This past summer, students Matt Lenkowsky and Michael Cohen traveled to the Middle East, with plans to supplement their degree work. Then war broke out.

In late June, Matthew Lenkowsky, a current M.P.A. and M.A. (I.R.) student from Indiana, was in Lebanon, starting a six-week intensive Arabic language course at the American University of Beirut. Thinking that Lebanon was a relatively safe place to be, Lenkowsky looked forward to his studies and immersion in the culture.

At the same time, Michael Cohen was among eight students in Israel as part of a first-time student exchange program between Maxwell and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, funded by Advisory Board member Gerald Cramer.

Then, on July 12, violence broke out between Israel and the Islamic sect Hezbollah. Bombs and mortars were dropping on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. The conflict gave both Lenkowsky and Cohen (and seven other Maxwell students at Herzliya) more exposure to Middle East issues than they could have imagined.

"I went to the Middle East to get an education in counterterrorism," Cohen says, "and I certainly got more than that."

The American University of Beirut canceled courses soon after the bombing began, two weeks into the program. Lenkowsky and his fellow students followed the situation via the Internet in the early days of the conflict. They heard that the Israeli army had moved into southern Lebanon. "We thought the program might be delayed. Nobody thought the fighting would last past the weekend," Lenkowsky says. "Then the Israeli navy showed up and we realized we would be going home."

He and his fellow American students remained at the university for the next few days, awaiting evacuation instructions from the U.S. Embassy. Initially, when bombing was mainly limited to southern Lebanon, the reaction of local residents was subdued. As the bombing escalated and drew closer, Lenkowsky observed a "classic rally-to-the-flag effect."

"My impression is that, while people aren't thrilled with Hezbollah's actions, they are angrier that Israel is taking it out on all of Lebanon, attacking infrastructure such as bridges and (reportedly) power plants, even around Beirut," Lenkowsky wrote in an e-mail to friends.

Nearly a week after the conflict broke out, Lenkowsky evacuated from Lebanon aboard a Norwegian cargo ship. (The U.S. Embassy deemed a bus convoy into Syria too risky.) He and about 1,200 evacuees endured an arduous 150-mile trip to Cyprus. He is now back at Maxwell, working part-time for the National Security Studies program and completing a master's degree.

At Herzliya, most of the Maxwell group evacuated immediately. But Cohen, who holds Israeli and American citizenship, stayed on and traveled to the port city of Haifa, where members of his family live. He recalls sirens sounding and people fleeing to bomb shelters. "At the height of the bombing, the rockets were falling in sets of 10 to 15. A smaller one landed on our street, a few houses up the road, and the ball bearings just tore up everything; even the street was pockmarked," says Cohen.

At one point Cohen traveled north of Haifa to visit his cousins, about 14 miles from the border. "All day and night you could hear Israeli artillery, and during the day you could hear the constant sirens in the Israeli towns and subsequently the rockets falling as well. On one occasion my cousin and I were out looking at property he is building his house on when we heard an incoming whizzing/shrieking sound. We ran for cover and the rocket landed about 100 feet from us. About two minutes later, another one buzzed over our heads and hit down in the valley."

Cohen left Israel a few days after the fighting ended and, with his M.P.A. complete in June, went to work as an analyst in the office of the Onondaga County Executive.

He says that the conflict is eerily similar to the 1982 conflict, and in many ways much sadder. "It's as if the Israelis learned nothing from their previous war and occupation. There is no trust or accountability at any level," he says. Of conflict and bloodshed tearing apart the Holy Land, he says, "I can understand why people are so passionate about these places. . . . The traditions are so palpable."

In Lebanon, Lenkowsky says, "The war in many ways reinforced the views that many people already held—that Israel is an aggressive, militant state that doesn't care about civilians that die as a result of their actions, and that the U.S. will blindly support Israel. The only real change was the increased popularity of Hezbollah in the wake of the war."

                                                                                     —Kelly Homan Rodoski