Yes, I'm cynical about anything in the Middle East. I can still taste the suffering I witnessed during my visit to Jerusalem this summer when I stayed in East Jerusalem and wandered through the Old City.
It doesn't seem grotesquely cynical that the Israeli attack into Gaza occurred just weeks before the end of the Bush-Cheney "let's let the Jews be in charge of Jerusalem so that all of us Christians can rise to heaven" era, because Bush either encouraged it or did much more to sanction the barbarity of these last ten days.
No matter how insane the Middle East gets, the suffering of the men, women, and children of Gaza cannot be justified. They are being used as tools by Hamas and by the Israelis. And I fear a new generation of hatred is brewing.
This invasion isn't about ending missiles coming into settlements. Let's look at the legality of these settlements. This morning I heard this figure: the number of settlements in the West Bank and other captured territories has risen by 45% since Bush came into office.
Now just as the American press wasn't allowed to record the invasion of Iraq, the Israeli government has taken another tact from Bush-Cheney and clamped down on media coverage in Gaza.
However, news that Israeli strikes hit a UN school today, killing 30 Gazans was not suppressed.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is aiming to become the next prime minister of Israel, is certainly showing how tough and inhuman she is. What a way to make a name for yourself!
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Haaretz on Tuesday that Israel has no interest in a prolonged offensive on the Gaza Strip, with 600 Palestinians dead already, the length of the siege and its ferocity are not necessarily linked.
A cease fire would not, as Livni claims, legitimize Hamas, which did, by the way, win an election.
A cease fire is the only ethical, humane, and responsible course of action.
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