Israel, Hamas, and IBEX

Happy 2009!

Lately there has been a lot of rocket attacks between Israel and Hamas, and I know that some of you are pretty worried about my safety/the safety of the other students. This is an email I was forwarded from one of the professors from over there talking about the current situation:

Just a quick note to say (if anybody is asking), in regards to the current Israeli attacks on Gaza, and Hamas Kassam rockets – we are not affected. There is only one day on our semester calendar that might be affected – a beach trip to Ashkelon toward the end of the semester (and there are lots of other safe places to go to the beach). Life in Israel for where we are and for where we want to visit is, for instance, as last semester would remember it.

Thanks,

Bill

So as you can see we won't be affected by it. The people will teach us where we can and can't go. One of the professors told us it's like here in LA in that we know where and when not to go somewhere. He said people from other countries think that LA is basically a war zone because of all the crime that goes on here, but we know it's not, at least for us.

Its almost two weeks until I leave. This next week it have a winterm class (New Testament Survey II). I'll be in class from 8-5 for a week, so we'll see how much sleep I can get for the week. After next week I'll be in the home stretch, and my concience will be clear of work that I have to do.