The only drawback to opting out of the news, as I’ve just done for three weeks, is that dropping back in again has prompted a worrying sense of futility about my life-long obsession with it.… Read the rest
During the siege of Sarajevo, the Danish army NCOs who controlled UN relief flights had a sign behind their check-in desk that read: “Do not confuse your rank with our authority”. For politicians ranting against the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for the Gaza conflict, I suggest one that says: “Do not confuse your self-image with the moral high ground.… Read the rest
President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous advice; “speak softly and carry a big stick”, did not preclude using the stick if necessary, a point that seems to escape the Biden administration in its efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. One reason, I submit, is the enforced absence of the foreign Press in Gaza.… 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
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