It's so interesting to be learning about the politics and history of the Middle East in the context of what has been happening lately. I can see history repeating itself and many patterns materializing, which I won't get into right now (dodging the details of an issue is a very "Israeli" thing to do, not that there's anything wrong with that). Today we focused mainly on what lead up the the 1967 war in Israel, otherwise known as "The Six Day War". (It actually lasted a little longer than six days). There are some interesting parallels to what is happening today and what happened back in 1967. For instance, just two examples: the fighting (not the conflict of course, which had deeper roots) began after Syria shot rockets into northern Israel, and Israel was very punishing in its retaliation. In fact, many criticized the IDF for its initial use of force as "disproportionate" to the attacks they received from Syria. That debate is going on today in regards to Lebanon and the force Israel is using there against Hizbullah. The consensus among many Israelis is that the counterattacks against Lebanon are perfectly justified, but there are a few who question what sort of political (or violent) reprecussions this may have, not just with the Arab community, but with the international community as well.

I finally heard back from my friend Sophia who is stuck in Beirut. She's very scared but doing just fine. She and other Americans are waiting for American ships to pick them up from the port and take them to Cyprus.

One more note: the Provost and the General who spoke yesterday were so confident in Jerusalem's safety that they did not even bother to tell us where the bomb shelters are or what do to in case of an emergency. They also left out the obvious possibility: suicide bombers, or bombings in Jerusalem in general have been commonplace. In fact, back in 2002, a Hebrew University cafeteria was bombed and 9 students were killed and 85 were wounded. Just today, a 25 year old male Palestinian was caught by the Old City (where I was at just last week) with a bomb in his bag. Tempers are certainly flaring in the Arab world.