I’m pretty sure most of the people I know in Israel are horrified by what our government is doing.  Even those who believe in the hard-nosed type of policy can’t be happy with the senselessness of what we are doing, although if we were playing a video game we might be winning.  The problem is we are dealing with real live human beings whose lives are being ruined on both sides of a lot of borders. 

And the people of Israel know it.

And feel incredible pain for all of those who suffer. 

A few days ago I met an old friend who I have tried to avoid for a decade, and she gave me the opposite point of view of the political and human situation.  She sees the enemy as inhuman  and deserving of whatever punishment we can inflict on them.  There was nothing I could say that could dissuade her in any way or convince her that we were not even behaving wisely for our own interests.  But her language became more humane as we continued to discuss the situation and we turned to problem- solving in our specific group, a local writers’ group. When you turn to see what works, what can help, sometimes you find little solutions that can alleviate smaller problem so that you can turn to larger ones.  

We didn’t solve any problems that day, but she gave me some ideas on what can be done to change ways of thinking that can lead to a change of attitude, and I’m going to turn to them.  I’m sure she’ll come along.