Saturday, January 31, 2009
Where are the doves?
Paul Kaye 'A dark fog has enveloped us'At Shuli's funeral last May, her son Jonathon, my brother-in-law, gave a speech. "Where are the doves?" he asked. "What is this land worth without someone with a vision? Nothing. Without doves it wasn't worth the struggle." Jonny is 34. He's an army reservist who is studying to be a neurologist and has a two-year-old son called Boaz. He didn't scream for blood at his mother's graveside, he screamed for peace.
At Shuli's funeral last May, her son Jonathon, my brother-in-law, gave a speech. "Where are the doves?" he asked. "What is this land worth without someone with a vision? Nothing. Without doves it wasn't worth the struggle." Jonny is 34. He's an army reservist who is studying to be a neurologist and has a two-year-old son called Boaz. He didn't scream for blood at his mother's graveside, he screamed for peace.
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2 comments:
I read this piece on Mona Eltahawy's blog yesterday. It's one of the most thoughtful, hopeful pieces of writing that I've seen. We need more voices like hers who are prepared to speak for change.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I agree with you.
I suspected something like this: "Israeli friends whispered to me they had to keep their views to themselves during the war in Gaza; Arab friends emailed me the same sentiments."
When I watched vox pop comments from both sides after the ceasefires, I was struck by the way almost all the Israeli speakers said that their armed forces had left the job unfinished - that Hamas had to be exterminated - but in such a measured way that I was quite sure that they were unaware of exactly what was being inflicted on Gaza families.
I'm glad that George Mitchell, the new US envoy to the Middle East, is a veteran of the Northern Ireland peace talks, because I don't think he underestimates what's at stake, or how slow and difficult it will be to make progress, but neither does he think that the difficult is impossible.
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