Hey, it's Harris from the Holy Land again. Don't worry, I am still alive despite the fact that you might see in the media that Israel is in a state of war. Actually, Israel really isn't in a war like it looks on TV. No, Israel is a safe place where people live their day to day lives with no real interference, unless you happen to be living in Gilo outside of Jerusalem.

I have been wanting to write this article about the Israeli situation for the past few weeks but I just couldn't. In the middle of all the fighting, there was an air of uncertainty in Israel. No one knew what was going to happen, if all out war was going to break out or if everything would just stop. I couldn't sit down and write about the nervousness that many Israelis felt about what was going on. But after a few weeks of calm unrest, where nothing too major is happening, I can express how many Israelis feel.

Last Saturday night, I was in Tel Aviv at the five-year anniversary of the death of Yitzchak Rabin. There was a huge rally where 150,000 people felt that what Rabin was doing and believed was right and still should be done. Peace cannot be born from violence. Violence only begets violence. Peace will beget peace. Israelis feel that fighting is enough and peace is where we should be going. There were lots of speakers, including Mosik Katzat, the President of Israel, Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister, Dahlia Perstof-Rabin, Daughter of Rabin and a leader of the Meretz party, plus there were singers like David Broza and Shlomo Artzi to sing about peace. The feeling at the rally was representative of the feeling all over the country, that peace is essential.

But what is seen all over the world is Palestinians throwing rocks and being shot and killed by IDF soldiers. Palestinian people are sick and tired of peace negotiations and are sick and tired of Israel. They want a country and want to be rid of Israel. But do they realize that Barak offered the Palestinians almost the entire West Bank, and Israelis just want peace? We hear the PLO news say that Israel is evil and just wants to destroy the entire country. Unfortunately, it is this that causes them to throw rocks and die for a cause that was almost sorted out at the peace table, not by fighting.

So it's very frustrating. Israelis are sick of this war. They want peace. But from the ones who just want to end this situation, the media and the PLO seem to keep relighting the flame of this new intifada (an Arabic word meaning uprising). Where do we go from here? Only time will tell, but we're all hoping and praying.