This is John Bachelor. Peter Berkowitz, the Hoover Institution, has just returned from 10 days in Israel,

and I asked him what the mood was like on the street and in the cafes and restaurants talking to Israelis who have been through the trauma of these last weeks since the

October 7th attack. Peter reports very carefully there is a sense of

tragedy, there is a sense of hesitation but at the same time life goes on as the

casualty rates come in from Gaza, as the threat from the north from

his belong grows, as other bad news comes from the Red Sea and across the Middle East. Here's Peter Berkowitz. There's

more of this later tonight.

Absolutely. If you haven't spent much time in Israel, you'll notice there's still people out on the streets and on Shabbat on Saturday in Tel Aviv, young people are congregating.

But yes, a... young people are congregating.

But yes, a sadness hangs over all of Israel.

Remember, it's a tiny country, a little more than 9 million people.

Since October 7th, almost every morning on the top of the newspapers above the fold.

Their smiling faces of handsome young as malely men and beautiful young Israeli women who first they were killed during October 7th itself.

Now soldiers are falling every day as they fight against the Hamas jihadist

in the Gaza Strip.

And because the country is so small and because the army is a people's army.

Most people serve in the army.

Every family has a father or a son or a husband in the army.

The losses reverberate immediately throughout the society.

And I must add that Israelis understand that at any moment other fronts in this war could open up. There could be a

uprising of Hamas in Judean Samaria, the West Bank. He's Balak could decide to

launch an attack from from southern Lebanon and there's the Syria front and the Iraq front and the

...