Alliance and defiance

Israel | Creating a coalition with an enemy within your borders is a tall order for incoming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert | Jill Nelson

During the three or four months each year they live in Israel, Eddy and Dmumit Hose visit lifelong friends and enjoy the rich history of their native country. But Mrs. Hose avoids the road to Tiberius if she can (there have been several "incidents" there), and she always enters the shopping mall near her home in Netanya from the back entrance—all three terrorist attacks on the mall took place near the front.

Mr. Hose, 76, smiles at his wife's re-routing tactics, but acknowledges that he, too, views his surroundings through the grid of terrorist attacks. He was at the Netanya shopping mall just hours prior to the 2005 bombing: "Every time I pass through that intersection, I've been aware that it was the third attack there. You're aware of it every time you go to a shopping center or theater." The April 17 suicide bombing in his home town of Tel Aviv is another reminder of the precarious position the tiny nation has been in since its birth—one Mr. Hose fought for—on May 14, 1948. In 2006, the battle over this small plot of real estate hasn't changed much.