As international attention once again focused on Israel, TIME Jerusalem Bureau Chief David Aikman was reminded of some advice that the Israelis often pass on to arriving foreign journalists: "Anything can happen." After reporting this week's cover story, Aikman is convinced. Says he: "In January the local gurus were predicting that the annual inflation rate would reach 200% and the Labor Party would maintain its lead until the June elections. Within a few months, all of the safest predictions were sourly mocked by events themselves." Aikman also marvels at the business-as-usual attitude of the Israelis, despite a growing list of problems. Says he: "Children play in the street, lovers stroll in the park, and concerts have the customary intensity of performance and appreciation. Whatever their country's ills, Israelis never fail to surprise outsiders with their capacity to live with uncertainty."

Assisting Aikman was TIME'S Robert Slater, who interviewed former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan. Slater found that the fortunes of Israeli leaders are as unpredictable as the country. Says he: "Israeli politics is like the proverbial seesaw: it goes up one month and descends the next." Correspondent Marlin Levin, who has covered Israel off and on since 1948, spoke with a cross section of citizens -- from mothers to officeworkers to university professors -- to assess the national mood. "When I first came here as a correspondent for the United Press, life went on under continual shelling and sniping as Israelis and Jordanians fought over the city," says Levin. "Never has the country been so militarily powerful, and its people so economically well off. Still, the future is unsure."

Associate Editor Mayo Mohs, who wrote this week's story, is well versed on the subject of Jews and Israel. As TIME'S religion writer from 1969 to 1975, he wrote a number of stories on the clashes among Israel's various ethnic and religious factions; he also wrote last year's cover story on terrorism in the Middle East. "Despite the threat of wars and the reality of inflation many Jews consider it their duty to go to live in Israel," says Mohs. "The importance of Israel to the identity of all Jews is one thing that will probably never change."

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