SOMETHING STRANGE IN THE AIR

I was chatting with a friend who runs a business right next to the post office. The subject of why business is so slow lately came and she said exactly what I've been thinking. People are only spending on things they really need and that there's an atmosphere of something very bad impending. In this town 'bad' only has one meaning. Another war. With so many groups fighting each other, Hamas against PLO, so called palestinians against Lebanon and who knows who else, it won't be long before they drag us in too. There's also a lot of talk about at least three divisions of the Syrian army poised to take back the Golan. The army seems to be very concerned about it. Rather than leak anything to the press, soldiers (almost every family has at least one) are talking at home. It feels like they are trying to get us ready for what is to come without going on the record with it. Some even say that it feels like it did before the Six Day War. Everyone knew it was coming, and it was just a matter of time. I wasn't here then, but if so many people who were are saying that, I know what they felt then and it isn't at all nice.
Knowing that we've brought it on ourselves doesn't help at all. It just makes it worse.
There was a time when we could have stood up to the rest of the world and said" No. Arafart and his merry band of terrorists is not coming here. Period. If you think he needs his own state, find him one. There are twenty two Arab states to choose from." But, of course, we didn't.