A letter from a Rabbi

The following is a letter send by a British rabbi to members of his congregation:

Tuesday 13 January, 2009
17 Tevet, 5769

Dear Community

I have never before written to the community twice in one week. But so many people, of many different opinions, all full of anguish over the present and hope for a better future, have spoken to me.

The terrible events unfolding in Israel and Gaza have immense significance for the hope of peace in the Middle East and also affect the future of Jewish Muslim relations, and relationships within wider society, in Europe and the world. I have a heavy and torn heart.

First of all, my prayers for safety and protection are with all our loved ones who may be in danger wherever they are, and with all those who are suffering.

My conscience tells me that I have a religious duty to assert and strive adequately for the value of life, all life, every life. I understand Jewish ethics to teach the inestimable value of every single life and that human rights know no boundaries of race or nation. I therefore beg everyone to pray, act and toil for peace and understanding, however absurd such a plea may at times seem.

I realise as I write that, unlike many members of the community and their children, I do not know what it is like to fight, or see my children fight, for my country. I do not at all know what it has been like to live in Sderot for years with constant danger, or indeed now Ashkelon and Beer Sheva. I do not know and cannot imagine what it must be like to be an ordinary person in Gaza for all these hopeless years, with children, in utter fear now, caught between Hamas and Israel, with the ceaseless sounds of gunfire and rockets.

I do not need to repeat in these circles our abhorrence for Hamas and their culture of terror and murder. I have seen the tears and heard the cry of many whose beloved children and relatives have been killed. There is an utter cynicism and culture of death within Hamas which is terrifying. They have killed huge numbers of their own population. That Israel could not tolerate thousands of rockets being fired with the deliberate intention of killing anyone and everyone, that is to my mind unarguable. If you have any doubt, look on Hamas’ website. Listen to Colin Shindler’s well informed lecture. The rockets must stop.

But I am also saddened and anguished, I know everyone is, at the awful suffering and loss of life in Gaza. This was said many times at the rally. We should have paid more attention to that suffering long ago. That Hamas criminally and cynically uses innocent people as a human shield does not, as we know, clear us of all moral responsibility for whatever happens. All innocent blood cries out to God and to the human conscience. We too have our responsibilities and cannot hide from them. That is why we must call out for the sake of life and peace. Rabbis for Human Rights, to which I belong, are striving courageously as an expression of the love of Israel to ensure that the wounded of all sides are evacuated and cared for and that we do not do more wrongs.

I attended the rally in Trafalgar Square, believing it essential to stand up as a Jew, to support the right of Israel to exist and its right to respond to Hamas, but horrified, pained and fearful about the terrible loss of life in this war. How much blood has been shed? How many people are wounded and terrified? How many people are dazed and grief stricken? What suffering on both sides, about which we have thought too little, lies behind all this? How much new hatred is now being born? How is good to come of this? How is this to be turned into peace? Every speaker stressed our pain for what is happening to the people both of southern Israel and also of Gaza. But we have to mean it, not just say it. That is why we must act, pray and plead that this violence must truly end for good.

Other issues emerge out of this war. We must not be intimated by such slogans as ‘We are all Hamas now’. Terrible things have been said to, and about, Jews and awful threats have been made. We must challenge them.

At the same time we have a responsibility to reach out across the widening gulf of fear, anger and pain, to friends and colleagues in the Muslim community. Where we can, we should talk together, mourn together, hope together. Otherwise we too will find ourselves unable to look each other in the face, without anything we can say or anyone we can say it to. This is urgent and it’s for us to do here, in London, in Britain now.

People have asked me where to go to read different analyses of what is happening in Israel and Gaza, other than the British media or official views for and against. The obvious answer is the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post online. Here, there are a huge range of trenchant and important views from the left to the right of the spectrum.

People have also asked me what we can do.

We should keep closely in touch with friends and relatives in Israel. Contact from us is really, really important. Where we have friends and colleagues in the Muslim community we should keep communication alive. We can share our pain over the loss of all life and our hopes for a better future for all.

We can give money to hospitals caring for the wounded, in Israel, Gaza and elsewhere and to organisations (I only know of them in Israel at this point and they include the Masorti Movement) which help take ordinary people, especially children, out of the range of the conflict.

We should pray, for our loved ones, for Israel, and Gaza, for the wounded and the grief stricken, and for a swift, enduring end to this fighting.

May peace come quickly.

Jonathan Wittenberg


I attach this plea by Daniel Barenboim:

"For the last forty years, history has proven that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be settled by force. Every effort, every possible means and resource of imagination and reflection, should now be brought into play to find a new way forward. A new initiative which allays fear, acknowledges injustice, and leads to the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike. An initiative which demands of all sides a common responsibility : to insure equal rights and dignity to both peoples, and ensures the right of each person to transcend the past and aspire to a future." Daniel Barenboim

Wednesday's letter from Gaza

Dear friend 14/1/2009

Due to the rejection by Hamas of the Egyptian initiative yesterday, I was expecting a hard night , but I was wrong and I gained a long night's sleep , until I woke up on a very big bombardment from an F16 at 5:00 early morning .
I thought that this was in our area only , but I discovered that movement of the Israeli army in all fronts where it exists , was slow and not violent as usual , although the Israeli radio said that last night there were 10 injured soldiers .

On the other side the number of Palestinian victims comes to about 976 most of them were children ( 30%) , women (10%), and innocent civilians (30-40%).
Israeli radio quoted that the one side ( Israeli) cease fire will start today at 13:00 local time for 3 hours . It seems that Israel is changing the timing of the one side cease fire every day to prove to the Palestinians in Gaza that they have the upper hand .

Yesterday conversations with the people whom I met , all wanted this war to have an end , and blaming the leaders of Hamas who are sitting watching in Damascus while the civilians are killed every day in Gaza.
While I am writing this message( at (08:30) ,there were several big bombardments , which we don’t know yet what had been shelled .
We hope that the visit of Ban Key Moon to the area will be fruitful , to end this bloody and dirty war .
Some friends said that may Hamas is waiting for the new resident of the White House in the USA , which means that we have to continue this war for another week ! Everybody in Gaza is suffering , and wants this war to have an end soon . I heard that Hamas proposed a one week cease fire , but this proposal was rejected by Israel . An Israeli official is quoted that the cease fire of 3 steps is almost ready and to be implemented early next week !!!

On the occasion of the visit of the chairman of the Red Cross International to Gaza yesterday , I'd like that some of you to contact the Red Cross International to assist in protecting our Palestinian Ambulances , as well as the Civil Defense vehicles which is considered as targets by the Israeli Air fighters . Several paramedics and Civil Defense officers have been killed during their work to give assistance to the others ( In many cases , the Israeli army forbids the ambulances to reach the injured persons for long time , which resulted to death due to bleeding !! ).

Also while writing this message , and listening to my small radio (adjacent to me for 24hrs a day ) , I heard the Israeli radio quoting the fall of 2 Katusha rockets on Kiryat Shmona at North Israel ( This is considered the 2nd fall since 8/1/2009).

Although it is not so important for me , but the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics estimated the total economic loss in this war until 12/1/2009 by US$ 1.4 billion ( I have my share in this loss !!!) .

Today's letter from Gaza

Dear friend ,

As quiet as was the Israeli Southern town ( Sederot ) last night, so was it a terribly violent night for Gaza City , especially the South West , and North West parts of the City !! It was so horrible , I believe that it was the most horrible and heaviest bombardment nights since 27/12/208 .

I am living in the South West part of the City , where the Israeli tanks which came from their positions in Netsarim junction through the fields for fear of using the main roads .Tanks and other arms started shelling the area since 23:00 last night until 6:00 O'clock this morning . No one could sleep , and many civilian and private buildings been shelled , including a high rise building .
Myself and my family were sitting in our beds looking to each other , before going to sleep for 2 hours (6:00-8:00).
Israeli army declared that the cease fire period will be from 9:00 -12:00 our local time ( It is the fourth time that they change the timing of such period ! Maybe to let people believe that they have the upper hand for what we call self curfew ) .
Yesterday the Israeli helicopters shelled the main Palestine square in Gaza city when the cease fire period terminated ,while most of the people went to buy some small necessities including food and other needs . The result was 2 civilian victims and 10 civilians injured .
The Israeli Army is squeezing the City of Gaza from North and south as a pliers , in addition to their bombardment in the East , while the warships are taking care of the Western part of the city .

Number of Palestinian victims comes to 919 , one third of them were children !!where injured persons count comes to about 4260 .

Until now Israeli army shelled about 2200 targets in the whole Gaza Strip .
I wonder whether the Israeli army knows that he went to this war to achieve peace , as said by the Israeli leaders !!So I wonder why the army is planting hatred among the Palestinians against the attacks he carried out against the civilians . The criticism that fighters are using the civilians as a shelter never give the Israeli army the right to target the civilians , knowing how accurate the Israeli army can be due to the very high sophisticated technology he is using in this one side war ( Big army against some thousands of fighters !! ) .

Yesterday Ismae'l Haneyyah from his bunker sent a message that he is in favor with any initiative that can stop this war and guarantee the withdrawal of the Israeli army , in addition to lift the closure and open the crossing borders . The word carries some optimism hope to be real .

People are moving from place to place for their safety , where I believe that every single square centimeter in Gaza is unsafe !!

Despite the one way ( Israeli) cease fire started 45 minutes ago , but there are still some bombardments from the Israeli army !!

I hope that things will change for better , as we already – in my point of view – reached the worst day and night in this war !!

YouTube wars

Just a few minutes ago I received the following email:

The IDF ("Israeli Defence Force", i.e. the Israeli Army) have set up broadcasts on U Tube explaining what's going on. U Tube wants to remove the IDF site, using the excuse that too few people are logging in to view it. Please visit the site and encourage all your friends to do so as soon as possible. Forward this email, so that many more people will log in and the IDF can continue to make its voice heard. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk 

This struck me as rather strange because, on looking at the YouTube page, I saw that it has a fabulous number of views, and also that it's one of the most popular YouTube sites at the moment. In fact the Ha'aretz newspaper has a story on its front page today about how popular the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) clips are on YouTube.

And then I thought about it...what another brilliant Zionist trick...sending out emails telling people that too few people are logging into the site so that even more people will look at it. War is a dirty business and the Israelis are certainly winning this Internet war.

Note that the IDF's page on YouTube talks about its "humane action" in Gaza...... remind me to call in the IDF the next time I want some humane action killing almost 300 children in the last 2 weeks.

Just Imagine....

Just in case this cartoon is unclear, it depicts, under the headline "Just Imagine..." a Hamas jet fighter bombing Tel Aviv as the Hamas fighter pilot speculates "Ha! This will make the Israelis turn against their government! "

Think about it, friends, especially my Israeli friends, think about it....

Today's letter from Gaza

My friend from Gaza writes today:

Last night can be considered quieter than the night that preceded it, especially in the South-Western side of Gaza City .... But this night was marked by heavy machine-gun fire from the helicopters, in addition to other arms such as tanks , Navy artilleries and F16 air fighters , which bombed several Buildings : One of them was the Resident of Mohammad Dahlan, which was confiscated by Hamas since the coup in June 2007.
As a result of this strike , the house of my cousin next to him was partially damaged ( member of Parliament from Fatah ), where his home was a safe haven for a large group of relatives who were representing 3 families in addition to his family!!

Another site which was struck by the F16 was a gas station which burst into flames and smoke still rising from it at the time of writing this letter.

Doctors in Gaza said that Israeli Army may be using Phosphorous missiles due to the burns they noticed on both dead and injured persons .

One can smell the war in every place in Gaza as a result of the excessive use of arms .
There was a continuous bombing raid on the smuggling tunnels in Rafah, in addition to the bombing on all fronts, especially the areas along the Gaza border with Israel (north, east and south) and by the Israeli navy war ships on the coast of Gaza.

The number of rockets fired from Hamas at Southern Israel yesterday, was 12 rockets and the day before it was 15 rockets , compared with about 50-80 rockets per day at the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip !!!

However, on the other hand , we find that the number of casualties on the Palestinian side is increasing, especially among civilians, were number of victims yesterday was , about 38, mostly civilians, while Israel claimed that the death toll yesterday was 50 , most of them were Hamas fighters!!!

In my view, although the Israeli government had announced the recruitment of the reserve for the start of Phase III, but I think that there is a political dynamic on the cease-fire because Israel is afraid of entering the cities where all of very high density, because this will cost Israel many victims ( leaders didn't want to lose many victims before the parliamentary elections in Israel on 10/2/2009) , in addition that such entering will take much time (several months and perhaps a year or more). So I think that the work of the Israeli operations now is to move these troops from their positions to clear ( raze ) the land around it with the assistance of aircraft of all kinds.

Today , the Hamas delegation will come to Cairo, consisting of 3 members from the Gaza Strip and a 2 member of the Damascus Hamas leaders to continue the discussions on a cease-fire . This led to make Amos Gilad to delay his visit to Cairo by one day (tomorrow) , as by tomorrow may be the Egyptians will have answers from Hamas ( The Egyptians looks optimistic ) .

The statement of President-elect Obama that the U.S. Would put the case for war on Gaza, on the top of his priorities when being the President of USA on 20/1/2009 , so may this convince the Israelis that this process should be terminated as soon as the required internationally.

Personally and due to the horror and psychological situation we live , my spastic colon started to operate since many days ago !!

As per all my messages to you , let's hope that such dirty war will come to an end soon , and before it will be too late !!!

An Open Letter to an Israeli Friend

An Open Letter to an Israeli Friend

by Samir El-youssef, a Palestinian living in Europe

Dear Friend

Yet again we find ourselves on opposite sides of a divide where people believe that their own action is totally justified while the reaction of the other side is sheer aggression. Yet again we find ourselves resorting to silence fearing that what we might say could be interpreted as a statement of disloyalty to either one’s own people or to one’s friends on the other side. And yet again we face the challenge of envisaging a language that could spare us both the shame of silence and the accusation of treason; a language that in spite of everything would up hold our hope for peaceful co-existence.

Indeed, the question, is it possible still to speak about peace- and I am not talking here about the meaningless ritual of ‘going back to the negotiation table’- when all this happening? For, let’s face it, what’s happening in Gaza is as ugly as hitting a disabled person. Yes, this disabled person could be a belligerent neighbour from hell; still, battering him is ugly and so is bombarding Gaza, precisely because it is Gaza, where daily life has for many decades been punishment enough without being the target of mass bombardment.

But then- let me ask the question on your behalf- what should Israel do? Wait until this disabled person (to go on with the analogy) possess weapons dangerous enough to kill hundreds or even thousands of Israeli civilians?  No- and here I switch back to speak on my behalf- but without the Israeli siege of Gaza there would have been no justification for rocket attacks in the first place. To which you are bound to respond: Gaza has been under siege because Hamas is an illegitimate power; and it is a fascist organisation of which the destruction of Israel is a major aim. And I could reply and you could reply back and so on, each sitting safely in the lap of his tribe, praising its wisdom and condemning the other’s. Thus, rather than defending the hope of peace, we could easily end justifying the war and the continuation of the state of war. So what is the alternative language and approach, if there’s any?

We have long agreed that to believe realistically in the possibility of peace in Palestine/Israel one must be able to sustain an enduring, hard, and possibly disparate hope; so disparate that sometimes it could only be seen in the most causal of statements and tinniest of signs. And that’s how it seems now; hope need to be dug from under the rubble.  First we need to ignore the shamelessly game-like visual coverage of the media; and let’s for a minute forget the fanatic ideology of Hamas and the cynic agenda of the Israeli Government (rather than protecting Israeli citizens from Hamas’ rockets, it has been widely claimed, that this military operation is a part of the Kadima Government’s election campaign to win voters by proving to them that it could be as tough as the right wing parties.) let’s ask: could we see anything positive or good behind all this?

The answer is yes, but only if we see it in terms of real politics, that’s if we see the actions of both parties not so much in terms of declared ideological or political goals but as an attempt to hold on to their political power. I believe that each Hamas and the Kadima Government of Israel wants the other to deal with it prudently; that’s to deal with each other’s existence without the dictates of ideology and rhetoric. Both Hamas and Israel want to remain sworn enemies, but only on the conveniently ideological and rhetorical level, while in reality each wants the other to allow it to operate within its own domain without hindrance.

Like any political power Hamas wants to enjoy being in control; war would only spoil their fun and that’s why they have been offering truce to Israel. But Israel and its allies, including the Palestinian Authority of Fatah, have been making it hard for Hamas. The Kadima Government of Israel, on the other hand, wishes to stay in power through fulfilling its promise of reaching peaceful solution through the disengagement plan. Judging by the recent, and daring, announcements of Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmret, the Kadima party believes that if Israel withdrew from all the occupied territories, its neighbours would probably leave it in peace. Lunching rockets from an area which Israel has evacuated, Hamas, therefore, doesn’t only endanger the lives of Israeli civilians but also damages Kadima’s ambition. To put it all simply, what both Hamas and Israel want is to have the kind of a long prudential arrangement that has always existed between Syria and Israel; they are sworn enemies but their common borders are the most peaceful borders between any two countries in the Middle East.

This exactly what Israel has accomplished on the Lebanese-Israeli borders since its war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. Contrary to wide spread belief, Israel didn't then fail completely. True, Israel didn't manage to destroy Hezbollah and nor to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers but Israel, albeit, indirectly, forced the leaders of Hezbollah to behave prudently. It's not surprising that for two years and a half, Hezbollah has respected the cease-fire, nor is it a mystery that Hezbollah in spite of its enflamed rhetorical support of Palestinians in Gaza has not taken the expected step of attacking Israel in order to lift some of the pressure off Hamas' fighters.

Hezbollah has not abandoned its fanatic destructive ideology, nor does it lack the military capability to attack and inflict great pain on Israel. It is now the strongest military power in Lebanon and probably the most influential political party (I personally believe that Hezbollah is the real government) and precisely because it is so powerful, and wants to remain so, it can not afford the risk getting into a new war with Israel. Hezbollah knows that attacking Israel wouldn't stop the Israelis from battering Hamas; at best it would only defy Israel’s sense of security and for which Lebanon will end paying dearly. But for Lebanon to suffer yet another massive destruction for no other purpose but to defy Israel is bound to be seen by Lebanese, including Hezbollah’s constituency, as irresponsible. The party of God can not afford to compromise its position among the Lebanese and therefore can’t be seen irresponsible. 

Similarly in Gaza now. Israel has learned its lesson from its war with Hezbollah and has no longer boasted about destroying Hamas. Still, it seems even the declared, and justifiable, aim of putting an end to Hamas’ rockets is not achievable. Israeli Government must know it, yet it continues, not out of stubbornness but because, I believe, it has another idea in mind, to show Hamas the price of the rockets, to tell them: “Every time you throw rockets that’s how much you’d have to pay back? Can you afford it? And is it worth it?” Hamas, on the other hand, will not stop not because they are under the illusion that they could militarily defeat Israel, and not particularly to show the Israelis that they have failed, but rather to remind them that the situation hasn’t changed; Gaza is still under siege and as long as Gaza under siege rockets firing will continue. The solution, which would come eventually through a cease-fire agreement, is to agree on a Syrian-Israeli like prudent arrangement; Israel and Hamas agree to remain enemies but without fighting; Israel lifts the siege off Gaza and Hamas stops rocketing Israeli cities; a truce for the foreseeable  future.

Prudence is not peace but it’s the best available chance to stop the killing of civilians and destruction and perhaps to save the wounded hope of peace from the rubble of Gaza, possibly for only a short time until the next round of bloodshed; but we must never give up!

Your Palestinian friend, faithfully.

The "Other Voice"

The "Other Voice"

A week ago I travelled down to the town of Sderot near the Gaza border with a group of activists from the Forum of Peace NGOs . Not something most people in Israel would do these days because Sderot is still (or rather once again) on the receiving end of improvised Qassam rockets fired from Gaza. We went to meet a local group called the "Other Voice" whco have the courage to challenge the accepted Israeli militaristic way of thinking and to empathize with the fate of Palestinian civilians in Gaza in spite of their own suffering.

We were hosted by a member of the group, Nomika Zion, who shared her feelings with much emotion. This is a translation of a piece she wrote on 8th Jan 2009

War Diary from Sderot

“I speak with the people of Sderot and the flush has returned to their cheeks” boasted Fuad [Ben Eliezer, Labour Knesset member and Israel’s current Minister of Infrastructure] to Razi Barkai [presenter of a popular news programme on Israel Army Radio] on the second day of the war. “The heavier the war is, so the heart opens”. But we are not all Fuad, not all of us. And I too am a lonely voice in the greater Sderot area, and I am not Fuad, and he should know about it.

Not in my name and not for me did you go into this war. The bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name nor for my security. Houses destroyed, schools blown up, thousands of new refugees – they are not in my name or for my security. In Gaza, there is no time for funerals; the dead are put in refrigerators two by two in the mortuary for lack of room. The bodies of policemen and children are laid out and the eager journalists jump between the tactics of pro -Israel advocacy and “the pictures that speak for themselves”. Tell me, what is there to explain? What is there to explain?

I did not buy myself security or peace and quiet in this war. After such an essential period of calm that enabled us (the residents of Sderot) to recover psychologically and to experience sanity again, our leaders have returned me to that same gashed and anxiety-filled place. To the same demeaning experience of running petrified to the protected space (Since the 1980’s Israeli building regulations require all new homes to have a room with thick concrete walls that will withstand bombs - called a "protected space").

Don’t misunderstand me. Hamas is a bad and terrible terror organisation. Not only for us. First and foremost for their citizens. But behind this accursed leadership live human beings. Laboriously, simple people on both sides build small bridges of human gestures. So did the “Other Voice” group from Sderot and the surrounding-Gaza region ( of which I am a member) when it sought to pave a human path to the hearts of its neighbours. While we took advantage of a 5-month lull, they suffered under the millstone of the siege. A young man told us that he does not intend to get married and have children, because in Gaza there is no future for children. In the brandishing of one fighter plane’s wings, these gestures plunge to the depths of blood and despair.

I am afraid of the Qassam rockets. Since the current war started I have hardly dared to go beyond the bounds of our street. But I am much more afraid of the inflammatory and monolithic public and media discourse that is impossible to penetrate. It scares me when a friend from the “Other Voice” is verbally attacked by other residents of Sderot while being interviewed and expressing a critical opinion about the war, and afterwards gets anonymous phone calls and is afraid to return to his car for fear that something will happen to him. It scares me that the other voice is such a small one and that it’s so hard to express it from here. I am prepared to pay the price of isolation but not the price of fear.

It frightens me to see my town lit up, as if for a festival and decked out with Israeli flags, groups of supporters distributing flowers in the street and people sounding their car horns in joy at every ton of bombs that’s falling on our neighbours. I am frightened by the citizen who admitted to me, with a beaming face, that he never attended a concert in his life but that the Israel Defence Forces bombs is the sweetest music to his ears. I am frightened by the haughty interviewer who doesn’t question his worlds by one iota.

I am frightened that, underneath the Orwellian smokescreen of words and the pictures of [Palestinian] children’s’ bodies that are especially blurred for us on TV as a public service, we are losing the human ability to see the other side, to feel, to be horrified, to show empathy. With the code word “Hamas” the media paints for us a picture of a huge and murky demon that has no face, no body, no voice, a million and a half people without a name.

A deep and gloomy current of violence seeps through the dark pores of Israeli society like a grave illness, and it gets worse from one war to the next. It has no smell and no shape but one feels it very clearly from here. It is a kind of euphoria, a joy of war, lust for revenge , drunkenness on power and burial of the Jewish command “Do not be joyful when your enemy falls”. It is a morality that has become so polluted that no laundry could remove the stains. It is a fragile democracy where you have to weigh every word with care, or else.

The first time I really felt that Israel was really defending me was when a ceasefire was agreed. I have no responsibility for Hamas, and therefore I ask our leaders, “ Did you leave no stone unturned in order to achieve a continuation of the period of calm? To prolong the ceasefire? To reach a longterm understanding? In order to solve the questions of the crossing points and the siege before all hell breaks loose. Did you go to the ends of the earth to find suitable mediators? And why did you wave away the French initiative for a ceasefire after the war already broke out, without batting an eyelid? And why do you continue to reject up to this moment every possible suggestion for negotiation? Have we not yet reached the quota of Qassam rockets that we are able to withstand? Have we not yet reached the quota of killed Palestinian children that the world is prepared to countenance?”

“And who guarantees us that it is even possible to destroy Hamas? Didn’t we try this maneuver somewhere else? And who will take the place of Hamas? Worldwide fundamentalist organisations? Al-Qaida? And how will there spring from the ruins and the hunger and the cold and the dead the moderate voices of peace? Where are you leading us to? What future do you promise us here in Sderot? And for how much longer will you hang on our shoulders the “backpack of lies” laden with all the worn-out clichés? “There is no partner”, “A war of no choice”, “Let the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) finish the ‘work’”, “One good blow and we’ll finish them off”, “Destroy the Hamas” and “Who doesn’t want peace?”. The lie of power and futility of even more power as the only guide to solving problems in the region.

And why is it that every instant interview with a representative of the “Other Voice” always starts and ends with the punchline question “Don’t you think you are naïve?” How does it happen that the option of dialogue and negotiation and the quest for agreements and understandings has turned into a simile for naiveté, and that the option of force and war is always the sensible rational ultimate alternative? Have not eight years of a pointless cycle of violence taught us anything about the naiveté of the use of force? The IDF mowed down and destroyed and shot and razed and hot and missed and bombarded – and what do we get in return? A rhetorical question.

It’s unbelievably difficult to live in Sderot these days. During the night the IDF crushes the infrastructure and the people in Gaza, and the force of their bombing causes the walls and the houses to shake. In the morning we get hit by Qassam rockets, ever more sophisticated. Somebody who goes to work in the morning doesn’t know if he’ll find his house in one piece in the evening. In the afternoon we bury the best of our young who gave their lives for yet another “just” war. In the evening we succeed, with difficulty, in getting through to our desperate friends in Gaza. There’s no electricity there, no water, no gas, no food, nowhere to escape to. And only the words of N., a 14 year old whose school was bombed and whose friend was killed and who writes us an email in perfect English that her mother succeeded with difficulty in sending “Help us , we are humans after all”.

No, Fuad, my cheeks are not rosy, not rosy at all. A ton of cast lead (Cast Lead is the name that the IDF has given to the “operation” in Gaza) weighs on my heart , and my heart is too small to contain it.

Nomika Zion

State of Israel = State of War

State of Israel = State of War

Although I have lived in Israel for 35 years now and participated (passively) in 4 wars and 2 Intifadas, the penny has only now dropped for me that Israel is actually is a permanent state of war with only rest periods in between. This is amusingly (and terribly) illustrated by Doron Rosenblum's column in last Friday's weekend magazine of the Ha'aretz newspaper .

The wars and periods of unrest that I can remember:

• 1967 - the 6 Day War , the glorious defeat of the Arab Goliath by Israel's David. Some of us now realise that that the colonisation of millions more Palestinians as the result of Israel's conquests in that war was the start of Israel's moral decline.
• 1970- 1972 War of Attrition (along the Suez Canal). A cousin of mine was killed in this war
  
• 1973 - Yom Kippur War. Israel won on points but the Arabs , especially the Egyptians consider this war a glorious victory for themselves
• 1982-1985 The 1st Lebanon War. Then Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon (later Prime Minister and now in a coma) thought he could change the regime in Lebanon. He was wrong. 500 Israeli soldiers and countless Lebanese and Palestinians paid with their lives
• 1987-1992 The first Intifada - popular uprising by the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories against Israeli occupation. The Jewish Israelis were genuinely surprised at this uprising "But we gave them new roads, clinics and jobs"
• 1991 The Gulf War - Israel was a passive participant , being on the receiving end of Scud missiles from Saddam Hussein's Iraq
• 2000 - 2005 The second Intifada -a second Palestinian uprising characterized by far greater use of arms and terror attacks (mostly suicide bombings) against Israeli civilians
• 2006 The second Lebanon War , against the Hezbollah. Inconclusive.Over 1000 Lebanese killed, 300 Israelis killed (soldiers and civilians)
  

Why has the penny dropped only now?

• A newspaper article after the first week of the current Gaza war included a melancholy note by the writer that he just realised that our wars are like the Thirty Years' War or the Hundred Years' War that we read about in the history books.
• The last war (the 2nd Lebanon War in 2006) was the first one I felt directly and which got to me real bad. I live in Haifa in northern Israel and for 33 days we were under a constant barrage of missile attacks. For a nice Jewish boy from London to feel the fear of death when the air-raid siren goes off is a profound shock.
• Only two and a half years have passed since the last war
• Especially after the "glory" of Israel's victory in the 6-Day War, we had an expectation that the Israeli Army can work miracles and and bring us either victory or peace. We always thought that this war (whichever it was) would be the last . The last few wars (and the current one) have shown that to be illusory.
• I have gotten to a reflective age where , at best, I am entering the last one third of my life. With great reluctance and sadness I accept that I am unlikely to see peace in Israel/Palestine in my lifetime.

A sad story, for someone like me who was once a passionate Zionist and who still wishes fervently for peace.

Conversations from a dinner party

Last night Irit and I were invited to the 70th birthday party of a friend from Haifa. The party took place in a large and luxurious house in one of the expensive suburbs north of Tel Aviv. I don't know whether anyone had dilemmas about having the party during a war but I suspect not. We were about 90 minutes drive from Gaza where dozens of Palestinians are getting killed every day and where Israeli soldiers are risking their lives day and night.

I had two conversations at the party about the war with friends, white Caucasian upper middle class Jewish Israeli males about 70 years old, one a physicist, the other a dentist, both gentle, pleasant, thinking people. I suspect that if I hadn't brought up the question of the war , it wouldn't have arisen.

Me: What do you think about the war?
He: I suppose you want it to end. Most people (i.e. Jewish Israelis) want it to continue
Me: Do you think about the war?
He: Only when I watch the news on television

Me: What do you think about the war?
He: I'm very disappointed
Me: Disappointed?
He: It can't work. The world won't accept that there are 700 Palestinians killed and only 6 Israelis killed. The only way we could beat them is by killing a huge number but that's not practical
Me: Not practical ?!!
He: I mean the world won't let us do it.

After a bit more prodding, he did say that this option is not moral, but practicality was evidently the prime consideration and morality the secondary one.

Irit would argue that such comments do not reflect what Jewish Israelis really think but but just that everyone is frustrated and doesn't know what to do and that Jewish Israelis would make far-reaching concessions for a guaranteed and durable peace. I wonder.