I’m profiling, even if I don’t share their political views. But I also know—if I’m doing the job right, which means connecting with some of the wrong people—that there will be times when my sympathy will be sorely tested, when I find my subject's worldview repugnant and infected with a mutated strain of the very hatred that has infected not just this part of the world but all of mankind for almost 3,000 years. Even then, though, I want to give them a voice, and portray them honestly. Or as honestly as anyone writing in good faith can.
The political analysis provided in my dispatches will not come from me, but from the subjects that I am profiling. I will insert my own observations rarely (very rarely). After all, there are plenty of people more qualified than me to analyze both the war and the Middle East. And there are also plenty of people who are completely unqualified, and currently shoveling it out, too—more than a few of them for national publications. Indeed, that’s the biggest reason why I’m here:
Watching and reading the coverage, I quickly noticed something critical was missing. And I still find it astounding:
Hardly anyone is focusing on the humanity of the crisis.
Yes, journalists are reporting on the surviving victims and the too few returned hostages, and on both groups of families, who now and forever will be recovering from the barbarism of October 7 — barbarism gleefully perpetrated by Hamas, with grotesque acts of inhumanity on a scale not seen since World War II, outside of Africa. The level of savagery by the death cult called Hamas on October 7 is far beyond the boundaries of the civilized world. And the fact that so much of our world has chosen to look away—to stay silent about the brutal slaughter of their fellow human beings—is a tragedy for the human race.
But what about the daily lives of ordinary Israelis, forced to be extraordinary Israelis?
Because technology now allows us to cover this crisis moment-by-moment, that is where almost all the media’s resources are going: They cover action and reaction. But they are ignoring the realities of daily life. Or, I should say, they are ignoring the new realities of daily life on the home front. Certainly, the non-Israeli press is ignoring these stories.
Here in Israel, I am witnessing history as it is happening. It’s a remarkable feeling. I am also witnessing the past continue to play out—as Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”—while also trying to examine the next foundation for this world’s future, currently being built on sand and terror.
My dispatches will be portraits, and almost all of them will focus on a single individual with whom I will have spent many hours and often days. I want to spend time with the people I am portraying. And I want to spend time with my thoughts, as I figure out how to creatively tell their story in a way that best reflects their lives as they have shared them with me.
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I will not be profiting from my work.
Everything that I make from your subscriptions and donations will be spent solely on my basic expenses.
Everything above my expenses, I will be donating to an Israeli medical charity that serves the needs of Jews, Druze and Arabs.
I am in the process of forming a 501(c)(3), and any donations made to “Life During Wartime” will be fully tax deductible, retroactively upon my receiving 501(c)(3) status.
Additionally, all of my dispatches will be free, and can be freely reproduced by individuals and news organizations, following these specific Creative Commons guidelines.
With that in mind:
I hope you will consider showing your support for my work by subscribing to “Life During Wartime: Dispatches from the Home Front” for $5 a month, or $50 a year, or by donating to help cover my basic costs.
To donate more than $150, please go to this page on my website and fill out the contact form that will be sent directly to my personal email; I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Your subscription and/or donation will enable you to participate in Zoom conversations that I’ll be having with my subjects, after I profile them. And, no doubt, there will probably be other stuff that smart people will tell me I could and should be doing.
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I am doing this as a way to support the people of Israel.
Yes, the Israeli government is deeply flawed. And, yes, many of its policies are deeply flawed, and yes, some are even cruel. But Israel is not the South Africa of actual apartheid that existed until the 1990s. Nor is Israel the Jim Crow South that existed from the brutal end of Reconstruction through the 1960s. And anyone who thinks that, well, they simply do not know the basic history of the country, the region, or its people. In which case, I don’t expect them to be reading “Life During Wartime.” I can only hope that they will put down their social media, especially if it’s TikTok, and pick up a credible, non-ideologically fueled book, such as “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel“ by Ari Shavit.
I believe the people of Israel really do want peace, almost no matter their level of religiosity—and much of Israel is a surprisingly secular country. They are willing to sacrifice for peace. They are willing to sacrifice land. And they are willing to sacrifice their lives. But they are not willing to sacrifice their country.
I hope to make a contribution to the cause through enlightening my audience—and myself—to the realities of Israel through this publication.
Here’s hoping that what I publish will move you, and make you think. That it will enable you to read or watch something that you’re not finding elsewhere. And that you’ll think enough of “Life During Wartime” to share it with your family and friends, by forwarding this email, posting it to social media, and/or mentioning and linking to it in your own newsletters and publications.
— Douglas Alden (January 9, 2024)
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It’s a great endeavor ! May the world realize from your pieces that all Israelis are human beings, no matter their race or religion, and that we’re all here to stay.
Great job!! can’t wait to read more