Everybody is depressed.  Everybody.  All about different things.  1. Hizballah – the war in the north is terrifying because they have the big guns and the nuclear devices.  2. Hamas – if they aren’t contained they will not only destroy Israel but was ignite the world. 3. the hostages – the conditions in which they are kept are impossible.  Starved, raped, beaten, they are kept in the dark, cold, and damp with no medicines and are not allowed to communicate with each other.  No one can survive for long and we haven’t found them.  4. The economy: This is divided into many parts  -a) reserve soldiers have left their businesses for three months and their wives have to stay home and watch the kids – so for every reserve soldier there are 2 unemployed people.  b) planes are just beginning to fly here this week so maybe the prices of imports will not rise too much in the light of the attacks on ships by the Huttis.  c)  Israelis, even if they have money, has no desire to go shopping – I’m the only one d) tourism is an additional complexity.  Although numerous people have come from abroad to help out, they are not the big spenders, and the hotels are filled with displaced residents so it isn’t a great vacation to visit now.  Come in the spring and buy stuff.

And now that I got an amazing review for the last book of poetry in Hebrew, I’m going to see about setting up the evening we cancelled on the 9th of October.  Maybe we can begin to go back to living.