The Laughlins

This is just a quick post to let you know that despite Israel's war front being expanded to the Lebanon border, we are doing just fine. Security levels have been increased, and there are many more police and helicopters around, but that is about the main difference that you see in daily life in Jerusalem (aside from further delays because of security). We are being careful - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict never has and most likely, never will be easily solved. In part, things are reminiscent of the Six-Day War less than 40 years ago when Israel was at war with ALL of its neighboring countries. It is true that although they have tried to maintain a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, Israel (in the past) has released thousands of prisoners in exchange for a small handful or people or sometimes even just the corpses of dead Israelis. This track record seems to be hurting them now, as terrorist groups continue to kidnap soldiers, asking for thousands of security prisoners from Israeli prisons in exchange. I suppose Israel has to put its foot down at some point - perhaps it is now.