planet earth looks blue

The mirror has shattered, the cease-fire between Gaza and Israel has broken.  The question is did they, or the international community, believe that it was ever going to last?  

A bomb went off yesterday, killing an Israel soldier, and wounding others.  It is uncertain if the bomb was laid before or after the January 18th cease-fire, but to two raging fighters, does minutia like this really matter?  Following the bomb, Israel sent in helicopters, which fired on Gaza, maybe more as a warning, or show of intent at this point.  A Gazan farmer was also shot by Israel soldiers after the bomb - although this could have been unrelated.  The violence continues, and now we, as the world spectator, once again take up our positions in this battle - we watch, and wait.  

  For both the Palestinian’s, and the Israeli’s, the road has been a long and hard one.  In many ways, their history and struggle are quite the same.  It could even be argued that who better to understand the plight of the Palestinians than the Israeli’s, and vice versa.  Both sides want their hardships to be recognized, and both sides want political autonomy for their people.  And of course, both have a vested interest in the religious significance of Jerusalem.  

There are of course many differences, and of course the fact that the people of Palestine weren’t the ones that persecuted the Jewish people for centuries - that was the rest of the world.  It wasn’t either the Jewish people that created Israel - it once again, was the international community, post WWII, post the Holocaust.  The people of Israel have committed many atrocities against the Palestinians, forcing them from their homes half a century ago with violence and anger, into ghettos and refugee camps, were many remain to this day, while Israel is a wealthy nation.  The Palestinians do have the right to return, they do have the right for compensation of what was taken from them, that is international law.  But who owes them this? - Israel, or is it as well the responsibility of the world?  Perhaps most importantly, both sides have the right to a peaceful life, to be able to live as a people, as they have both fought tooth and nail to do for so long.  

I don’t doubt that the thought has crossed many a mind that he is just like I am, and I am just like he.  But is it easy for any of us to embrace the man in the mirror?  

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