1st March
Bethlehem.
This morning I performed what seemed like a rite of passage into spring, by cleaning the balconies for the first time this year. This means that the weather is now sufficiently warm to sit out during the day, and this window of springtime warmth should have the most made of it, for by summer it will be too hot for this.
I also spent an hour or so looking through some of the message boards on various news websites to see what reactions there are to the current escalation in violence in Gaza. This is an activity that must be done when in a good mood, when able to laugh off the inevitable lunatic, racist, ill-informed nutters of the cyber-universe. In addition to the more extreme statements available for all to read, I found this post amusing, by Kent McNeil of Michigan in the USA.
Enough is enough! Can anyone thnk [sic.] of any other Country [sic.] in the world that would have put up with these kind of attacks each and every day against unarmed civilians? Attack and get it over with!
I have to say, initially I wondered which country it was that Kent was referring to but it soon became clear by the rest of his message that his concern lay with Israel. His question is an incredible one, coming after the killing of around 10 children (I say around, because the rate is still rising) in Palestine over the last four days. In fact, Israel has now killed more Palestinians in four days, than have ever been killed by rocket fire in Israel. So, Kent, the answer to your question is yes - I can indeed think of another country that has to put up with such conditions.
Yet it is not only the message-boarders who are coming up with extreme statements. The Israeli Deputy Defense Minister has now said that Israel may unleash a ‘holocaust’ against the people of Gaza. In the past, when someone has drawn comparisons between the modern-day treatment of Palestinians and the treatment of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, they have been furiously denounced as anti-Semitic. So, either the so-called New Anti-Semitism has reached new levels within Israeli political structures, or Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is now explicitly evil, according to none other than the Israeli Defence Ministry itself. Sometimes I think this is all too ridiculous to be true, however, the sad reality shows us otherwise.
