The “document of principles” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid out for post-war management of Gaza looks more like a backroom amateur’s attempt to clone South Africa’s Bantustan plan for keeping blacks in poverty and subservience. If that’s the best he can come up with, there are a couple of other apartheid quirks more worthy of consideration.… Read the rest
By any measure, levels of suffering, compassion and deprivation of human rights ought not be based on nationality, ethnicity or economic status. An attack on a small U.S. military outpost few even knew existed, and four months of bombing and artillery strikes that have been rained on Gaza flaunt that in reality, the exact opposite is the order of the day.… Read the rest
Author and screenwriter William Goldman encapsulated the movie business in two lines: “Nobody knows anything…Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.” There’s plenty of evidence the wisdom equally sums up prognostications and pronouncements on today’s major issues; American politics, the three Hs — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — and the Ukraine-Russia imbroglio. … Read the rest
The outcome of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is unlikely to have any more effect on the war in Gaza than the court’s ruling against Russia’s actions in Ukraine had on Vladimir Putin. But apartheid has some lessons Israel — and the Palestinians – would do well to absorb.… Read the rest
The fate of two million blameless, miserable, often terrified civilians in Gaza came down to which variation of words diplomats and politicians in safe places could agree on. The answer was: none. The next “negotiating session” should open with the words of the leader whose name is synonymous with wisdom: “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – YOU choose.”… Read the rest
It’s not unreasonable to expect that those in a position to influence the war in Gaza, or make real progress against climate change, would know better than to be blindsided. Instead, they’ve willfully proven the veracity of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegard’s tenet:“There are two ways to be fooled/ One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”… Read the rest
Sixteen years before UN Resolution 181 divided Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, Mahatma Gandhi noted: “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
What is happening to the children of Gaza ninety-two years later is stupefying proof of how heedless hatred, venal cruelty and short-sightedness displace gentle wisdom.… Read the rest
Having recently once again cheated the Biblical wisdom “The days of our years are threescore years and ten…”, I have found myself wondering why it is that the wisdom that is supposed to come with age continues to be overtaken by an increasing number of things that bemuse, amuse, sadden and often as not, irritate me. … Read the rest
Hamas sees the pitiless waste of Palestinian lives as glorious. Israelis believe they are confronting an existential threat that must be eliminated at any cost. In the end, neither will be able to claim a definable military or moral victory in Gaza. But all is not yet lost.… Read the rest
A poem many of my generation tacked on our bedroom wall included the line: “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” Depending on your point of view, that was either comforting or disconcerting. I wonder which one the author, American poet and writer Max Ehrmann, would have felt if he’d penned it today, rather than in 1927.… Read the rest