Wholesome Update from the Holy Land...

I'm writing to give you a brief update of events in Israel. For those of you who have been following the news this weekend, you've probably seen that, in response to the Qassam rocketing coming out of Gaza the last few weeks, the Israeli military initiated a huge military response on Hamas institutions in Gaza (see how careful I was in my phrasing? I'm trying real hard to be politically neutral...) Today, it was announced that Defense Minister (and Labor party leader) Ehud Barak is calling up 6500 reservists, presumably to start preparations on a ground attack. Or it could just be saber rattling. Basically, Israel is back in a mindset of war, the first time since summer 2006.

Geo-political (and internal political - there are national Israeli elections February 10) considerations notwithstanding, this is a big deal here. But yesterday, and today, on the ground in Jerusalem, you'd never know what was happening a mere 50 miles (or less, depending on where the Qassams are falling) away. I don't mean to be an alarmist; quite the opposite. Things are literally happening here as normal. And the sense that I get from Israelis is that elsewhere, in the army, in the south (the areas in Israel under Qassam attack), in the center, things are fine. Unlike Lebanon, there is, at least two days in, general widespread support. There are a lot of reasons, I think, why this is, and I won't go into them now, but that, coupled with the support and advice HUC has been constantly (too much?) providing us I feel as safe as I did on Friday (tu tu tu; keine hora; etc).

In other news, we're spiraling very quickly towards finals. This is our last week of class; even though New Years isn' a holiday here, we have it off for a "Reading Day." Which is just as well because we'll all probably been recovering from our New Years Eve Prom: yes, we're having a student sponsored prom. HUC really is High School, all over again, except without the excellent drama department. Oh wait, there's actually plenty of drama at HUC to go around.

I'm in Israel through next week when I head to Europe for two weeks for my winter break (because January is really the best time to travel around Western Europe). But before I leave I plan to blog post (for real, not this faux e-mail post) on the last month, and respond to all of your e-mails very patiently sitting in my inbox. Oh, I haven't forgotten. Don't you worry.