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Excellent article, Mr. Kamiya. I do hope President-elect Obama reads it...and follows your advice. It is good advice, with an eye on peace and good neighboring, which would make Israel, Palestine, and other Middle Eastern countries far safer in the long-term. As you mentioned, I have seen numerous times that video clip of Obama in Israel, saying that he would "do everything in his power" to stop rockets if they were aimed at his daughters. Yes, what father, what citizen wouldn't want to protect those they love. But the next question is "Does everything in your power mean you would kill hundreds of people, many who are children as well and many who have no control or responsibility for those who threat you?" As history has shown, whenever anyone starts a war or conflict, including the U.S., it means the leaders have decided that killing innocent children is acceptable because, in every war and conflict, usually one-third or higher of the casualties are children. So, entering into such acceptability means acquiring a great deal of blood on one's hands and only on the conscience, apparently, of those who oppose it. Watching the news and seeing Israel storm heavy-handedly into a long suffering place like Gaza, with reason to be angry about rockets, and knowing that so many of my U.S. leaders play favorites when I really want them to play "fair" and to work for the betterment and peace of all, makes me sad and ill. I remember one time when I was in junior high school, a student in one class did something--I can't even remember what--that he shouldn't have and the teacher demanded that the rest of us tell on him. We didn't. We couldn't. We felt connected as students and we couldn't surrender someone to the greater authority (the teacher) and punishment. The teacher then proceeded to give every student in the class a swat with the paddle. In his view, we were all guilty for our association within complicity and so he saw punishment as equal and justified. But it wasn't. And the teacher also lost respect from the rest of us. Violence, brutality, murder doesn't work in solving problems. When will well-intentioned people in leadership roles understand that?
