Terror attacks

I try to usually suppress my feelings but it becomes difficult to do sometimes. There have been 2 terror attacks in Israel in the past 2 weeks in addition to constant rocket fire in the south, and even though I don't live there anymore, I feel emotionally attached. Most people in North America have no idea what it's like to constantly live in that kind of environment where an attack can occur at any moment, where no place is safe, every bag is suspicious, where going on a bus is every day takes a lot of courage. What do when you don't know if your son/daughter will come back from the army? (which is mandatory for all men and women over 18). What do you do when there is a siren wailing every time a rocket approaches and you think is it in my area? Do I have time to run to a bomb shelter? Should I stay and take the risk?

Most of us can't imagine living in these conditions and often think about England WWII. Yet there are 5 million people that live with these conditions every day and most of the world either ignores them or starts blaming them if they decide to take any action to defend themselves. The question becomes would any western country tolerate this type of environment?

Here I am worrying about my clinical choices and my assignments, and when I have to wake up tomorrow, and yet if we all think about it all those things are incredibly insignificant. My parents chose to leave for the reasons above and were lucky to be able to, but we still have relatives there and most people there do not want to leave or do not have the choice to and this is their daily life and they learn to adapt to ever changing circumstances and fight for their right to live there. I really respect them because it is not easy to continue in these type of conditions, and I hope someday it is possible for everyone in the region to learn to live peacefully like we somehow manage to here in Canada.

My thoughts are with the injured in Israel, as well as the people impacted in US by hurricane Irene, I hope the recovery is fast and everybody is able to return to some kind of normal again, even though the normal keeps changing daily.