20:00

I was driving north with an Israeli friend on the Namir road from Tel Aviv to Herzliyya last Monday night. The traffic was much worse than usual: long stops with occasional lurching forward, and my clutch leg was beginning to give out.

We crossed a large arterial intersection; just as the flow of traffic finally began to loosen and speed up, it immediately ground to another complete stop, and I saw some people getting out of their cars and standing up. They seemed to be looking at an accident up ahead.

Then, everybody got out of their cars and stood up. All the cars ahead on the four-lane road.

"Is it an accident?" I asked.

"No. Do you hear it?"

I couldn't hear anything.

"Get out of the car and stand up."

I opened the door and stood up, looking ahead. I saw four lanes of one-way traffic doing the same. When I opened my door, I could hear the low and distant drone of air raid sirens.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Shhhhhhh!"

I turned around, and saw all the cars stopped with their doors open. Their passengers were alertly standing behind the open doors like ranks of soldiers with large futuristic shields. It felt exactly like a hive-mind moment from a science fiction story.

After about 30 long seconds the sirens wound down to a stop, and everyone got back in their cars and began driving again. My friend explained that we had just participated in a once-yearly minute of silence to remember the fallen soldiers in any Israeli war; 8pm on that day, throughout the country, every year.

"Once a year! And you got it on the highway!"

For my money, the best way possible to experience it.