The hypocrisy of Israel

Johann Hari writes a compelling piece in today's Independent (see here) about how Israel continues to act inhumanely towards Palestine. He puts across arguments soberly and without prejudice, and yet we in the west not only turn a blind eye to the disgusting behaviour of Israelis, but help prop up their militaristic regime. It's another reminder how the words of Maggie Joy Blunt (see Saturday's entry below) have been forgotten by people in the 21st Century (in the case of some Israelis, they "forgot" it before the war had even begun). The words of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first PM, make my skin crawl in particular. The hypocrisy of a man whose own race was subjected to such unspeakable horrors - unjustifiable in any context - at the hands of the Nazis.

Violence begets violence. At some stage, a group of people have to accept what happened to them and move on without childishly striking back. If I was Israel, I'd wonder how I could look at myself in the mirror each morning. What happened to your kinsmen in the past does not - in a million years - give you the right to act the way you do now.