Reply #77: I think you covered just about everything I was thinking... [View All]

[Violet_Crumble]

..though I'd just like to add that one or two posters in this thread who are finding what happened to be pathetic, are solid in their support of the attack on Gaza and have justified the killing of children even younger than the ones in the orchestra. The orchestra kids welfare is the furthest thing from their mind, while even though I disagree with PM, I do think it's up near the top when it comes to fuelling her POV...

It is not pathetic to have both sides see the humanity of each other. It is understandable this is like a drop in the bucket, but nonetheless it is an effort at peace and not hatred. It is the lack of humanity that propagates war and allows "rational" people to justify killing.

Well said! Yr last sentence is exactly why hardliners in both Israel and the Occupied Territories will do all they can to stop their people seeing the humanity of the other. Ignorance and blind hatred perpetuates endless violence. I read a claim that the children were being made responsible to show their humanity to the enemy. That clearly wasn't the case at all, but if there were any elderly Holocaust survivors who did hold the two-dimensional, cartoon-style view of Palestinians that a few 'pro-Israel' posters here hold, then them seeing that Palestinians are human beings just the same as everyone else was a good thing. Grass-roots encounters like this where Palestinians and Israelis meet each other in peaceful circumstances is what's needed much more than the violent face of 'the enemy', and encounters like this are what will help lead to peace, rather than insisting it comes after a peaceful resolution...

btw, let me be the second to welcome you to DU :)