I know this isn't usually what you find in a journal, but this is what's on my mind right now, and I have no one to talk to.

As I'm writing this, there are reports that Israeli troops have actually entered Arafat's headquarters, and are exchanging gunfire with his bodyguards...it looks like Sharon has decided that his only option is to kill Arafat. I suspect there will be war in the Middle East by the end of the weekend if that happens. I know that there is a lot of anger about what has happened in the past few days, particularly the Passover bombings, but I think at this point that too much responsibility is being directly laid on Arafat for the current attacks. He's been fairly irrelevant to a lot of the extremists except as a figurehead almost since he first started seriously discussing peace with Rabin 10 years ago (my god, has it really been 7 years since Rabin died?). Killing him will only tell the Palestinians that Israel has no interest in peace on anything other than its own terms, and, I think, will virtually guarantee a massive popular uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

So, there's my serious venting of concern. I'm afraid that I'm watching something very serious happen in the Middle East, and it leaves me concerned for friends and family, and, in the end, concerned for us all. It's honestly one of the few spots left in the world that could spark a global conflict, and when you are talking about religion, words like nuclear start to become a very real possibility.

Oy....