Gaza rocket fire kills Israelis

[condoleeza]

73. Well, it took awhile searching through the responses before I found you Grumpy

I'm not Jewish, am married to a non-religious jewish man, have spent endless hours of my life trying to understand this and this morning one of my friends who lived in Israel for many years, whose children live in Tel Aviv now, used the word Apartheid in her response to my email to her today.

I've never been able to make sense of this "war". Seems similar in many ways to the racial issues in our own shameful US history. It's just so sad that so much human life and money is being wasted for something that only the rational ones apparently want solved. The people who live there work with the Palestinian people, they're friends.

This is part of an email that was forwarded to me by a friend whose son, a teacher in Tel Aviv, wrote to her today:
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Israel is safe… any danger that there is, is foreseeable and localized. If you are planning on coming to Israel, do not be afraid at all. The situation is containable.
There are a lot of “facts” and numbers being put online and on the media right now. I wanted to share some facts of my own:
The fact that in Ramle I tutor Arabs and they respect me as one of their own even though I am a Jew.
The fact that when I go to the Shuk (market) here in Israel I buy food from Jews and Arabs alike working and living on the same street.
The fact that the Arabic teacher at the Jewish elementary school I work at spends morning after morning working for the benefit of Jewish children.
The fact that an Arab woman here calls me "your Israeli mother"
The fact that Arabic and Hebrew are on every street sign.
The fact that there is a church a synagogue and a mosque on the same street corner here.
The fact that on Yom Kippur (Jewish New Year) all the Arab kids ride bikes down the street and help their neighbors build Jewish sukkahs (dwellings).
The fact that on Muslim weddings my entire city (my Jewish city) is filled with life and music.
And the fact that we are only as divided as we let the media and politicians convince us that we are.
Let’s remember the victims. Let’s refuse to hate.
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We now have the iconic photo of the BBC Journalist whose 11 month old son died and I'm sure Bibi is loving this symbol of the evil Palestinians.