Violence and escalation in Palestine/Israel
I had so many things I wanted to blog about today. Mainly, a big piece I've been kinda planning for a few days now, connecting some dots on matters Israeli-Palestinian.
Like, looking at what it does to the thinking of Palestinians when they see that Lebanon's Hizbollah can get around 400 Palestinian detainee/hostages released from Israel's lockups by playing hardball with their own Israeli hostage (and the mortal remains of three other Israelis)-- while on the other hand, Yasser Arafat, who has continued to support a negotiated settlement for many years now gets what from the Israelis?
Precisely nothing except continued humiliation, derision, and the destruction of the last vestiges of his PA infrastructure.
(I was going to bring in all these excellent links on this last score... )
So what message does that send to the average, very hard suffering Palestinian??
Then, I was going to point out that until around Thursday last week there had been a period of relative "calm" (continued Israeli construction of the Apartheid Wall, continued demolitin of Palestinian homes, continued lockdowns of whole Palestinian areas, etc., etc., excepted.) And then the Israeli forces in the middle of Gaza decided to take their tanks thru downtown Gaza City and kill themselves some Palestinians there. (Eight, including at least one minor.)
How long did it take before an outraged Palestinian enacted his own brutal form of violence?? He killed ten, by blowing himself up on a bus in Jerusalem. Took him a little less than 24 hours after the Israelis' Gaza raid, far as I recall.
... Well, I was going to do a great big-picture piece there, laden with links. But you probably get the general picture: the sheer senselessness of all this violence! Israel, which has a government, an army, and many friends internationally, is certainly in a position to step off this gruesome merry-go-round of violence and start calmly and sensibly exploring alternatives to force, escalation, and violence. May it happen soon.
I sincerely believe that many Israelis and many Palestinians would be just delighted to find a better, nonviolent way to order their relationships in the land in which they both live. The Palestinians, however, have a shattered leadership and a shattered national infrastructure. It's hard to see how, even if a large majority of Palestinians wanted to end the violence, they could find the means to do so right now. (Though I wish they'd try.)
Israel's people, however, have functioning newspapers and a (herrenvolk) democratic system through which they can make their wishes known. Why do they stick with these losing policies of this huge loser of a priome minister? What has he brought to them?
Anyway, I'm not going to be able to write the piece I wanted to on all that. I am really tired; been working very hard recently. And tomorrow I get to go on a fun trip with Bill (the spouse). Four days in Upper Egypt with him--sunshine! can't wait! Then, I have a pretty exciting assignment right after that which will also keep me away from home.
If things go well, I'll blog about it. Hey, if they don't go well, I'll blog about it, too...
(And maybe I'll be able to write up a couple of good posts from poolside in the hotel in Luxor, whaddya think? Or will it mean risking spilling the sunscreen lotion onto the keyboard?? Tough life, eh?)