Another tragedy is unfolding in the Middle East. Israel has been attacked again, this time by a bunch of well-organised terrorists who clearly believe absolutely in their cause. Since it is Hamas, that cause is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. You’d think the Jews have had enough to put up with over the centuries.
I find it unbelievable that anyone can support the scale of barbarity displayed by the Hamas attackers, slaughtering whole families, burning people alive, beheading babies. But that isn’t to say I have no sympathy for ordinary Palestinians. They will bear the brunt of Israel’s retaliation and they, too, have a right to live in peace.
I simply don’t understand why it is so difficult for folks to just get on. Why should it matter that some people go to a mosque, others to a synagogue? Or that some people have dark skin and others don’t. Underneath they’re all people trying to get through life the best way they can.
War is such a polarising situation, where truth is one of the many victims. Hamas denies that its fighters beheaded babies; Israeli soldiers who were there and took graphic photos said they did. Back in 1945 Eisenhower had his troops take photos of the concentration camps in Europe. He foresaw a day when the truth of those atrocities would be denied. And he was right. Those in power in Iran are adamant the holocaust didn’t happen. There’s little doubt that Iran brokered the Hamas attack on Israel. I wonder what the Ayatollahs think of the horror the fighters perpetrated or is that acceptable, since the victims were Jews.
And that simply shows that brutality and barbarism doesn’t have a specific genome. Old men will always find young people to commit terror in the name of ‘god’.
In the midst of all that horror there is resilience and heroism. While Hamas terrorists raped, murdered, slaughtered the people in kibbutzes, one remained secure. Inbar Lieberman was head of security at her kibbutz. When the attacks started she realised this was more than the usual rocket attacks. She armed the security team and sent them to defensive positions. No one in her kibbutz was harmed and twenty-five terrorists died. The story is all over the internet but here’s one link.
For those of us in Australia, the interminable ‘Voice’ campaign will finally be over tomorrow evening. Except for the analysis of the result and a decision on what happens next. This has been going on since the Labor Party won government in May, 2022, with a last frenetic effort in the previous six weeks to influence voters. It has been a divisive, sometimes vitriolic campaign and there will need to be some soul-searching come Sunday.
For context, see this article.
Many have said that those of us voting ‘NO’ to the amendment to the constitution accept the status quo, that the plight of disadvantaged Aboriginal people will not change. I think the one great result from the discussion over the referendum is that Australians have recognized that the Aboriginal industry that is supposed to have made a difference to those living in abject poverty – hasn’t, despite the billions spent on that need annually. There is a Ministry for Indigenous Australians and a multitude of organisations out there. What has happened to all that money? Where, and how, was it spent? I’m hoping for a Royal Commission to pick up some of those rocks and turn them over, so we can see what’s underneath.
If you still haven’t made up your mind, let me quote Professor Ergas in the Australian.
“There can consequently be no “dictatorship of the proletariat” in democracies: unlike Marxism, we do not pretend to cure past suffering by vesting those whose distant ancestors were wronged with political rights over others. Nor are there, in a liberal democracy, any special citizens who are constitutionally entitled to bellow, any more than there are half or quarter citizens whose voices the Constitution reduces to a whisper.” [1]
For those who care about that sort of thing, I’m busy writing another book. My Muse, who must have been on holiday for the past year or more (I never even got a postcard), has returned and I’m having fun putting down words. It will be another space opera with a romance thrown in.
And here’s an image of peace and tranquility.
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