Laugh Though You Feel Like Crying
Isn't it just wonderful what the human mind can conceive of as a temporary antidote, a way to shrug off the feeling of impotence when faced with an intolerable, life-threatening crisis?Israel is in the early stages of making decisions that will inevitably bring it to the bargaining/discussion table with the Palestinian Authority headed now by Fatah in the interests of finally instituting through mutual agreement - much pain and no little amount of negotiating necessitating needful compromise - a peace acceptable to both sides.
Despite which there is no cessation of violations of a temporary peace agreement. Despite which certain extended Fatah-affiliated terror groups sink themselves deep in the pleasures of violent attacks against Israeli citizens. There is always the problem, underlying all discussions of how to defuse rogue elements among the Palestinians, completely drenched in the necessity to obliterate all symptoms of a non-Muslim state within the geography of the Middle East.
The implacable need of Palestinian militants bent on jihad realized in the complete obliteration of a Jewish state to enable the Palestinian populations to re-inhabit all of what was formerly considered to be Arab territory will not easily be appeased, their leaders convinced that a peace agreement between the two peoples represents the only hope for a reasonable future for both groups.
They've lived so long with the tribal-cultural-assisted determination to rout their enemy, encouraged by outside interests, by the fervent blessing of their PA leaders, that to realize success in turning them away from jihad will be near impossible. All the more so, given that even while the PA is ostensibly sincere about rapprochement, its leaders still encourage armed 'struggle' against the 'oppressor'.
The attacks from Gaza continue unabated. One group of Gaza-situated terrorists after another, lobbing Kassam rockets over the border at towns, settlements and kibbutzim. In the last few days a series of rockets touching down at a western Negev kibbutz; PA terrorists in Gaza constructing an elaborate series of explosives with the intention of bringing down a house over the heads of soldiers from an IDF brigade in Beit Lahiyah, Gaza.
Wait, here's Israelis finally determining to take matters into their own hands and lob rockets right back at Gaza. About time. Proving that Israelis can be as obdurately violence-prone as their attackers. But being Israelis, and Jews by extension, demonstrating a little more than merely tit-for-tat. The additional fillip may provide for some lighter moments of reflection on each side at the nature of the 'rockets' raining down on disbelieving targets.
Israeli activists on Thursday arrived at the border between Israel and Gaza well armed both in intent and armaments. They arrived with crates of organic eggs and vegetables - all of which were procured in the Kassam rocket-battered city of Sderot, adding a bit of poetic justice to the Hieronymus Bosch-like scenario that then unfolded. But not before a co-located IDF unit rushed toward the site with the intention of halting what appeared to be a rocket attack with deadly propulsives.
However, when it was divulged that the proposed attack was in reality a "food fight" on an unprecedented scale, the IDF officer in charge of the region gave permission for the attack to commence. The missile launcher, which had been designed and built by pyrotechnics and stunt expert Yahav Michaeli, was loaded up with organic eggs, tomatoes, mangoes, corn and other vegetables.
It's certain that some Gazans got the message, along with the gift of foodstuffs. Whether the vegetables, including heads of cabbage were in suitable condition to be useful is questionable. Most certainly the eggs, which were seen to be flying into Beit Hanoun itself would not have been, even for scrambled eggs. They'd make rather a mess of things, and the clean-up process would not be pleasant, albeit not deadly, like the results of some of the Kassams which have hit their target in Israel.
On a scale of righteous indignation over being pelleted by eggs, anger should rank fairly low, tipping the scale for humour. After all, who could possibly be averse to free organic produce?
And both societies could use a little mood-lifter; emotions, after all, have alternated between anger and depression for long enough.
Some people, though, just take every opportunity to consider a slight to their dignity a further incitement to revenge. The day following the food fight two Kassam rockets were fired from Gaza into Sderot, with the result that two shell-shocked residents were taken to hospital in Ashkelon. There was damage to a house in Sderot - again - and damage to an animal pen in a nearby kibbutz.
Nice try, though.
Labels: Middle East, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, August 05, 2007
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