Gaza


  • Waltz with Bashir

    Here is a must read from an Israeli patriot who was devastated by the movie and his own depression over leadership and the endless cycle of war and revenge. Please read and react.  I have been devastated and cleansed by the movie for a week. While much of Burston’s analysis is powerful and convincing I do not think that ‘we live in post-moral world’. Israelis, and Palestinians, are indeed caught in a web of terrible leadership, with choices between corruption on the one side, and uncorrupted, clear unadulterated violence–and suicide–on the other. But this is not a post-moral world. It seems that way to those inside this insanity, but to those outside morality is alive and well, and the answers are not as complicated as leadership on all sides has made them out to be: Respect your enemy, never surround an enemy on all sides with no way out, be …

  • HAMAS IS SIGNALLING THAT IT IS READY TO LIVE ALONGSIDE ISRAEL

    Hamas has signalled in public and in private for quite a while that they are ready for a long term armistice with Israel, but it appears that this information is being ignored. Recent comments, reported by the conservative Jerusalem Post, are the most explicit yet.

    Three Hamas leaders interviewed by AP said they would accept statehood in just the West Bank and Gaza and would give up their “resistance” against Israel if that were achieved.Three Hamas leaders interviewed by AP said they would accept statehood in just the West Bank and Gaza and would give up their “resistance” against Israel if that were achieved.

    “We accept a state in the ’67 borders,” said Hamad. “We are not talking about the destruction of Israel.”

    This is not about whether Hamas is a good organization. In fact, they are they enemy for Israel, but if they are willing to negotiate, or …

  • “There’s too much to admit here,”: Yelling at Bereaved Parents in an Israeli Hospital

    Veteran journalist Orly Halpern writing an excellent piece in the Globe and Mail, deepens the story on the Gazan peacemaker/doctor whose three daughters were killed. The shocking reactions of some Israelis to his agony is an important clue to understanding the deterioration of the political/psychological atmosphere in Israel, and why the country, and its dwindling supporters, may be headed for a clash with the rest of the world.

    “I prefer to believe the Israeli army, that a sniper shot from his house, and not [to believe] the doctor,” one Israeli posted on an Israeli news website.

    “Is there such a thing as an Arab who is not Hamas?” asked another.

    “How can anyone not believe this man?” a third wondered.

    Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish grieves at a Tel Aviv hospital this month. The doctor, whose Gaza home was shelled, worked in Israeli hospitals for more than 20 years.

    Ezzeldeen Abu

  • A PLEA TO ISRAELIS BY AN ADMIRER FROM THE FAR EAST

    THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER BY MUTSUKO SUGITA, WHO RECENTLY SPENT A MONTH DOING PEACE WORK WITH ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS. HERE IS HER RESPONSE TO MY PREVIOUS POST ABOUT THE GAZAN PEACE DOCTOR. What is important about the letter is that it comes from a place of admiration and solidarity but at the same time a willingness to honestly share the world’s disappointment with Israel, as well as possible lessons from Japan’s experience. Here it is:

    I also felt strong shock when I watched Doctor’s story on the CNN last week. It is a living hell.
    “I wanted every Palestinian treated in Israel to go back and say how well the Israelis treated them,” he said. “That is the message I wanted to spread all the time. And this is what I get in return?” “Why did they do this?” I don’t know. I really don’t have an answer …

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