There is hope and strength in Israel
Editor's note: This letter from a friend in Israel was contributed by a reader.

As this war continues, I am the first to admit that we have our good days and our bad days. About an hour ago 10 Israelis were killed in a Katyusha attack up north. Friday the new rockets fell about 1/2 mile from my home. Many people we know are fighting up north. There are 300,000 people who have been relocated from the north and 1,000,000 people whose lives have been affected by the rockets. Times are not perfect, but they are far from disastrous. It is hard for someone who is not Israeli to understand what is going on in our heads.

On one of my tours, a woman asked, "Why don't the Israelis donate anything?" I do challenge that person to come to Israel today and she will see:

+ the TV running a text about people in the south and center of Israel inviting families from the north to move in with them.

+ a company in the south inviting his competitor, whose factory was destroyed by a Katyusha, to come and use his factory from 7 pm to 7am so his competitor won't go broke.

+ a hotel in Be'er Sheva, (and I will give him a freebee plug,) Golden Tulip operated by Fatal, opening their 300-room hotel for families from the north to stay at the hotel's expense for a week's reprieve from the Katyusha attacks.

+ people from the south, teenagers, moving up to Nahariya, Ma'alot, and other places to organize activities in the shelters.

+ individuals and groups collecting food and toys.

+ boxes at supermarkets for food collection.

There're just too many activities going on to mention. Search on Google. You will find the sites.

We got a call on Friday from our neighbor, Irit ...the Home Front Command was asking people for cakes for Shabbat for the soldiers in the north. Could we do some baking?

Our neighbor Vered's son, Ori, back from the fighting in Lebanon - I can't tell you what he was doing - went back last night. His parents drove him to the front...not a 12-hour flight, not a five-hour drive....but a one-hour drive from home. Where else do parents take their kids back to their unit and watch him load up and drive into Lebanon?

This is our strength, the strength of the individuals living here, the strength of the people supporting their army, the army that's made up of our neighbors, our families.

Aryeh, my son, and I drove up to visit my nephew, Gilad. He is now stationed near a small, Israeli moshav. We brought him some homemade chocolate chip cookies, baked by my daughter, Eliraz. He laughed when he saw them. His unit is loaded with food and goodies from families, friends, and passer-bys.

His little unit has been adopted by the moshav near them. The people from the moshav came up the hill before Shabbat and brought "their/our/your" soldiers food and food and food. They have opened their houses to Gilad's unit. They drive up and down the hill and take the soldiers to have a shower in their homes. They don't have guest rooms, cabanas, or whatever. Their houses are small and simple, but they have a heart and they drag the guys into their houses and hand them a towel and soap and then drive them back up the hill afterwards. These people on the moshav are our strength. These soldiers are our hope.

We are going to see some very hard days. We are going to experience some worse days, but we don't despair. We are too much in love with our little slice of land to ever allow despair to creep into our lives.

Jeff Katz, a friend of a reader living in Israel