Saturday, January 03, 2009
Israel/Palestine
Sandy Tolan has written a book, "The Lemon Tree," which beautifully describes Israel/Palestine and the history that has led to the situation we find there today. The lemon tree was planted in the back yard of a house built by an Arab family. When the area became Israel, the family was evicted, and later, a Jewish family occupies the house. The lemon tree represents the deep connections that develop between the two families and in doing so, illustrates the very different beliefs about whose land it really is. Read this book. It won't give you answers, but it does show how people can be on opposite sides of this conflict. It shows better than any book I have read the pain caused by war and misunderstanding. Retaliation leads to retaliation leads to retaliation. Violence leads to more violence which leads to more violence. Is there a way out....? Today as Palestinian rockets fall on Israel and Israeli planes bomb Gaza, tanks and ground forces from Israel move into Gaza, and the story continues. Is there a way out....?
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It is hard to see a satisfactory way out until both sides are willing to negotiate. At his stage Hamas has forced itself on to the Palastinians, to represent the Gaza Srip, and they their statagy seems to be to cause the Isralies to kill as many civilians as possible.
A likely solution will be the complete destruction of Hamas with many many death of innocent civilians -- so many that it will be considered genocide.
I agree that there is much to be said for both sides of the quarrel, but until both sides are willing to settle for less than complete victory, it seems to me, there is no solution.
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