Sadly, the war is not over -- although it has reduced in intensity in the North. Hezbollah has been crippled to the point where it can only shoot a handful of short-range rockets every week or so and the IDF then returns fire. On our kibbutz we hear a lot of explosions but are informed ahead of time that is only the army doing drills. In Gaza it is a different story completely and 10,000 Israeli reservists were called up for active duty last week.

However, even in the north the after-effects of the earlier fighting are still being felt. Many shops (especially restaurants) remain shuttered. I have to get my eyes checked to renew my driving license and went to the city of Kiryat Shmona two days ago to get examined and there are four optometrists who have shops in the city but not one of them was open. I am going to look for one in a city which is further south.