Hahaha. Très bonne question, mais je ne ris qu'à moitié, .

I know a refuznik who comes to Dijon every now and then, when our Association invites him to speak in a conference or whenever his association organizes something that is worth sharing. His story is amazing, because to answer your question, Chani, he would tell you: They are only fooling themselves. They are born with a lie, and they have to believe in it in order to keep going. The lie he is talking about is that Israel is fragile and needs to defend itself against the Palestinians.

This man's sister was killed by a bomb from a Palestinian. This is how his mother became very sensitive to the problem. Instead of hate and blind rage, she gave it a deeper thought. Her name is Nurit Peled Elhanan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurit_Peled-Elhanan

Read what she says, and admire the strength of that woman:

[Excerpt]:

My little girl was murdered because she was an Israeli by a young man who was humiliated, oppressed and desperate to the point of suicide and murder and inhumanity, just because he was a Palestinian."

"There is no basic moral difference between the soldier at the checkpoint who prevents a woman who is having a baby from going through, causing her to lose the baby, and the man who killed my daughter. And just as my daughter was a victim [of the occupation], so was he."

First time I heard him speaking, I thanked him, for not being biased, for not being blind to the truth, for sharing our suffering. He told me: Don't thank me, I'm doing it because I love Israel. It's my country and I want to be proud of it. I have so many Palestinian friends, and I don't see a terrorist in any of them.

When I went back home, I thanked him silently again, because I could see the fear on the other side. I could almost touch it and understand it. I could feel his sorrow over having lost his sister. But with all this, he and his family turned their grief into something constructive, and that's what I wish for these two people, our cousins and us, from all my heart.

Ann-Christine

The problem, Anna, with wars and the Israeli-Palestynian problem is not so much in being proud in ones country and understnding the other country, but more in being human, and following the basics of one's religions rather thanthe peripherals of one's religion. The basic things in all religions, at least to my knowledge are the same, don't kill, love one another, maybe put into different words. Even real human morality of an atheist can benefit from these comandments, when taken seriously.  I think until the time people attain compassion comparable to somebody like Dalai Lama, they should follow commandments, and perhaps one day they will attain the momentaneous feeling of right and wrong within, without any commandments. The problem is that the basic things in religion, which can probably be summorized in ten words  are ironically totally neglected, giving place to elaborate theologis. 

All the best.

Liliana   

Thank you very much for bringing us to spirituality, Liliana.

I think you're right. Palestinians are in general believers. But many actually pray without praying, say they belong to a religious confession without doing so. Of course there would be no war if everyone could obey to the simple commandments of the religions.

Fridays and Sundays, so many mosques and so many churches always pray for peace in Palestine. But how many people continue to pray for peace once they've left the church or the mosque? I'm not sure we will have a hand full, unfortunately.

There is a Palestinian village called Taybeh, where they have launched an initiative of  The Peace Lamp. The idea is not to stop the prayer for peace and to have as many churches as possible participate in it.

Wonderful, isn't it?

Ann-Christine

Here's a piece of reporting on Gaza.  Since you live there, can you tell us how accurate you think this article is?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f55acd80-b509-11dd-b780-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1

I skimmed the article after reading the first part of it. It tells much of the truth of what happened during that period of time. I commented on that before and said that both Fateh and Hamas are misled and fight over power, but both won't last for good. The Palestinians have never known such internal fights. I am against the irrational use of power and excessive force and no one can deny the fact that Hamas used it in different occasions.

Mind you, Hamas is the one who prevents firing rockets towards Israel since the truce of 14 June 2008.

Thanks.  I guess I really wanted to know about the accuracy of the reporting on the relationship between the clans and politics.  Nearly everyone I've spoken to from the Arab world says that it's almost impossible to understand local politics without being aware of how the extended family interfaces with the political system.  This aspect of the political dynamics of the Arab world is barely understood by us in the West.

Hi Scott;

Since you speak in the collective name of "us in the West". Do you in the West understand that people are starving, some are dying because of the siege?

Are you sure we should be blaming everyone in the West for what is happening in Palestine? Your question is so unfair for many people in the West, who take of their time and money to go to help the Palestinians to pick olives, each year. Or for people who organise conferences, concerts and the like to inform about the situation in Palestine. Others who refuse to use another soap than the Palestinian one from Nablus, or who only buy Palestinian olive oil.

If Scott is showing how little he knows about "us in the West", do you have to follow his example?

Ann-Christine