The morning after the national elections in 1996, outside my window, a group of ultra-orthodox Jews were in high spirits as they calculated the amazing rise of the nationalist right and the religious parties in the Israeli Parliament. The night before I had gone to sleep believing that the peace process, led by Shimon Peres, would continue for the next four years. A drawing by my 8 year-old son depicted a house-like structure, roughly outlined, afloat in a void that resembled a sandstorm, a house detached and out of control. In this way he communicated his insecurity after my separation from his mother. It was a difficult time. I faced the task of rebuilding my own personal home during a dramatic and violent five year period (1993-1998) that included peace treaties, suicide bombings, the assassination of a prime minister, the disintegration of Israeli society into opposing ideological blocks and the ensuing dramatic events that undermined the feasibility of “A New Middle East”.