Thus whispered Zarathrustra

Listening to a couple of people at church last week mouthing the mantra "Iron Dome, Iron Dome," I became so thoroughly sickened at their having been so completely captured by the prevailing rhetoric of the supremacy of the Israeli military.

And yet, I remember in 1967 when I was thrilled at the capacity of the Israeli Defense Force at discountenancing their enemies. It all seemed rather biblical. Little Israel, surrounded by hoards of Arabs, pluckily fighting back like David against Goliath of Gath.

But was not until much later after the seventies when I lived among the Arabs for ten years was I able to reassess my attitude, based not only upon direct experience but also upon study and reading. Of course, there are no unbiased sources, I relied upon contemporaneous issues of the London Times from 1920 through 1948. The bias of the Times was primarily imperialist but flavored by reflected establishment views of successive Labor/pro-Israeli, or Conservative/pro-Arab governments. 

Now we have Gaza and the slingshot attempts of rocketing by Hamas and the overbearing reaction of Goliath Israel. The wanton destruction and deliberate killing of animals and over two thousand women, children and others amounts to massive collective punishment. Current estimates indicate the destruction of Gaza is so complete as to be five to ten years in recovery. The saddest part is the deliberate killing of innocent animals, the beasts that bear the heat of the day for the sake of their people.

Israel's strong defense -- yes, but their complete destruction of Palestinian life is unacceptable and unnecessary. Woe to Palestine since the catastrophe and woe to Israel who have now lost their moral compass for the sake of greed and exclusion. One can hear it in Netanyahu's words in equating Hamas with ISIS...so similar to Thatcher's exclusion of the IRA. 

It might not be time to sit round the campfire singing Kumbaya yet, but it is time for Israel to recognize their part in creating the misery of Gaza and the apartheid of Judea and Samaria. From the 1920's when there were more Jews in Baghdad than Jerusalem, through the horrors of the Pogroms and the death camps of WWII, the modern Jews have come of age in Palestine. Egypt and Jordan are compliant, while Syria is broken by civil war. The Israelis only have to fear the despair of the Palestinians.

I was staying at a hotel on Jebel Zeitun close by to Mount Scopus in 1978 when I found a cat laying by the side of the road, pitifully injured and unable to walk. I spoke to the clerk at the hotel desk and he was incredulous -- it was just a cat. I persisted and phoned a vet, an Israeli it happened, who came out, despite his misgivings, and took the suffering animal away... I guess the story illustrates a sense of caring and willingness to take risk exemplified by the young Israeli. 

Would that such a gesture could be extended to include the suffering humanity of the Palestinians of Gaza, the fragmented West Bank territories, and of Israel itself.