It's Wednesday, night and I am confortably at my cousin Florence's home in Zichron Ya-acov in northern Israel. The only visible sign of a war going on is that our plane from Atlanta was not full, as might usually be the case.

The airport was bustling with the usual throngs of people from all over the world. The lights of the night, the traffic on the roads and the bouyant people all mask the anxiety of a war in progress.

Everyone has children or relatives involved. One of Florence's sons-in-law as flown numerous missions in his F-16 into Gaza. The other son-in-law was called up for two weeks as a captain in his artillary battalion. He was stationed near the border with Egypt but in a non-combat role. The mission of his group was to coordinate between the artillary, ground forces, and air force to attempt to prevent "friendly fire", the primary source of nearly half of all Israeli injuries thus far.

While Israelis seem overwhelmingly supportive of the war, the people I met are distraught that the world seems so overwhelmingly in opposition to and not understanding of their situation. There is of course extreme anxiety among the Israelis about where this will all lead.

Had dinner tonite with Yael, now 7 months pregnant with her first child, while attending school working for her master's degree and holding a full time job. Ofer is flying for the Air Force several times a week, attending the university full-time and holding a nearly full-time job. Dana is also full time in school and working at night. Seems like everyone (at least in my family) is multi-tasking; don't know how they all do it.

Tomorrow night (12:20 am flight) I fly from Tel Aviv to Addis; after a four hour stop I will be on to Nairobi where Mahmood Qureshi will be meeting me at the airport. Turns out that one of Florence's friends here in Zichron will be on my plane with an Israeli tourist group going to Ethiopia. I am hoping to meet her for lunch tomorrow.