11 March 2012

Hello,

In the past two days we have seen repeated vicious air strikes by the Israeli military. Fighter jets broke the calm with horrific noise resulting in 12 deaths. One such attack came very close to my hotel causing the building to shake as if we were in an earthquake. Thank God I and the people I have met, are all OK.

Aside from the immediate profound suffering this military strike has caused, I find it especially worrying that the people have over the years become habituated to this type of catastrophic bombing. I am jumpy and find myself reacting to ambient noises, whereas the repeated message I hear - said in an oddly calm and removed voice is " this is normal in Gaza". A kind of acceptance of the inevitability of this extreme violence is very troubling.

The other outrage, is that our Harper Government is at least partly to blame for this deadly assault. Harper and Company's completely uncritical support of Israeli policy emboldens them to act above the law with total disregard for life.  Standing "shoulder to shoulder" with the Netanyahu administration gives tacit support for the misery I am witnessing all around me. This is one message I feel we must convey, as it is lost in all the hyperbole about "security, terrorists, Middle East's only democracy, world's most ethical army, etc."