What's possible for Israel and Palestine?

I'm not an optimist. I strive to be a realist. I would like to recognize where people are coming from, what's the concern that they have, in their heart of hearts; how is that translated into action, and expressed in beliefs and deeds; what contradictions and conflicts lurk there. I lived in Israel between 1970 and 1972, age 12-14. I recommend to every American to live in a foreign country for some significant period of time; it does one a world of good, to gain perspective by seeing one's own country, and one's own culture, from the outside.

New MidEast policy

The most important comments in Obama's interview on Al Arabiya:

And so what I told [George Mitchell] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues -- and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen.

And the surrounding countries need to be involved, as well: Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and perhaps beyond.

Reported in this NY Times article. Ah, the audacity of hope?

Enough with the whining

I think people have forgotten what “war” means. If the ratio had been the other way around, Palestinians would have been celebrating instead of whining. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought war was all about killing as many of the other guys as possible, and losing as few of your own as you can possibly manage.

If Israel’s policy was to kill as many Palestinians as possible, they would have carpet-bombed Gaza City (like the U.S. did in Dresden and Tokyo. Talk about civilian casualties? Look at hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, with dubious military tactical purpose. Civilian casualties in war is a huge topic, and, OMG, it didn’t start with the Palestinians and Israelis. GASP! No, you don’t say!? )

Get real. Theatrical whining is so pointless. This is what Nietszche called “ressentiment”. (shall we say that the Palestinians learned it from the Jews?)