Waiting and hoping

The air strikes continue, IDF troops continue to amass on the Gaza border, the IAF has killed more political officials in Gaza.  Are these tactics to encourage a cease-fire or will Israel launch a ground invasion? After 6 days of Operation Pillar of Defence the answers aren't getting any clearer.

If you haven't seen it, I would recommend reading Nahlah Ayed's article at cbc.ca. I think she gives a good overview of the regional politics...it's always about more than just Israelis and Palestinians.

If I could boil down what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about, and I can't really because the layers of this conflict are many (and many are incomprehensible to an outsider like me), but if I were to try I would start here: I would say most folks, Arab or Jewish, Muslim or Christian, Palestinian or Israeli, want the conflict to end. Most folks want to get on with their lives, raise their kids, go to the beach on a nice day, visit a museum on a rainy day, make enough money to send their kids to good schools, not have to worry about their kids being hit by rockets, not have to worry about their kids serving in the military.  To get there, they each need a few things. This is totally reductionist, but it goes something like this: Palestinians want a state, they want their standard of living to improve, and they want to talk about 1948. Israelis want their state to be secure in the region and not under constant threat and they want to talk about 1967.  So far, neither side is getting much of what it wants.

In the meantime, life here can be punctuated by tremendous instability (third big one in six years). Those who've lived their lives in Israel seem to maintain a sort of indifference when a war or crisis starts. They care of course, but in an abstract way; you have to get on with your life. Here in Jerusalem, as long as the air raid siren isn't sounding, you "Keep Calm and Carry On". I think it's a technique worth honing...while hoping for a ceasefire very soon.

P.S. For a useful discussion on boundaries in the Israeli-Palestinian context see Frank Jacobs in the New York Times from August 2012.