Behind the computer on a hot day in Tel-Aviv I dream about leaving work early and before sunset taking a dive into the sea. But this is no time for innocence.
The next thought is that the Palestinians in Rafah are prevented by the army to go to the sea. And then, there are the thousands of Palestinians taken to the Ansar Prison Camp, who sit in crowded tents unprotected from the cruel sun of the Negev. Yes, also the many thousands of soldiers suffer, sweating in their uniforms, shlepping their heavy weapons, going around inside tanks.
While I am thinking how to get through this day, I also realize that two million Palestinians are under curfew in their mostly small and overcrowded houses.
They cannot even dream of taking a shower; there is hardly enough water to drink; their frigidaires are empty and even in the few hours every now and then that the curfew is lifted, there is no money to buy anything.
Yesterday two children in Ramallah who thought that they could play football away from the soldiers' eyes were killed by tank shrapnel. It wasn't even news.
After all, these children broke the curfew and isn't the Israeli army allowed to defend itself? And also, it happened more or less at the same time of the suicide bombing in Tel-Aviv, an event which got worldwide headlines and the instant attention of President Bush.
But this attention may not be much of a consolation for the victims - mostly migrant workers. At this very moment, on this same hot day there are also somewhere in the slums of south Tel-Aviv dozens of wounded who refused to be taken to hospital - out of fear for deportation...
While I am writing down these sad musings, a friend from Hebron, phones. A real time report: Today the curfew in Hebron was lifted for unexpected long hours; students used it to get to the university. Then, suddenly, an army raid; they broke into the lecture rooms and arrested students and lecturers en masse.
Through the phone we heard the rumbling of the tanks.