Excerpts from a letter by Leiah Elbaum, Modiin:

Overall, life here continues to be unpleasantly eventful. I have accumulated a list of incidents which seemed important at the time, but which I haven't had a chance to mention because they have been overshadowed by other events. For example, on most nights this week firebombs or rocks have been thrown at vehicles on roads near Arab villages in the southern Galilee. Herut Lapid, a prisoners' rights activist who has been defending Arab asylum seekers in Israeli courts, was returning home from a court hearing in Jerusalem to his kibbutz in northern Israel this week when his car was hit by rocks near the Palestinian-controlled village of Ouja. The windshield was smashed, leaving a gaping hole. "It's lucky we weren't going faster, since we would have lost control of the car and been killed," he said.

Among the overshadowed events was another bomb which went off in Jerusalem Wednesday evening. A pipe bomb exploded near the Jerusalem Theatre in the heart of a residential neighbourhood. Two people were injured, though fortunately the street was mostly empty at the time of the explosion.

On Channel 2 television the other night, we were treated to an interview with Palestinian children, no older than 10 or 12, who were filling bottles with petrol. "What's that?" asked the Arabic-speaking reporter.
"Molotov cocktails," responded the kids.
"What are you going to do with them?"
"Throw them at the Jews, the Jews!"
"Aren't you afraid?"
"We're not afraid. They're dogs!"

One of Jason's co-workers commutes from the northern port city of Haifa. One day this week said morning traffic had been a mess due to security roadblocks on the highway. He said he heard from a friend that there was a major security alert in Haifa. A terrorist with explosives was believed to be loose in the city preparing a major attack, God forbid. Security was at a maximum throughout the city and surroundings. Apparently, word had gotten out, because people in Haifa were staying at home. Shopping malls and other public places were virtually empty. Thursday's paper reported that a suspect, a resident of Gaza, had been arrested in Nazareth, though no explosives were recovered and security forces remain on high alert. This story was carried on page 22.

In local news, the Modi'in area continues to be quiet for the most part, even though we are also very close to Palestinian areas. The main difference, from what I can see, is that the Palestinian-controlled areas we border are what is known as Area B, which means that the Palestinian Authority is in charge of civilian affairs but security is still in the hands of the Israeli army. This means we don't have Palestinian police and their gunmen stationed just a kilometre or less from here, though from time to time rock-wielding Palestinian civilians have attacked Israeli vehicles passing near their villages, causing a number of injuries.

The Palestinian village of Beit Sira borders the Israeli town of Makkabim, a neighbour of Modi'in. Youths from Beit Sira have thrown rocks and tied burning tires to the Makkabim perimeter fence, and have attacked passing cars on the road which passes between Makkabim and Beit Sira. They have also stood outside Makkabim yelling threats about how they are going to kill all the Jews.

We also discovered recently that one of the perpetrators of the lynch in Ramallah, the man seen in the infamous picture waving his bloody hands to the crowd and smiling, lives in the nearby Palestinian village of Beit Likia, a neighbour of Beit Sira. Like Beit Sira, its residents work and shop in the nearby Jewish towns of the Modi'in region.

Many Israelis, especially those in areas bordering Palestinian-controlled regions, say they feel like sitting ducks. The term comes up time and again in interviews with ordinary citizens, whether in Gilo, Gaza, Vered Yeriho or even central Jerusalem. People feel they're expected to sit still and be shot at, stoned and bombed, while our government looks for ways to resume negotiations and offer more concessions to the people attacking us. Our leaders are afraid of striking back for fear of being portrayed again as the 'aggressors' against 'defenseless civilians'.

In contrast, the Palestinians seem to have become more brazen. Today, during midday Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, Palestinian flags were flown over the mosque during the services, a regular phenomenon in recent weeks. What was different today was the addition of flags of the Hamas and Hizbullah Islamic movements, organisations which proudly oppose Israel's right to exist and perpetrate terror attacks. By flying their flags, worshipers explicitly threaten Israelis, expressing their support for terrorist acts and their unwillingness to consider negotiations and compromise. Palestinian religious leaders have led the call for Muslims everywhere to attack Israelis and Jews wherever they may be. Every Friday after midday services, crowds of Palestinian worshipers stream out of their mosques, fired up by virulently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sermons, ready to attack Israelis. This religious war is evident in attacks on Jewish holy sites and archaeological sites as well. It's hard to see how this religious enmity can be moderated by any conceivable political agreements.

I don't know how this is going to end. Arafat's track record shows that he's broken every ceasefire agreement he's every made and used the truce to improve his strategic position. Maybe we just have to wait for the Palestinians to run out of ammunition.

Shabbat Shalom,
Leiah