VirusHead

The slaughter going on in Gaza saddens me greatly. I count myself a Zionist because I affirm the right of the Jews to have a homeland in Palestine/Israel. I understand the frustration of the Israeli people and government at the peril they continually face from the hate-fueled attacks on them. But their current military response to recent rocket attacks is obviously fueled by anger and at least bordering on the obscene in it’s disproportion.

I want to jump in between the factions like Maria in West Side Story and beg them to look at what they’ve done. At the same time, I think everyone involved must know what they’ve done, while the U.S. and nearly everyone else looks on at this late date with a dumb sense of hopelessness.

The fighting between Israel and its neighbors began between two brothers, the sons of Abraham, and will never stop as far as I can see. There have been and will be lulls. When the Jews moved to other parts of the world the hatred followed them, and so they must maintain one place they can call their own and attempt to live in safety. Maybe Israel’s military believes that “getting it over with” instead of constantly defending here and there and there will buy them a time of peace. I don’t think it can.

There is no solution but prayer and love. Is there enough of those to go around?

Diane L. Harris´s last blog post – Spiritual Weapon: Praises of God

The situation in Gaza is horrific & heart-breaking! I’m not fond of Hamas, however they were elected in a democratic fashion back in 2006. The 5 month cease fire was holding until November 6th when Israel bombed a tunnel leading into Egypt and killed 6 men. Now they say that it was to prevent munitions from being smuggled into Gaza, but no proof was offered, specially since Gaza was under an Israeli blockade at the time. Food, fuel, medicine and even school supplies were periodically blockaded throughout the ceasefire and before. I definitely feel that Israel is divided on this issue, since I receive news from an Israeli Peace organization.

The times look very dark right now for the impoverished peoples of the world, specially Gaza. There are simply too many crises to keep track of and all of them are heart-breaking. I truly wish that the world and its leaders could drop the blaming game and focus on healing the terribly affected people of the world.
Its not so much a matter of accountability but of understanding and working toward reconciliation!

I’ve been trying to make sense of my own reaction to the situation as well. I’m on a mailing list of group psychotherapists, including quite a few from Israel. There are some heated discussions there.

One of the best comments I read was from a therapist that does a lot of couples therapy. “When you speak of sides remember that there is only one side. That side is the whole population. The people may be mislead, duped, manipulated, but the ultimate goal has to be their welfare, health and survival.”

I hope to put up a longer blog post about this later.

aldon @ orient-lodge´s last blog post – Bring Back Colin McEnroe

I feel very sorry for the innocent Palestinians that live and work in Gaza. To have your power, water, and even road system torn apart by war is terrible. Many of the people living there are just trying to work and feed their families.
But at the same time, I feel sorry for the Israelis who have to live in constant fear that today might be the day that a random rocket hits their home and kills their loved ones. Or that that bus of restaurant that they are entering might contain a suicide bomber with the sole purpose of killing as many innocent people as possible.
It’s not an easy situation for either side and I don’t know for sure what I would do if I were in a position of leadership.

On the Palestinian side I would hope that I could set aside the bad treatment of the past and work towards peace. And I would hope that I would condemn the indiscriminate rocket attacks and the suicide bombings against civilian targets. That I would vote against leaders who spout hate and call for attacks against civilians. But it is more likely that I would be caught up in the anger over what seems to be a hopeless situation. And that I would see the rocket attacks as the only possible response to what is in effect an occupation force.

On the Israeli side, I would hope that I could push for a peaceful coexistence and a shared government. Because to be honest, regardless of the right or wrong of it, neither side is going anywhere. So both sides are going to have to learn to live with each other. But it is more likely that the desire for the safety of my family, friends and neighbors would trump my ideals of coexistence. And I would probably demand that the military protect us from the bombings and the rockets. Because when it comes down to it, it is more important to me that my family can sleep in their beds at night safely than that someone else is safe. And I think that most people(if they are being honest with themselves) would fall into this category. It doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong when it comes to the safety of my family.

So as I said, it’s a bad situation all around and it’s hard to do the right thing. Thankfully, with the exception of a few isolated attacks, those of us living in the US don’t have to worry about bombs on buses, rockets falling out of the sky, or fighter jets shooting missiles at our infrastructure. So it’s a lot easier to point out what is wrong on both sides from here.

It is time for us to stop arming Israel, and become a truly neutral player in the region. I firmly believe that if Israel didn’t feel that it has a permanent “get out of jail free” card, it would be trying harder to find ways to accommodate and live with its neighbors. They may have nukes, but realistically they can’t use them without smoking a great many of their own people. The stuff they’re using right now, they get from us, and it is just too easy to use it.

JollyRoger´s last blog post – Now THIS Is GOOD News

This is what I think. And here is an opinion from Zaki, and one from Shrinkwrapped.

Scooper´s last blog post – Gaza and Proportion

Thomas Friedman in his book From Beirut to Jerusalem noted that Israel wants 3 things, but can only have 2 of them at time:
1) Jewish State
2) Democracy
3) Biblical borders of Isreal (ie, the West Bank)

It has become politically incorrect to say anything against the Israelis today. While Israelis have suffered a lot in the past, that doesnt give them the license to impose the same suffering on others today. And what is being done today isnt even going to address the problems being faced by Israelis today.

Thanks for playing nice. This is a tough topic for all sorts of reasons, and the U.S. (Bush, Rice) has not stepped up to the plate on it. You can’t help but notice how this offensive was timed. I am somewhat relieved that other nations are trying to negotiate some kind of agreement.