Back in Israel for just two weeks and it already feels like I never left. I’ve more or less returned to my former self, but with greater resolve towards making some positive changes to my life. Living in this country is stressful enough, and it’s about time that I made the effort to improve it wherever I can. I’m thinking about professional changes. I’m thinking about “extracurricular” changes. I’m even thinking about geographical changes. If anything develops, I’ll keep you posted, but for now, on to more serious and controversial matters.

What the hell is happening here? I left a country that was relatively calm – grumbling about our next door neighbors, but not really doing anything to harm the status quo. Just one month later, and I find I’m living in a country gripped with drama and a fresh round of tragedies, whether it be the violent destruction of a family on a beach in Gaza under questionable circumstances, the loss of a young Israeli settler at the hands of terrorists, or the continuing saga of a kidnapped soldier. Life has suddenly become very intense, and it feels as though we are standing on the edge of an abyss with at least one foot on a banana peel.

I followed the story of the Gaza beach incident along with its predictable round of accusations and denials with distant interest. I’m not sure that we’ll ever know who the perpetrators were, and to be honest, I’m not sure whose version to believe. Unsurprisingly, this episode was widely discussed in the English-language Israeli blogosphere, and also unsurprisingly, I found myself utterly disgusted by the words and actions of a number of bloggers and commenters. I was shocked by the blinding hatred that does not even allow some people to show sympathy and sadness for a little girl who lost her family, and indeed, harshly and often rudely chastises those who do. What the hell is wrong with you people? For heaven’s sake, you’re not being asked to race across the border and jump into a big love orgy with the neighbors! By either refusing to even acknowledge this little girl’s loss or by making pathetic attempts to justify or minimize her loss in the face of losses on the Israeli side, you are simply showing an incredible lack of humanity, and frankly, it’s not a terribly attractive character trait.

As for attacking those bloggers who chose not to accept the official Israeli version of events, well, y’all just need to go take a chill pill. Step back and take a deep breath. The beauty of our little democracy is that you don’t always have to support the government or believe what they say, and to be honest, it wouldn’t exactly rock my world to find out that a serious Israeli cover-up was put into play here in order to avoid taking responsibility for this tragedy. It’s way out of line to demand that bloggers provide more balanced coverage of local actions, or that they write up retractions. Though some of us may be journalists in “real” life, when we blog, we have a responsibility to no one. We are chronicling life as we see it, as we experience it. We owe you nothing. If you like what we write, great. Come back often and feel free to comment. If you don’t like it, well, no one is forcing you to read it, and clearly, our writing is going to reflect our personal beliefs, so if you’ve got a problem with our beliefs, then you’re probably better off reading someone else’s blog instead of going all apoplectic on us.

Gaza. My thoughts are kind of hazy on the subject. On the one hand, the Palestinians have a government that sanctions – no, embraces – terror in all of its forms, whether it be kidnapping murder, or the firing of rockets into Israel. On the other hand, the humanitarian crisis continues to grow, and innocent Palestinian civilians are being injured and killed, pawns in a most dangerous game. Clearly, something must be done, but what? At what point do actions cross the line from legitimate to excessive? I’m not sure where the line is, but I do believe it’s been crossed. I don’t presume to know how to handle the current situation (and it appears to be that I’m in the majority on that one), but bombing and scaring the hell out of a civilian population that already has enough problems of its own even without our involvement doesn’t seem like the right way to go.

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