Forgive and forget? The elusive search for the in-between space. The sweet spot between how much we are permitted to forget, to let drift off in a vaporous cloud, and how much we are incited, cajoled and have it beaten into us to remember. Almost all of the ethnic, religious and economic conflicts in contemporary society seem all rooted into manipulating the dynamics that hover and interfere in an overall exercise of incitement to remember, whether in the Middle East or the more soft morass of English and French in Canada.
At the turn of the twentieth century Mark Twain wrote a long travelogue very much a product of its time, but there was was one precious nugget that is even more pertinent today. And that was twain’s assertion that there was not one square foot, make that inch, of the world that has not been stolen either through diplomatic trickery or outright force. It makes a good foundation, a basis of context for advancing solutions to territorial disputes and advancing a view that questions attachment to land as if the individual was a rock or an olive tree. And Twain was not wrong. …
(see link at end)…he IDF Spokesman’s Office said Thursday it was looking into a photograph circulating widely on Facebook in which 16 IDF soldiers arranged their uniformed bodies on the sand, to spell out the Hebrew words “Bibi loser” — in a deft physical critique of Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s failure to send ground troops into Gaza during the just-ended Operation Pillar of Defense.
—Read More:https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%9C%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%AA-%D7%90%D7%A9/535051389856155
Netanyahu warned throughout the operation that a wider military assault on Hamas might be about to unfold. The IDF called up tens of thousands of reservists and deployed large troop contingents close to the Gaza border, and some troops were reportedly ordered more than once to gear up for an incursion, only to be ordered to stand down at the last moment.
“We were twice ordered to gear up and told that we are going in, and then we were called back to Israel,” one soldier said Thursday; others said they had even opened border gates before being told to return….
Jeep leaving Gaza border: “We’ll be back soon.”
The photograph’s source was not clear at time of writing. It had been posted and reposted on numerous Facebook pages, receiving more than 3,000 “Likes” and 400 “shares” in one Facebook group alone within three hours of appearing.
Many commenters on the photo said that the soldiers should be court-martialed; many others empathized with the soldiers’ evident sense of frustration at having been wound up for battle and then wound down, calling Netanyahu a coward and criticizing the prime minister for preventing the IDF from “getting the job done” and “giving it to Hamas.”…
—Dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli forces and attempted to breach the Gaza border fence on Friday, according to the IDF spokesperson to the international press, Avital Leibovich.
IDF sources said they fired warning shots in the air near the border with southern Gaza following “disturbances in the area.”
Palestinian sources reported earlier Friday that a 21-year-old man was killed and at least six injured by Israeli fire east of Khan Younis in the Strip.
According to one version of events, the Palestinians who neared the border fence were agricultural workers. But according to another report, the Palestinians were on their way to prayers, a
family member of the man allegedly killed told Reuters that the 21-year-old had attempted to place a Palestinian flag on the fence—Read More:http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-fires-warning-shots-after-disturbances-in-southern-gaza/
The IDF’s Spokesman’s Office said it frowned upon soldiers expressing political opinions while in uniform.
The soldiers did not wear identifying insignia; their red boots indicated that they were from infantry units…Read More:http://www.timesofisrael.com/soldiers-spell-out-critique-of-netanyahu-as-a-loser-for-not-using-ground-forces-in-gaza/
On the one hand, both sides can exhibit a somewhat pharisaical attitude through a tanking of Allah or Yahweh for making them different than their neighbor, but they are willing to adjust if they get a signal from on high. In the meantime, its practicing the old choreography with mutual accusations of selfish needs and a certain deep rooted emnity towards the whole concept of “chosen people” and what it implies.You have to question the whole idea of land based on the purity of your blood which in effect, is ideological/biological/religious pretense based ethnic cleansing…
COMMENTS
