frustration

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WAR, what is it good for, absolutely nothing, sing it again! Its times like this that my brain overloads on the scary reality of our world and goes into "Boy Meets World" mode, that happy little disney fantasy show that i love so much. And i hear Corey and Tapanga singing that song about war.... yes i'm crazy, but only in a good way! (forgive me if u don't know which show or episode I'm talking about).

I could launch into several political rages right now, but I'm not going to I promise. Tonight has been scary and frustrating while watching the news. The UN is trying to pass this ceasefire agreement, which Israel has seen and has said it will not agree to for many reasons, and the Israeli military (IDF) has started the expansion of its ground offensive, moving thousands more israeli troops over the border into Lebanon. It seems the UN is powerless again in the world of really accomplishing anything, and not just talking and passing resolutions. OK, I said no politics right? OK... The next few days here in Israel and Lebanon will be very intense and I can only hope for the outcome I think will be best. Not gonna say what that is, you can ask me if you really want. But that this will lead to quick and decisive victories which will finally end this already month long war. I can't believe it has been a month already of this war. I've been watching FOX news tonight, which I never ever ever do, and one of the reporters Shep, i think his name was, was saying how a lot of americans, and probably people world wide, don't realize one very important thing. Katushya rockets are still falling on northern Israel every single day. Every single day, for the last month, 100-200 rockets have crashed into Israel every single day. That is a total of thousands of rockets. THOUSANDS. It seems a lot of people were under the impression that the rockets had stopped. They have not. They continue to fall. If there is nothing else you learn from reading this blog entry, let it be this: Hundreds of rockets continue to crash into Israel every day, killing and injuring hundreds of innocent civilians.

So, things are extremely tense right now, and personally I am worried for my friends who are involved in the fighting. I am worried about many things, but that the most.

On the lighter side of today, I'm at my cousins house again for the night (they just missed me so much, I had to come see them). I went to the beach with my cousin and a few of her friends. We went to a beach I had not been to before, and it was really nice. A lot of young people, and not nearly as many families and little children as the beach closer to their house that we normally go to. The waves were great. On the way back, we stopped at these little food stands along the road (very normal in Israel, and always with great, authentic food), and I had a druze pita (i think it was Druze), and an arabic dessert called malabi. they were both soooo good. Middle Eastern food of all types is delicious. I have had Turkish, Yemenite, Druze, Bedouin, Iraqi and Israeli food, and its all soo good. And while there are a few select restaurants around the US with this type of food, I can tell you that it in no way compares to the authentic restaurants here in the Middle East. We returned home and had a really nice Shabbat dinner. Shabbat, as I think most of you know, is the cornerstone of Judaism, it is a weekly rituall, where you stop what you do the rest of the week, spend time with family and friends, etc. (this is an extremely simplistic explanation of Shabbat, perhaps I"ll write more details another time). Growing up, most Friday nights we had family Shabbat dinners. As we got older, got busier, they became less frequent, and continue to be only occasional at home now. At college, being the obsessive Hillel student that I was, I had a weekly Shabbat dinner with 100 of my closest friends and acquaintences. It was something I learned to love and look forward to, marking a special time of my very hectic weeks. When I moved back home, I always felt this was lacking, even when we did have family shabbat dinners. Now that I am back in Israel, I love that we always have Shabbat dinner on Friday night. It is something special about the week, and it is always just a nice time to enjoy and relax.

As I am writing this blog, it is after midnight here on friday night, and the news is now reporting that Israel's Prime Minister will accept the ceasefire, and assuming the UN votes on it in favor tonigth, as is expected, that Israel's government will vote on it on sunday. This is happening at the same time that we have watched Israeli tanks cross into Lebanon tonight, in which now I"m watching some of them return back to Israel, and still more fighting continue in parts of northern Israel. It seems that even as Israel is accepting this ceasefire, it will still continue ground operations until sunday when it votes, although perhaps not expanding the ground operations like it was planning just a few short hours ago. It is all very confusing, and since there have been rumors flying all day about both accepting the ceasefire and not, I don't know how true all of this is, and it is something where we have to just wait and see what happens tomorrow. I have heard the word cease-fire used here almost every day for the last month, in talks, on the news, etc, and I can't completely believe it, until I see it. There are always loop holes in these diplomatic documents and I am first to admit that I don't know much at all about the military (where here or in the US) and I will be anxiously watching as the next two days unfold. This is hope, but a lot can happen in 36 hours before Israel supposedly will vote on the ceasefire on sunday, and a lot can happen even after a ceasefire is signed. There is hope, but a lot can go wrong, and I am still nervous and fearful of those possiblities.

I know this has not been a happy entry, but I really needed to talk about some of this stuff, even a little bit. I'll keep everyone posted on the military/political happenings as they unfold, and give you my reaction and whatever Israeli reactions I can give you. I'll also put up another entry soon talking about what I've been doing the last few days, rather than talking about the war. So thanks everyone for bearing with me.

SHALOM= PEACE

AHAVA= LOVE

Shalom v Ahava,
Leah

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