Perspective on the Current Situation

There are very few dull moments in Israel. This is true of biblical research in Israel, and of the Israeli national political-military scene. At the top of every hour the radio emits five short, piercing beeps, and then one long beep--54 years after the end of the British Mandate, British influence on life in Israel is still pronounced--signaling the beginning of a 5 to 10-minute news broadcast. (There is also a short news update on the half hour!)

More often than not, there is an electrifying news item. This morning, it was news of Israel's killing of the Hamas terrorist organization's Gaza Strip commander, Salah Shehadeh. Israeli fighter jets dropped a bomb on his home, killing him and fourteen other Palestinians, including nine children. Another 100-150 Palestinians were injured in the attack.

Israel government spokesmen, expressing sorrow over the death and injury of civilians, said that Shehadeh was behind "hundreds of terror attacks in the last two years against Israeli soldiers and civilians." Shehadeh topped Israel's most-wanted list.

Apparently, there is no quick and easy way to win the war against Palestinian terrorists--the only war of its type that Israel has fought in its half-century of statehood--and to protect Israeli citizens. Israel's army has been forced to occupy each city and town on the West Bank, then conduct house-to-house searches in order to find weapons, explosives laboratories and terrorists. The army continues to collect the rifles and handguns that Israel originally provided the Palestinian Authority, given to it to allow the police forces of the Palestinian state-in-the-making to keep public order.

Israel's intelligence corps slowly and methodically interrogates those that the army has arrested and imprisoned. With the information gained, the army arrests additional suspects, often suicide bombers preparing to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians.

The war has been difficult, and a tremendous drain on Israel's relatively strong economy. Many of Israel's citizens--ordinary citizens except for their 30-40 days per year of reserve duty--have been called up for additional reserve service.

Tourism, once Israel's number-one source of foreign currency, has reached a new low. Since the state was founded in 1948, there have never been fewer tourists. "Of course, the tourists can't be blamed. Anyone seeing the country on foreign TV networks through the narrow lens of terrorist attacks and army operations in the territories won't believe that it's difficult to find a table at a good Tel Aviv restaurant, that the cinemas and theaters are packed, that the roads in the north on a Saturday night are as clogged as any European road on a Sunday night, and that on the opening night of the Jerusalem Film Festival there wasn't a seat available--even on the stairs" (Avirama Golan, Ha-aretz newspaper).