I'm fine, despite the fact that Israel is not

Since I've been getting a few calls in the last week, I wanted to let everyone know that I'm fine. Jerusalem is in general a pretty safe place, so, as it goes, my life hasn't really changed here. I was talking to a friend the other day and realized that one of the things that makes it hard for me to really comprehend what is going on is trying to compare it to home. If I were in the States and a rocket fell in New York or DC, Philadelphia would just shut down; here, I'm less than 50 miles from a war zone, and I get to keep going about business as usual just like everyone else. If cities in Israel shut down every time a rocket exploded somewhere in the country, nothing would ever happen. Nonetheless, people are definitely edgier—unsure of which places to avoid and which not to worry about—and are definitely discussing it constantly.

I don't want to get too much into facts and opinions beyond just my personal experiences because I'll probably get in trouble by saying stuff that's totally misinformed, but since I've yet to express any opinion about Israel and its politics on this blog, I will take this opportunity to say something briefly. First of all, the more time I spend here, the more clear it becomes that I mostly don't agree—or at least don't understand—with what Israel is all about. (I'm not up for getting into more details now, but maybe I can address that more at a later date.) Second of all, it's clear that the foreign press is not painting a very pretty picture of Israel right now, and I don't think bombing the shit out of a place is ever the best solution, or even a good idea, but I gather something like 80% of Israelis support this operation. On the whole, I'm not really sure what to think, but I'd like to support Israel right now. So that's that. Stay tuned and I'll try to get up a few entries about some relevant experiences I've had this week.