> From: "Dan Epstein" <dseps at yahoo.com>
> Clashes between police and Palestinians in
> J'lem's Old City
You assume that is part of Israel...;-)
No, you are right, there were protests in the WB and Gaza and in the Old City.
But the Israeli populace has been more or less silent...
Today when I went out and ran some errands, I found it very uncanny to be waiting in line at the supermarket with people in front of me and behind me with their little cardboard gas-mask boxes over their shoulders. From what I saw, about 1/4 of the people were carrying their gas mask with them everywhere...moslty families with young children and senior citizens that I noticed...It is terrible the amount the gov. and media has been scaring the populace (especially among the older and less educated portions of the population). My wife's grandmother hasn't slept in two days because she is terrified of a gas or chemical attack. She tried to call us at three in the morning to come and stay in her sealed room for safety. I had to go over last evening, on her insistance,and help her get her gas-mask kit ready. She was given a special venilator with batteries that attaches with a tube to the gas mask to help her breathe easy with it on. We all keep telling her that it is very unlikely that the Iraqis will send Scuds, but she hears the media constantly warn people to be ready with their gas-mask kits, and she saw her neighbors go to work with the kits over their shoulder, so no amount of my reassurances of safety help.
I heard on the news today that so far around 60 people have stuck themselves with the atropine syringes (which come in the gas-mask kits) against a nerve-gas attack (the syringes are very dangerous, dehydrates, screws with your heartbeat)...several people were hospitalized (mostly children).
Bryan