Later in the afternoon, as dusk was approaching and friends became concerned that I needed to get 'back across' the line before dark, the questions all turned to the tanks poised at the boundaries of Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. While tanks have been deployed before, never has there been this absolute fear that the Israeli military would actually use them. I don't know anything about tanks. These are just samples of the kinds of questions for which people are looking for answers. No one remembers a time quite like this, not even during the other major wars.
People are frightened.
They are scared to go out at night. In the last two days we've begun to see the effects of the trauma of this on-going situation as acts of blind rage and brutality are recorded. Many have seen the scene of Palestinians destroying Jacob's tomb in Nablus, a sacred site to many Jews. In probable retaliation, the ancient mosque in the center of Tiberias was attacked. A number of synogogues and other mosques have now been scenes of damage within Israeli.