War, Strife, Bloodshed - again.

I am not set to give daily updates on a rapidly evolving situation in Israel/Palestine and particularly in Gaza. Others are doing this and doing this better than I would.

Just to say, being States-side these days, I don't even try to get information from television, and it's obvious newspapers have to coat everything with what passes for "balance" these days, which usually means Israel's actions have to be presented as rational and in response to a casus belli caused by others (Hamas, Palestinians, Arabs, terrorists). Forget that Israel is the party which broke the truce in Gaza.

So, if you want actual information on what is happening, I suggest you follow some of the links (bottom right) on this page, for example:
- The Palestine News Network, for up-to-date daily information (you can receive email updates if you so desire);
- Gush Shalom;
- B'Tselem;
- Miftah;
- Even the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which has an English edition, will give you pro-Israeli information a lot more honest than its US counterparts.

Israeli leaders are no more able to think of a path to life, than Jihadist can imagine pro-life strategies. But both Hamas and the Israeli government can be brought to the negotiation table.
Sadly, today the US Big Brother of the Land has no ability understanding why it must talk to people like Hamas. You can talk people out of fundamentalism and radicalism with changes in their environment; you cannot isolate, shun, bomb, kill and destroy radicalism out of the heart of men, and ask them to surrender their weapons while they are being shot at. Won't happen.

At a time of transition in US politics, it's tempting to put some hope into the new leadership -- given the abysmal failure and abject war incitment the departing administration has bred from day one (this is me being fair and balanced)-- but given the choice of advisors of President-elect Obama, my optimism is extremely, extremely cautious.

Change may have to come from people, citizens, groups who choose to care, become informed, and work with other groups who don't look, speak or sound the same as them, but who are equally sick of a dead-end vision of unending strife.

A free Palestine is the only hope for Israel. (See previous post on this topic.)

War lives in the heart of people.
Peace also comes from the same place. It's just a matter of which inspiration we draw from.
Whatever your faith, pray we let it grow and force action for peace from our governments and political groups, from Khan-Yunis to Al Quds to Yerushalaim to DC.

Elrig