Death be not proud

      There is no respite. In Gaza, in Israel, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Sri Lanka, in Pakistan and in Zimbabwe, in the Congo and eleswhere death walks the trortured land and strike down the innocent. The focus however is on the bloodbath in the Gaza.

     Israel has the right to defend itself. Israel has the might to do this, but overwhelming force and mass destruction and killings will not win peace for Israel. David ben Gurion had warned that Israel will take " fifty eyes for every eye", but Mahatma Gandhi warned that " an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind "and that blindness, is everywhere. Golda Meir begged the Palestinians " do not let us kill your children " and yet the warning was not heeded and the children continue to die. Yitzak Rabin, talked about " an iron fist in a velvet glove" policy, but Begin, Shamir, Sharon and now the disgraced Olmert have used the iron fist without restraint.It failed before and will fail again.

      You cannot win a war with jets raining bombs from the safety of the skies, but you can cause mass carnage. You cannot break a people's will by killing their children and by starving them with border closings. You cannot set up barriers that add frustrations to an already dreary existence, and expect a people to be docile. These measures have not worked and will not work. You can send in your tanks and soldiers, but there will be a heavy price to pay. There are 20,000 well trained Hamas fighters waiting and many more will die on both sides and what will have been accomplioshed? Nothing, except more of the same. The policy-makers in Israel, need to learn from their own recent history and nothing is more revealing than the defeat at the hands of Hizballah, just a couple years ago. The military wants to send a message, that this time, they will not be thwarted and that they will use all the force necessary, but overkill will not work. The politicians are waging a war to show that they will do anything and everything to ensure the security of Israel, so they can win an election in seven weeks, but this too will not work.

      Olmert's excuse for launching this attack, will not wash. Yes, there have been rockets fired at Israelis, but it came after six months of truce that was holding, until the border closings and the embargo on food, became too much to bear. This is a failed, ruined and disgraced politician, vainly trying to win some approval. Like Bush and the non-existant weapons of mass destruction's lie, Olmert has invented a lie to justify his decision. One Israeli has died because of the fired rockets. So far 300 Palestinians have died, and for what?

      The madness must stop and people of goodwill on both sides and around the world must speak up and condemn the perpetrators of evil on both sides, whoever they are, or evil will triumph. Shalom/ Salaam.