Kav Imut, part 2

Not-so-quiet on the northern front: Several distant booms today make me stop mid-sentence. Ketushot? Artillery? Construction? The news is coyly silent, so I have to assume that nothing major has happened.

Getting back to normal: In addition to gung-ho gardening, carousing kids, and bustling businesses, a not-so-welcome sign of the returning normalcy is the evening gunfire in the villages across the road. Despite the blatant illegality and obvious danger, many Arabs continue to celebrate weddings by firing automatic weapons into the air. Last year, someone in our neighborhood was hit by a stray bullet while sitting in her living room, and every year a few wedding guests get injured or killed when the bullets fall back to earth. ("Whoops!" says the bride's father, "My bad!") Perhaps Newtonian physics isn't part of the Arab school curriculum. And hey, great way to celebrate your love, anyway. I am all for religious freedom and respect for other people's cultures, but please!

Ari Shavit, a columnist for Ha'aretz, weighs in with his analysis of the war and how we got into this mess in the first place. It is a very thought-provoking piece that accurately reflects what I've been seeing and feeling for the past 15 years.

In any case, getting back to normal is going to take some time. My accountant's bookkeeper calls to discuss more forms and red tape; value-added tax, only recently lowered from a whopping 17% to 15.5%, will probably jump back up to about 18%. (Next time you feel like complaining about the price of gas or the 11% sales tax you pay on your purchases, try paying 50% more for both on about half your current salary, and you'll get an idea of what we cope with!)

1701? We don't need no stinkin' 1701! Hezbullah refuses to disarm or withdraw to north of the Litani river, despite UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Oh, such a surprise. Nasrallah tells us that his buddies in Iran have missiles with a range of 2000 km, so we had better look out. Meanwhile, Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbalbet reports that Druze leader Walid Jumblatt says, "We will never surrender to Assad or to Nasrallah's conditions." (The Druzim are a minority religion much persecuted in Moslem countries, but enjoying full rights and citizenship in Israel. In fact, many Druzim serve in the IDF. Most Druzim live in norther Israel, southern Lebanon, and Syria.)

A bedtime truce: We have now had two nights of peaceful family togetherness. Our north-facing bedroom, abandoned during the war, once again becomes Shluff Central, as Nadine blissfully settles down between us for long, leisurely baths. Normal people might object to being kicked in the head by an obese, clumsy cat, or woken at 1:00 AM to the sounds of energetic shlurping, but it is music to our ears. We may still have a difficult path ahead of us, but for the moment, all is well, and I scoop my little dumpling up and let her purring lull me back to sleep.