the current drama

I have a lot to say, but with everything going on right now here... it just doesn't seem relevant.
I have talked to my fellow expats who also live in the West Bank and we just don't know what to make of every thing going on.

In the past year there have been several events that have made us wonder if we should prepare for another intifada. But after a few days everything always calms down.
There was the annexing of the mosque in Hebron,
The assignation of a Palestinian in Nablus by the IDF,
A couple of stabbings and murders of IDF by Palestinians,
small fights about the Dome of the Rock,
the threat of elections,
and the list continues.

Each time we went through this whole saga of how to react. The Palestinian people around us carry on as if nothing is happening, which is my way to gauge how serious this is.

How ever, this is the first time the people around me, my fellow teachers, have started to seem worried.

A problem I have always had is knowing when to say enough. Many many years ago in China when we were put under house arrest for the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade I figured you just get through it. I didn't find out until about six months later that internationals left China in grooves during and following that incident. I went to Pakistan during a military cue and it was shockingly peaceful. (except in Kashmir, where they were fighting a civil war and where my mom told me not to go, and i didn't listen. She is still made at me to this day for going there! and she would tell you it is "with good reason")
I even was in Indonesia when the riots broke out all over the country there and was trapped in my hotel (i was the only guest left) for a few days until i was able to get a flight out.
I also went to Bosnia at the tail end of the war there back in the mid-90's.

I am not a stranger to conflict but what i never know is where to draw the line.

When do you pack up and leave?
When do you start stockpiling supplies?
When do you get worried?

I am leaving for a week long vacation in Egypt at the end of the month. Is it wrong for me to hope that if anything happens it happens when I am out of the country? Is that selfish?
I hate thinking that, especially since it will be Easter time and Passover. These are amazing times to be in the old city of Jerusalem.. a very crowded time and any violence would result in horrible blood shed.
so i guess i don't wish that!

So for my friends and family who are ready for me to leave RIGHT NOW...
I AM monitoring the situation and trying to figure out what I should do.
But most of all I am praying for peace!
And for both sides to take lots of deep breaths and to practice some anger management.