Anyone who has been through the army knows the saying that "for every Shabbat there is a Saturday night" which roughly translates as "relax over Shabbat because once it's over you're going to suffer!" The equivalent in civilian life is 24 hours of insulation from the world around us, today in order to celebrate another festival; this time by waving palm fronds and eating in huts - soup diluted by sweat in Israel or rainwater in London. The aftermath of being disconnected from the news is having to catch up all at once. It is often unpleasant and tonight was particularly bad.
The killing of a kindergarten teacher our jogging and two soldiers in the Gaza strip and two Sderot toddlers, aged 2 and 4 by a Kassam rocket means that the IDF will be taking part in operations, particularly in the Northern part of the Strip for an extended period. Predictably the Palestinians have asked for international intervention "to halt the Israeli atrocities that are being perpetrated", as if it was not understandable that the IDF would try to prevent the bombing of innocents. Once again Israel is being accused by its Arab MKs of imminent "massacres (Hebrew press)" where none are taking place; my only fear is that the Palestinian "leadership" will contrive to create the conditions under which a massacre could take place in order to further their cause at the loss of lives which they place no value on.
It comes as no surprise that the right wing has been fast to jump in and cite these incidents as reason to halt the disengagement plan; the left has equally quickly reach the opposite conclusions. The one certainty in life is that Politicians will manipulate the facts to suit their own agendae - five lives being used to make political capital - I'm disgusted and ashamed.
The Palestinians want Israel out of Gaza; Israel is leaving - whether this is part of a "strategic withdrawal" or "with our tails between our legs" surely makes no difference - so why take actions which are going to lead to more deaths and delay the handing over of the Strip? This is all going to get seriously messy and lead to a lot of lost lives - completely senseless.
Gilly
1 comment:
I have often wondered when the next Baruch Goldstein will arrive. I hope that I am wrong, but I fully expect that some incident will send someone off of the deep end.
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