While many Dartmouth students followed the Israel-Lebanon conflict through the media alone, a number of Dartmouth students witnessed first-hand life in the crossfire.
Andrew Kaminski '09 planned to spend the summer studying Hebrew on an exchange program at Haifa University, but several days after the conflict started the program was moved to Jerusalem. Of the 250 students who started the exchange trip in northern Israel only 100 decided to stay in the program when it moved south.
"For the first few days it was hard emotionally. The Americans were freaking out, but the Israelis were used to it," Kaminski said. "I could see firsthand what it was like to live under the constant threat of terrorism."
Kaminski recalls hearing air raid sirens on the way to class at one point during his stay in Haifa. He and others had to remain in a bomb shelter for eight hours until they decided to leave because of boredom.
"I'm from New York. I was there on Sept. 11," Kaminski said. "I wasn't scared then -- I was scared in Israel."
Sandra Beutler '07 participated in a two-week program to Tel-Aviv, Israel as a fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, which is a nonpartisan policy institute that aims to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism.
Beutler was one of 36 undergraduates chosen nationally from 200 to participate in the program, which included intensive classroom training and a series of speakers including high government officials, military officers and private citizens.
While Beutler's parents did not support her choice to leave for Israel this summer and she said she was sometimes concerned for her own safety, the trip was "unequivocally worth whatever risk" she might face.
Witnessing the affects of terrorism firsthand at the height of the Hezbollah crisis taught Beutler a lot about the balance between protecting civil liberties and fighting terrorism, she said.
After learning of the cease-fire and hearing positive reports from intelligence, Beutler decided to extend her stay for an extra week in order to travel further north with another fellow in the program and guards. She spent this extra time speaking with people of Palestinian decent living in the area.
"It is more difficult to think of an us versus them dynamic when you go and you see and you talk to these people yourself," Beutler said.
Beutler has been a research assistant of professor Allan Stam since her sophomore year. Stam, who recommended the fellowship to Beutler, participated in a faculty version of the program last June.
"My hope is that the students come away with a better appreciation for the world," Stam said. "What we are presented with in the news media in the United States, it is just the tip of the iceberg."
Lilian Mehrel '09, who also attended Haifa University to study Hebrew this summer, left the program early due to her parents' concern for her safety.
"The whole situation happened so fast and so quickly that I really had no time to think out the situation," Mehrel said. "You are under this sense of urgency."
Israelis live in a world of warped normalcy that allowed them to continue with their day to day life during the conflict, she said.
"Their life is there, they just can't pick up and leave," Mehrel said. "I felt almost embarrassed that I left."
Mehrel also noted that the news media covering the crisis did not show all the details.
"Actually experiencing it and watching what my friends and family saw were two different worlds," Mehrel said.
Edward Kim '09 spent part of his summer living on the other side of the border, studying Arabic in Lebanon. Rather than attending the Morocco Language Study Abroad program, he chose to study at the Summer Institute for Intensive Arabic Language and Culture.
While in Lebanon, Kim stayed in Beirut approximately 30 miles from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, which eventually became an Israeli military target. Although he initially worried he would not be able to return home when the conflict began, Kim was able to leave Lebanon two days after it started.
In the final two days of his stay, Kim and other students stopped going to class and made attempts to contact their families and United States authorities, Kim said.
"The Lebanese people said not to worry about it because this kind of stuff happened all the time," he said. "Yet, it escalated very quickly."
