Ms. Abu Halima said that when her family was hit, “fire came from the bodies of my husband and my children. The children were screaming, ‘Fire! Fire!’ and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell,” she said. “My 14-year-old cried out, ‘I am going to die. I want to pray.’ I saw my daughter-in-law melt away.” Richard Silverstein in Tikun Olam
I have straddled this fence for weeks now: Trying to reconcile the horrific and brutal attacks on innocent Israelis 4 weeks ago by the evil Hamas group with my concern for innocent Palestinians being bombed and strafed out of their homes, as Israel continues their claims that Hamas is hiding above ground in refugee camps. It is getting harder and harder to reconcile all of this with the facts as presented on the nightly news and in the NYT, along with Amnesty International’s revelations with regard to the Israeli Defense Forces using outlawed White Phosphorus.
The images from unedited video are seared in my mind; I see them when I am falling asleep, and I stop them long enough to say a prayer and send healing to the survivors on both sides of this conflict. I have no stake in the issue. I am an observer.
When I read comments on Yahoo, following stories about nine thousand innocent Palestinians being murdered by bombs and missiles, I am sickened.