Moths to a flame

More Gazan-based missile attacks, more IAF retaliatory strikes, more deaths and injuries and, no doubt, many more of all four to come.

I am almost forced to the conclusion that, fundamentally, the problem here is that neither side is really interested in ending the conflict unless the result is massively in its favour.

Some subliminal directive in the mental make-up of both Israelis and Palestinians has decreed that there shall be no termination of the matter, no finality unless it is that of death or victory for each and every one of those engaged in this struggle. Although generations have lived and died in its shadow, no serious movement has ever been advanced to break the hold that this situation has had over so many millions of people.

Come on, guys! It’s been 64 years – and you still haven’t figured out what it is you need to do?

You should be ashamed of yourselves for making such hard work of it all.

Have you ever wondered why it’s been such a long, arduous and hazardous journey? Well, it’s not so much because of something you’ve done. It’s because of something you haven’t done.

What hasn’t been done is to raise the stakes as high as they can possibly go, to up the ante to the very maximum and then go some way beyond even that. When this has happened, only then can each side call the other side’s bluff, sit back and watch while this whole crazy set-up takes a series of well overdue nosedives, eventually crashing out entirely as everyone realises that there’s no longer any point – and very little profit – to be found in doing ‘business as usual.’

There has to be change. And it must be radical change, not this tunnel vision, ‘moth to a flame’ fixation that has so gripped all those involved.

The cycle needs to be broken – and broken wide open, never again to humble humanity’s ability to rise above circumstances that have defied resolution throughout much of modern history.

All of us must do better that we have done so far. But how can we?

The way things stand right now, there may be only one way to find out.

Go for broke.

http://yorketowers.blogspot.com

Or is the flame still so bright that no one can see anything else beyond its glare?