Let me throw something at you......In order to be truly and practically pro Palestinian you need to be pro Israel. Conversely, in order to be truly and practically pro Israel you need to be pro Palestinian.
That is in in a nut shell. The futures of the two peoples in the region are inextricably linked, so love or hate each other, we either swim together or drown the same way. For the moment I reckon we are flailing around in the water together and a huge wave just tried to take is out. Its not just the water though. We are caught in a sea full of sharks hovering around waiting to pounce. So what to do........
At the start of the war in Operation Cast Lead, I received some reaction to my blog from a friend of mine in London. Now my friend happens to be what we would probably term as pro Palestinian. It would be fair to say that my friend was somewhat angry both at the IDF, and the Israeli government. It must also be said that she was none too happy about my blog. She made her arguments and vented hr anger, none of which I might add held any water with me. So we had two opposing views from people passionate and certainly angry about the situation. Back and forth we went with the involvement of a couple of third parties. Not unexpectedly, nothing was resolved.
Yesterday I got an email for my friend, asking if we were still friends and then enquiring after me and my welfare. Now this is the point. We are indeed almost diametrically opposed on the conflict and both hold strong views. However above all we are people and we are friends. We argue, we disagree and then we get on with it. There are thousands, if not millions of people out there who are on opposite sides of this conflict. They argue and they fight. To be sure on the ground in the region they kill and mame. I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of that at the minute (my blog, I can do what I bloody well please). The point I am making is that regardless of how bad the fight and how great the par between the sides, there is always an opportunity to talk and to discuss. I am not sure about you, however I will always take, curses and insults over bullets and bombs any day. And don't tell me there is noone to talk to, because at the end of the day you can only make peace with your enemies!
Another friend of mine suggested that it is ultimately easier to make peace out of a state of war than out of a state of attrition. Perhaps this last episode and all its horror can drive the parties to find a way to talk and bring an end to the madness.
Thanks to my friend in London for reminding me..........
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