The most evil

[rgraham666]

The day I heard about the wall, a scene flashed through my mind.

That of an Israeli general writing out a report that contains the phrase, "The Gaza Ghetto is no more".

What you resist, you become.

(Wanders of with Shirley Bassey singing "It's all just history repeating" echoing in my brain.")

 

[patrick1]

I'm not usually an optimist but I refuse to be despondent about Palestine (a word the Israelis don't like you to use) and Israel. The Clinton era peace efforts, worthy as they were, tried to work in small incremental steps without an agreed overall aim. I think the next effort will need to involve neighbouring Arab governments, and have the outline of an eventual objective.

Conflicts can seem endless and hopeless, as the situation in the north of ireland / Northern Ireland once did. That peace process is still going forward in millimetres rather than leaps and bounds, but it is still going forward. People who said they would never sit down in government with each other are awfully close to sitting down in government with each other. Tides turn.

Sheesh, I don't know what's come over me.

Otherwise, I echo Perdita's remarks about Box. I gave up on him when he told me he wasn't a moralist, having opened the whole thread by moralising.

patrick

 

[Guest]

Sheesh, I don't know what's come over me.

Kind of scary.

Perdita

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not usually an optimist but I refuse to be despondent about Palestine (a word the Israelis don't like you to use) and Israel...

patrick

That is why I refer to 'The Palestinians'. There is no such place as Palestine, not any more. Israel was made out of Palestine. To refer to Palestine in the present tense is to imply that Israel has no right to exist and places you firmly on the side against Israel. I regret the misinformation, the propaganda, the lies that are told about both sides but I am neither for one or for the other. I just wish that peace was more attainable.

Neither side can go back to an ideal past when the other didn't exist. Eventually they have to co-exist in a small country with limited natural resources and in peace with their neighbours.

How that can be achieved I don't know. All I do know is that many people have tried hard and continue to try to reach the goal of peaceful co-existence. The 'hardliners' on both sides do not want peace - they want an impossible victory. Such a victory could only come if one side or the other was exterminated.

I wish we could go back to the heady days of the Camp David agreement when peace seemed possible. So many opportunities have been lost, so many moves towards peace have been abortive - because the killing doesn't stop. I don't want to count the numbers of dead on each side and say there is a balance. Every death in this conflict diminishes me, the world, and the peace process.

Og