GUEST COLUMNIST: Living abroad without fear in Israel

From Melissa Oppen, Guest Columnist From Melissa Oppen, Guest ColumnistBe careful there. Don't take the buses. If things get bad, promise me you'll come home. Promise me." Yet I felt no fear. I had been to Israel for two weeks the previous year, and I could not wait to get to the beautiful white-stoned campus of Hebrew University, where I studied at the Rothberg School for Overseas Students. It would be disingenuous to say that all my certainty about Israel remained constant during my semester there. But I soon learned that all the people who sent me off with a look of fear in their eyes were misinformed. Without spending time in Israel, it is hard to imagine the feeling of day-to-day safety that one has. Tolerance is not the easy thing to come by in a country born on deep religious and cultural beliefs of two very different groups of people. Yet, in Israel, even with the unfortunate terrorist acts, Israelis and Palestinians continue their every day lives hoping for a future where they can work and live next to each other. In many areas of Israel, tolerance between the two groups has begun. For example, at Hebrew University, one room of Palestinians is placed on each dormitory floor in order to counteract enmity on campus. Similarly, my supervisor at the community center where I worked at never spoke a word of hatred, even though her car windows were smashed by Palestinians because she lived in a village very close to the West Bank. She merely smiled and said she should have found a better parking spot. During my five months in Israel, I never felt the fear that my parents and friends tried to instill in me. I followed the routine of taking buses and appreciating the caution of young soldiers to evacuate areas even if just a backpack was left unattended. I grew accustomed to being within ear's reach of news reports in order to know what progress was being made within the Israeli peace process. Since I have returned, people are constantly asking me how scared I was or what it was like to be in Israel when the bomb went off in a Tel Aviv cafe. I had been eating at a restaurant two doors down with my parents the night before. I felt sad, I tell anyone who asks me, but not sad enough to lose faith in a future peace within Israel. I went to Tel Aviv a few days after the bomb went off. I visited Rabin square (where he was assassinated) and placed a flower on the ground. Life goes on for Israelis, even after the bombs. They clean up quickly and continue moving. The Jewish people have a history of sticking together in order to remain strong against future attacks. If we capitulated to fear, that would be tantamount to giving in to the terror that the terrorists hoped to force on the people of Israel. Even in Jerusalem, my Israeli cousin Doron recently told me that the streets were cleaned immediately after the latest attack and all of the stores were open the next day. I fervently hope that the terror attacks will end, but they will not keep me from Israel, my second home. My greatest teacher in Israel was Doron. He assured me that within the next five years the same peace that has arrived between Jordan and Israel will exist between Syria and Israel. I would tell him how everyone in the U.S. didn't want me to come to Jerusalem, worried about the lack of perspective and feeling of safety that one has while in Israel. "What about Israel?" Doron would ask. "Are they worried about Israel? ?Because by staying away in fear, we have no reason to continue fighting."