In the harsh, unforgiving light of a Monday morning, the office of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson’s Unit buzzed with a tension that had become all too familiar in the months since the October 7th attacks. On the desk of Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin lay a promotional teaser for a new film titled “NAZA,” a piece of cinematic art that threatened to inflict more damage on the perception of his soldiers than any physical ambush. The hallways outside his door were filled with media officers, analysts, and young soldiers whose faces reflected the fatigue of a long war. Yet,…

Chase Johnson still remembers the exact moment fear took over. It wasn’t when she found the lump, though that was terrifying enough. It wasn’t even when doctors told her, at just 31 years old, that she had stage 2B triple-negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease. It was after she had done everything right—endured chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, and been told in 2022 that she was cancer free. Her oncologist delivered the good news with a shadow attached: there was still a 40 percent chance the cancer would come back. For Johnson, a resident of Cary,…