Yakov Stern was born nearly 60 years ago in the young state of Israel, and in one way or another, he has been fighting for its survival ever since.

A schoolteacher in the thriving coastal city of Ashkelon, Stern lost his left eye in battle as a tank commander during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Now his generation of soldiers has given way to the next.

One of Stern's sons deployed last month to the edge of Gaza in preparation for an invasion of the strip, which lies an agonizingly close 16 km from the open-air stadium, synagogues and schools at the heart of the city. But he did not have to enter Gaza, in part because of Stern's older son, an engineer who helped develop Iron Dome, the missile defense system that knocked down hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza.