The part of me that has spent 10 weeks on three different trips to Israel, the part that has a bookshelf filled with books I have read on the Palestine/ Israeli conflict along with precious memories of being a pilgram in The Holy Land, that’s the part that wants to have an all out temper tantrum sprinkled with choice words to illustrate my indignation. The Biden administration has the audacity to tell Israel what they should be doing in retaliation to the Hamas attack in October.
The Biden Administration genuses left behind $7 billion of military equipment in Afghanistan after the 2021 withdrawal. The shame of only evacuating 3 percent of Afghans who worked for the American government and applied for special visas. leaving behind an estimated 78,000.
13 U.S. service members were killed in an attack by the Islamic State terrorist group outside Kabul’s airport at Abbey Gate on Aug. 26, 2021. They were helping people evacuate from the country when the attack happened. The Defense Department concluded that “a single explosive device killed at least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members.
Biden and Blinken have ZERO credibility to advise Benjamin Netanyahu about anything! My Mainstreetrockymount.com bench is a long way from Jerusalem, but I bring to my writing all that I have become after eating macaroon cookies in the Jewish Quarter and drinking the fresh squeezed orange juice from the vendor at The Jaffa Gate. The kneeling gardener who wished me Shalom remains with me.
When I close my eyes and return to Israel in my imagination, I can still smell the spices and see the color of fabrics, and everyone seemingly off to pray someplace. I think of praying at St. Anne’s and the Holy Clutter at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. St. George’s College in Jerusalem where I lived for two four weeks periods. Your life changes when you have walked the narrow streets in the Old City with black robed nuns and ultra-Orthodox men with their long beards. I am indigent that Biden thinks he can tell Israel what they should do about anything only trying to prop up his political problems here.
I have left my own dust behind where Jesus walked. The younger woman in this photo taken in Jerusalem now writes without apology that Israel should make their own decisions regarding their future safety and sovereignty. My pebbles from the River Jordan, the olive leaves I picked, are more than Biden and Blinken can understand as they dare to orchestrate Israel’s future for their own political coverage. SEE COMMENTS BELOW
Main Street Rocky Mount 
It is impossible to wipe out Hamas in this manner. Israel appears to think and act on the premise that every Palestinian is a Hamas supporter and therefore should be annihilated, women and children included. Yet most citizens of Gaza do not support Hamas, especially after what they did in Israel. Netanyahu will only be satisfied when all of Gaza is leveled and every Palestinian has been killed or relocated out of the country. They will find out that the hostages will not survive this plan either. I pray daily for the children of Gaza who are left in their destroyed country. Can you imagine how they will feel about Israel as they grow up?
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Well said!
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “Israel is at war. We didn’t want this war. It was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way.”
Any person who speaks out against PM Netanyahu and the Jewish response to the second largest extermination of Jewish people since WWII CLEARLY has not walked through a Holocaust Museum or even considered that it is categorically insane to pretend this war is an act of aggression by Israel. Not to mention the appalling reaction of students, faculty and administrators at universities across this nation. It is chilling to listen to their rhetoric; a recent reminder of hate growing quickly. Silence like a cancer grows…
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, “The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls”
And whispered in the sound of silence
Paul Simon
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Netanyahu and Hamas are the true problems in this terrible conflict, with the Israeli and Palestinian people as the victims.
Netanyahu is determined to keep on the same course to destroy Hamas (which he will never do), even if it has meant killing over 20,000 Palestinians, reporters, aide workers, etc., and causing utter destruction (and all within the span of only four months!?). That is a tragedy that my heart cannot bear.
If it weren’t for the urging of Biden, Blinken, and other EU and NATO partners, there would be no humanitarian aide for the citizens of Gaza, no attempts at a cease fire and negotiations, and no continued support for Israel’s ability to defend itself.
What Hamas did in Israel on Oct. 7 is truly and indescribably horrific! The thought of their heinous actions and the continued hostage situation my heart cannot bear either.
Hamas should be annihilated, but not at the cost of so many innocent Palestinian lives who have already been punished by Netanyahu and his right-wing government for decades.
I pray for God’s help each day for peace and comfort for Israel and for the Palestinian people.
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I truly believe also that Israel doesn’t need any bad advice from the current crop of politicians. We should be supporting Israel in wiping out Hamas for good.and letting sane Palestinians live in peace.
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