Pregnancy did funny things to me. Apart from the changes to my body, which mean I will never fit in my wedding dress again, I became more sentimental. Silly ads on the television would make me weep. Stories of babies being sick or dying still make me weep. The changes, both physical and psychological seem to be permanent. I am a sap, dangnabbit.
So when I read in the paper that the latest suicide bomber in Israel/Palestine was a father to three (one unborn) who is responsible for the deaths of several children, I am left without understanding. How can a father do that to any child? Where is the empathy?
What kind of life would drive an educated man, with children and a wife, who is respected and liked and with a future, to blow himself and sundry others up?
I know the basic story of how Israel was formed, and what has happened (in a brief form) since then. This level of hatred is more than 'difficult' to overcome. I have no Cfidence in there ever being a stable long term peace between the Israeli's and the Palestinians. Ever.
A friend and I have just read Lucy Crocker 2.0 by Caroline Preston. It is about a family who change. My friend believes the changes will be permanent, I believe the changes will be evolving. I think I have lost faith I can make permanent changes to myself due to single events or groups of events. And what I can't do I think others can't do either. But. The Northern Irish seemed to make a long term change to themselves as a community after the Oma bombing - and the hatred between the two groups seems lesser now. Still there, but the advantages of peace seem to weigh stronger than the hatred. The hatred in the Middle East seems stronger than the pain of losses. On any scale.
The roadmap to peace is going no-where, but to the battlefield.
Posted by Toni at August 22, 2003 03:58 PM