Stop the Madness!

There's so many things about the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence that disturbs me its hard to know where to start. I'm not Muslim or Jewish, nor a historian, but I suppose I know more than the average Joe on the American street about the who/where/what of over there (thanks to an interest started by a great 8th grade geography teacher). This round of insanity, like those in the past, just puts a pit in my stomach when I think about it.

This isn't a fight between armies on some remote battlefield somewhere. This is fighting going on mostly amidst real people just trying to live their life as best they can. I don't claim they are all innocents, but many of them are. I can't imagine what its like to be living in Haifa, Beruit, or the other cities involved.

What makes me saddest is the so-called "asymmetry" of the fight. This isn't a tit-for-tat fight. For each pinch that Hezbollah inflicts on Israel, Israel comes in a breaks a few bones. The death toll is 10-1 Lebanese vs Israelis. And that doesn't begin to tell the story. Beruit, just starting to prosper after the last go-round in the 80s & 90s, has been bombed back 50 years, and well on its way to the stone age.

What makes me maddest is the continued unequivical backing of Israel by the U.S. government. We could end this quickly by threatening to withhold the billions of dollars of aid we give to Israel. That "aid" puts blood on our hands - my hands - in just the place and time where we can hardly afford to be seen as more of a bully.

Let's pray that Condi Rice can make some progress today.