They love their children too

Someone prayed for Palestine on Facebook and Israel tonight, as bombs whirred between the militants in Gaza and the Army in Israel.

Tonight, the Israeli army  prepared for what looks like an invasion.

 Palestine. I thought my Facebook friend was very brave to use the word.

Because that's how bad it's gotten over here.  Not to mention over there.

On the battleground itself, a land drenched in the blood of historic hatred  another battle is simmering -- a virtual war of phrases, pictures and fury on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

There are few of us here who dare to take a stance that recognizes the suffering of the Palestinian people.  If we comment on it, we risk being branded traitors, secret militants who doubt Israel's right to exist.

But to be able to hold in tension Israel's right to exist in peace, without constant shelling and hatred, and a Palestinian right to self-determination doesn't make us traitors. It makes us human beings who have a different opinion from you, perhaps.

Those friends of mine who have been to the West Bank and Gaza and have spoken to Palestinians come back changed -- so often, meeting the stranger in the flesh, and seeing their face, changes you always.

They don't hate Israel or wish for it to go away.  Instead, they seem touched by the misery of the people of the West Bank and Gaza -- at the same time that they want safety and prosperity for the people of Israel.

To recognize the appalling state of the people of Palestine is not to ignore the fear of the Israelis who have to spend the night in bomb shelters -- or the nihilistic rage of the men of Hamas, who think they can fight the best-equipped and perhaps most determined army in the Middle East and win.

Or perhaps they don't even care about "winning" -- maybe they just want the loyalty of the starving people they lead, those who have come to think that violence is their only hope. When did violence solve anything? It is the last drug of the desperate.

 Even now, as you read these words, people are dying. Be sure of it.

Most likely, because of the sheer volume and efficiency of the Israeli weapons, they are the people of Gaza.

But in the days to come, days that look pretty violent and filled with horror at the moment, it's very possible that more  Israelis will die.

I'm going to cry for all of them.   And when I do, I will wonder, as I have so many times in the past,  why we as human beings can't seem to walk in the murky middle, seeing truth on both sides -- and working for a just peace.

Recently I have questioned why we, as a species, are so bent to fast judgment.  Thank goodness I believe in a God of mercy, one reaches out to His penitent and humble people in love. I'd hate to be judged by some of those so eager to hurl names and insults.

Our only hope on God is founded.

Pray for the people of Israel -- and the people of Palestine -- as the bombs continue to fall.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/16/the-israeli-palestinian-politics-of-a-bloodied-childs-photo/?hpid=z1

The Blue Moon Effect

Writing is the closest I come to piloting an airplane (and be thankful for that, gentle reader).  Though unmistakably a craft, it does not feel like work,most of the time.  I write--therefore I am.  On many occasions, putting fingers to keyboard has saved my sanity.

I don't review a book to please an author.  I'd probably be a lot wealthier if I did public relations.

Yet it still makes me feel really good to think that I, in some way, approached or touched on an author's intent -- particularly when reviewing works of fiction.  One can almost as easily be wrong as correct.

So thank you, Beth Kephardt, for sharing -- your book is rich and multidimensional and still lingers in my mind, like the smell of orange on one's fingers after the fruit itself is consumed.

http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of.html