Friday, July 11, 2014

Tit for Tat

Gaza
As I write this I'm also listening to a piece on radio about the tragic, deadly mess in Israel and Palestine. We know that three Israeli young men were murdered while hitchhiking through the West Bank. It was risky behaviour, but these students didn't deserve to be attacked, let alone die. Then a Palestinian teen was brutally murdered, burned alive. He had done nothing to provoke the attack, and it was as cowardly as the murders of the three teens.



In both cases extremist religion appears to have been a factor. The three charged with the death of the Palestinian teen, two of them only seventeen, are clearly connected to an radical Jewish group. On both sides terrible cruelty is justified in God's name.


The outcome of these murders was sadly predictable. The fools of Hamas began to fire rockets into Israel.  Whenever they do so they create huge uneasiness in Israel but do limited damage. The Israeli government has justifiably responded with force, although once again with a heavy-handedness which has resulted in nearly 100 Palestinian deaths and thousands are homeless. Most of the dead are civilians and a large percentage are women and children.


Nothing about this makes sense. Both sides shout "they started it!" and both claim that they have a right to do violence. And the prospect of some workable truce, if not true peace slips further away.


God help them all.


Any thoughts?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sure God would help them all if they were willing to listen...

roger said...

So frustrating. This has been going on for so long. Enough is enough! Someone's gotta give a little.

Unknown said...

Where extremists are involved, a solution is pretty rare to find ...