Morning

Originally written November 23, 2000

About a month ago, when they lynched the two soldiers in Ramallah and the IDF went in and shelled the Ramallah police station, my kids heard the shelling.

Later that night, I heard the IDF shelling Nablus (Shechem). The experience literally left me shaking. I'm about 15 minutes from Nablus, and actually 15 minutes from Ramallah.

Since then, I've heard shelling a few more times, most recently last night. I'm assuming it was in retaliation for the bus bomb in Hadera and the bus bomb in Kfar Dorom that left devastation, death and maimed small kids on their way to school.

The shelling has ceased to leave me shaking any more. Instead I look out my window (can't see anything) and wonder why they just don't pulverize the damn city into dust.

This morning, I got a ride to work at 5:45 a.m. THe sun was just starting to rise, coloring the sky and tinting the clouds a neon pink and purple. THe vally was full of mist. It was quite beautiful. Of course I'm wondering what the mist is hiding. Or rather..WHO it conceals.The roads at this time are still quiet, but we still travel no slower that 100 kph.

We topped a rise and zipped around a bend and slowed. Ahead of us on the road, near Ramallah, was an IDF jeep, tank and half-track. But it was still scenic. Because of the sunrise and their positions, the first sight of them is in stark black silhoutte.

I've discovered I've expanded my vocabulary nicely: flak jacket, half-track, Apache and Chinook heliocopters, armored personel carriers...