Sunday, January 4, 2009

To friends and family who are concerned:

(Below is an email I sent around recently, so if you did not already receive it, read on...)

Dear family and friends,

I have been getting sporadic emails and messages from some of you checking in on me, given the recent developments in Gaza, so I wanted to send around a quick note to let everyone know that Oren and I are doing just fine. I can only imagine what you are probably seeing on the American news channels about the conflict down in Gaza, so it will probably surprise you to learn that if I did not read the news every day, I would have no idea that anything was happening in Gaza right now. That is how little we are feeling it in Tel Aviv. Hopefully it will continue to be that way, but we are, of course, monitoring the situation very closely and promise that we will make good and informed decisions about the situation here.

On a more political note, I think it is important to mention that I fully support this operation in Gaza, as I see it as Israel's only way to make living here even safer than it was before. It is truly unfortunate that so many civilians in Gaza have died, but the only ones to blame for that is Hamas who choose to put their bases and rocket launchers in the middle of highly populated areas. It is true that Israel actually calls their target before the drop a missile to warn the civilians inside the building to leave- that is how committed Israel is to avoiding taking civilian lives. Lastly, I have full confidence in the Israeli military/airforce and intelligence agencies that they were completely prepared for this mission before they went in, and are completely prepared to protect the Israeli civilian population and prevent any form of backlash their operation may cause- oherwise, they would not have started this.

Please do not hesitate to ask me questions about what things are like here- I feel like the imagination can be ones worst enemy in situatioins such as these, and I would love the opportunity to paint you a clearer picture of what effect (or lack there of) this event is having on my life right now.

Much love,
Debbie