breaking and making news

last wednesday's suicide bombing in hadera, killing five shoppers at the market, marked the first attack inside israel since my arrival 7 weeks ago. it sparked a serious of retaliations by the israeli army aimed at terrorists, but not always accurately. in one such attack, a targeted assassination against a terrorist cell leader killed the target as well as six others, three of which were identified by the israeli army as islamic jihad operatives, meaning the other three were civilians. and although politicians on both sides pledge and vow to crackdown on terrorist groups, anger and frustration on both sides intensifies.

slightly further east, iran's president echoed old sentiments to destroy israel on their national al-quds (jerusalem) day. and just outside of al-quds, as the IDF works to beef up existing road blocks, create new check points and limit palestinian movement throughout the west bank, thousands of muslims were denied entry to the city where they wanted to go pray at the al-aqsa mosque for the last friday of ramadan. while its not fair to quantify or equalize these events, its hard not to see hints of "an eye for an eye" sentiments in this biblical land.

yet daily life continues, almost without missing a beat, here on this side of the green line. my roommate and his dog finally moved in last week. we've spent many hours breaking down, carrying and assembling furniture (at least he has some), scrubbing floors and pulling plants out of our shower drain (actually i watched amir do that one), but the apartment is starting to come together. next week will we take on the roof and then hopefully be ready to have a housewarming party.

at work, i joined the arab-jewish post-high school volunteer commune members for a session about public and media relations. we discussed our personal reasons for working at sadaka reut and thought about how to explain what we do to those outside the organization. appropriately timed, the whole office was then interviewed for a potential article about the commune in the maariv newspaper.

i find it fascinating to hear the commune members talk about why they chose to join this unique project and how their families feel about this decision at a time when these polarized communities rarely meet, let alone live together. these exemplary young adults, not only share an apartment, but in their efforts to act as a "model of coexistence," they also spend their days working together - as volunteers in the sadaka reut office and various community projects throughout the city and as arab-jewish youth group facilitators throughout the country. while the unraveling of the fragile "ceasefire" fuels hostility and segregation for many, it only strengthens the resolve of these young people to continue working for peace, tolerance and equality. i hope their story, and others like it, continue to make news, to remind readers that not all news is bad news.