By SEBASTIAN JAY

It is a tale of two worlds – two epochs – separated by a stunning act of violence. The Western world’s notion of security lies shattered, blackened by the unnerving threat of apocalyptic terrorism. This new insecurity challenges our faith in humanity and tests our ability to love our neighbours in a shrinking global village. We are not alone in this plight. 

"Even in these troubled times, when we cry a lot, we also continue to laugh, to sleep, to eat, to smile. What else can we do?" writes Ellis Shuman, Senior Editor of the Israel Insider and an Israeli resident for 25 years.

The Israeli-Palestinian crisis has a long and arduous background. In 1947 the United Nations resolution to partition western Palestine into separate Jewish and Palestinian states inflamed Arab resentment that quickly escalated into war. Most of the would-be Palestinian state fell to Jordan (established earlier in eastern Palestine), the rest to Egypt and Israel. In 1967, another major war brought the Palestinian territories completely under Israeli control. Since 1993, the promise of the Oslo peace process has restored only very limited and partial control to the Palestinians. It is this charged climate of Palestinian statelessness, Israeli insecurity, and a fractious peace process that has kept lighting the touch-paper, sparking so many seemingly mindless acts of slaughter and destruction – from the bombing of Israeli cafés to the bulldozing of Palestinian homes. 

"Why does one decide to stick it out in a country when terror strikes so frequently?" continues Shuman in a 1997 essay on his family website. "I guess we always live with hope – that things will change, get better. Friends have asked me if my children feel fear over what is going on. At the time of the bus bombings [in 1995], Merav was quite hysterical with fear. . . .We knew that the fear was eating at her inside. Yet, even though we talked with her repeatedly, only the many months of relative quiet afterwards finally eased her fears.

"Israelis, unfortunately, have had to get used to all this living with terror. One of the things reported on the news after the restaurant bombings just a short while ago – nobody panicked. Everyone knew what to do, the rescue crews arrived promptly, the police did their checks, etc. The television channels went on with their regular programming instead of cancelling shows. Except for expanded news coverage, the different channels announced that they would not let terrorism dictate the evening’s television schedule." 

The human spirit is strong in Israel. People continue to work, play, and lead routine, if extremely security-conscious, lives.

This same spirit is shared by the frustrated Palestinian people, many of whom live in refugee camps or settlements in Israeli-occupied land where they are denied the right to build decent homes. 

As a young boy, Salim Shawamreh and his family were displaced from East Jerusalem by the Six Day War of 1967 to the nearby Shu’fat refugee camp. As an adult with a family of his own, Shawamreh dreamed of building another home in Anata, a suburb of East Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In 1994, after four years of repeated planning permit refusals (which Israeli and international human rights groups denounce as a discriminatory policy designed to curb Palestinian development), the Palestinian engineer gave up and built his home without a permit.

The family lived peacefully in their new home for four years, until July 9, 1998 when over 200 soldiers from the Israeli Defence Force surrounded it and gave the Shawamrehs 15 minutes to remove all their belongings. "It took eight hours to demolish the house," Amnesty International reports.

Shawamreh immediately decided to rebuild on the same plot. "They rapidly built a frame house and held a party, dancing in celebration, on 2 August 1998. At 4 am the next day they opened their eyes to the sight, once again, of a hillside swarming with soldiers. The soldiers pulled down their tent, destroyed their water tank, ripped out the electric cables and pulled out the fruit trees they had planted on the hillside," reports Amnesty International. Again, the house was bulldozed, as some 7000 other "illegal" Palestinian houses have been since 1967.

But Shawamreh was not to give up. He defied the demolition by building a third, and subsequently a fourth time with the help of Palestinian NGOs and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD), a human rights group coordinated by an American-born Israeli Jew and professor at Ben Gurion University named Jeff Halper. Now an active partner with Halper in ICAHD’s drive to end Palestinian home demolitions, Shawamreh's "Peace House," as it has come to be known, offers hope to the many thousands who have suffered – or face – a similar fate. 

Recently Shawamreh was asked what he would do if his home were destroyed again. "I have nowhere else to go," he replied. "I will rebuild it a hundred times." 

Whatever may be achieved by the current war on terrorism, violence in all its forms will surely metastasize until all sides in every conflict around the world learn to relinquish their full arsenal of ambitions and accept that concessions and mutual tolerance are the only promising route to peace and security. 

We can draw some inspiration from groups like ICAHD. "House rebuildings," the organization writes, "have proven effective vehicles of peace-making, bringing together hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians for construction week after week. . . . We are currently helping to build a kindergarten in the Jenin refugee camp. This is the stuff of reconciliation between our peoples."

Sebastian Jay is a freelance writer and researcher based in the UK.

A key to coping with the threat of terrorism (or any other stress) is knowing your personality type and how you can control the traits that make you respond the way you do.

The Choleric Type. You're the dominant, determined, goal-driven type. Nothing stands in your way – not even the fear or hesitation of your family. Stop! You may not be spooked by Osama, but maybe they are. Let them vent their feelings and you’ll avoid family tensions that would otherwise cramp your full-speed-ahead style.

The Sanguine Type. Enthusiastic, bubbly, happy-go-lucky, you wonder why so many people look stressed or depressed. It’s time for sensitivity training. Stop whistling while you work and start listening to the fears, hopes, and dreams of your less sanguine neighbours. They’ll thank you for it.

The Melancholic Type. If your tendency to brood has you feeling depressed or obsessed by the world's new insecurity, talk to someone. Now. It will be a weight off your shoulders, even in these troubled times.

The Phlegmatic Type. Laid back and peace-loving, you’re liable to be stressed out by the world's current state of flux and insecurity. Understand that everyone is in the same boat. Start accepting change as the one constant in your life. Ride it, take a few risks, and don’t dwell on the worst case scenarios.