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 Olum
I have straddled this fence for weeks now: Trying to reconcile the horrific and brutal attacks on innocent Israelis, months ago, by the evil Hamas group with my fear 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 the NYT, along with Amnesty International’s revelations with regard to the IDF using outlawed White Phosphorus.
The images from unedited videos are seared in my mind; I see them when I am falling asleep, and I pause 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 34,000 mostly innocent Palestinians being murdered by bombs and missiles, I am sickened. Pro-Israelis want all Palestinians dead. No mercy…