Leah >>> Morocco

You know that feeling you get when someone you've known and trusted for a while betrays you?  That pit in your stomach?  That's what I'm getting.

My friend is teaching English in Israel.  He's been documenting what's been happening in his small town, where there reside both Jews and Arabs, coexisting peacefully.

The last week has been hard for me in determining how I feel about the conflict.  On one hand, as a Jew, I believe that the state of Israel should exist and that it has the right to defend itself.  On the other, I can't possibly condone its actions.  What Israel's military has done is reprehensible.

What I think we need to keep in mind is that the common Israeli is not a commander of the IDF, nor is the common Palestinian a terrorist.  There is common ground between us.  Most people, regardless of nationality or religion, cannot support this senseless killing.

It's sad to me that so much bloodshed has happened in the past week (and, in general, throughout history) due to religion.  Muslims and Jews even worship the same god: we just have different names for him and express ourselves through different rituals and traditions.