Just after noon a colleague arrived at my office to tell me a bus in Tel Aviv had been bombed; many assumed it had been done by a suicide bomber. It's one thing to have air raid sirens going off and running to the shelter, it is quite another to be concerned that restaurants, buses, and bars could be bombed. This is, quite frankly, terrifying. I've heard enough stories from the Second Intifada to know that the quality of life under such threat is unlike anything I've ever known.
The rest of the afternoon I was pretty distracted. I wasn't alone. My Canadian-Israeli friend Elka said, "I'm here, physically, but I'm not in my body."
Another friend, Theresa, and I closed our books early, walked to the tram and rode down to City Hall to look at a very cool public art installation. A friend had taken me there one evening earlier this week and I wanted to see it in the light of day. The artist is Smadar Carmeli and the installation is a series of cushions made out of concrete. They are so "real" looking it is almost unbelievable. You have to walk up to them, sit down and then run your hands along them to feel the texture. There are some that look like leather and feel like it - there's even stitching. So cool. An excellent diversion.
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| Don't jump, they are made of concrete! |
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| Theresa |
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| Surprisingly comfy |
Then, hope again this evening as Hillary announced from Cairo that a ceasefire had been reached. It goes into effect in two and a half hours [ed note: actually the ceasefire went into effect at 2100 local time, not at 2300, but anyway, Hamas fired a few rockets after 2100 anyway]. May it hold and may the killing stop. And, may it be a first step toward, as they say, "lasting peace in the region." But, I have learned that you never know, so I'll continue to take this one day at a time.
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