Those who Keep Quiet Agree

 "The opposite of compromise is fanaticim and death." "A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not on the hilltops."  "Israel should aspire to be a decent country. That is good enough for me."  "The Israel Palestinian conflict has been a tragedy, a clash between one very powerful, very convincing, very painful claim over this land and another no less powerful, no less concerning claim."  "If we don't stop somewhere, if we don't accept an unhappy compromise, unhappy for both sides, if we don't learn how to unhappily coexist and contain our burned sense of injustice, if we don't learn that, we end up in a doomed state." "Two children of the same cruel parents look at each other and see in each other the image of the cruel parent or the image of their past oppressor. This is very much the case between Jew and Arab. It is a conflict between two victims."  Amos Oz.   "Silence is the virtue of fools."  Francis Bacon.                                                              There is an English saying, "It can only get worse." And so it does. When you have a spoiled child, accustomed to get away with murder, you can't change its bad behavior simply by threatening, when it already experienced that it does not have to fear any/hardly any sanctions and its so-called friends will always find excuses for its atrocities. Pinocchio Netanyahu's flexible truth is an insult for intelligent folks. If there is no famine in Gaza, why do children and adults die of starvation every day, presently in total 322, including more than 112 children? Why are they so skinny, just bones and skin, reminding of photos seen in the past of Jews in German concentration camps..... Several ministers of the present far-right Israelian government openly stated that they don't want Palestinians to receive any aid, no food, no water, no medication. Delivery via helicopter has only an alibi function, it's expensive, like a drop of water on a hot stone, and in addition dangerous, death by falling palets from air drops. Some persons already died while running for a bit of food to feed their families, and this while lorries with lots of food are viciously blocked from entering Gaza, large quantities of food is meanwhile rotting. In the past the Israelian army stopped radical settlers, now it actively supports their war crimes, theft, destruction and uprooting several thousands of old, strong Bedouine's olive trees, burning others, often including farms and also killings. Several Palestinians, even those with double nationality, have been beaten to death by fanatic, evil settlers. What kind of state does Netanyahu want, a Pariah state? He once said he intends to make the world a secure place for all Jews. No man before him did so much damage to the Israelian soul and folks with a Jewish religion. Does he and his government really believe they are the choosen people? Which God loves those who do evil, murder innocent children and adults (more than 63,000, mainly women and children)? 156,573 are wounded, 10,000 are missing, numbers raising. If God promised the land to "his choosen people" , why did he also create there Palestinians and Arabs (less loved and less valuable people) ? Amnesty International called Israeli siege of Gaza "collective punishment and war crime" - but listening to human rights organisations seems to be out of fashion nowadays, respecively, condemnation by Western heads of state remains a powerless lipservice. It is so depressing. A leaked military report, based on internal Israeli intelligence database, indicates that only 17 % of those killed in Gaza were actually fighters. Perhaps not surprising, several soldiers committed suicide. It is just one of those effects especially brutal war can have on involved army members (e. g. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) . Melania Trump wrote to President Pution on account of the large number of Ukrainian children that were taken away from their families and brought to Russia to be raised there to forget their culture and country of original, when they grow older forced to join the Russian army and fight against Ukrainian people. Trump declared Putin was very moved by Mrs Trump's letter, as a mother she has a deep feeling for those poor children torn away from their parents. Sounds impressive, but I wonder whether the good lady and her husband, the great dealer, are aware of the undescribable suffering of  innocent Palestinian children, too many severely injured, without hope, those who lost a limb, one or even both parents, their brothers and sisters, other relatives, are undernourished, not even save in hospitals. Does civilization enable us to feel empathy for some people but not for others? Selective empathy? The last two, correction, according to BBC Verif actually 4 strikes on the Gaza Nasser hospital, leaving 20 dead, including doctors, medical staff, 5 journalists (Reuters, Aljazeera, etc) and of course patients, Netanyahu is not ashamed to blame it on a  "terrible mishap." 

They will "investigate" and allow journalists embedded in the Israelian army..... Lord have mercy. The ICC in Den Haag declared that all member states are obligated to refrain from providing assistance to Israel in maintaining the occupation. Israelians with dual nationality living abroad are not exempt from national service, 18 to 36 months. The ICC warned that they may be held accountable for complicity in genocide. By the way, Begium and Germany (governments, not necessarily identical what the majority of their citizens wants) said that they don't support a Palestinian state. Shouldn't at least Germany understand that without Hitler and his evil Nazis Israel would be a different state and Germany has a responsility not just towards Israel but also towards the Palestinians, their suffering in Gaza, the Westbank etc. as  well. Germany ought to know the meaning of a genocide and "self-defence" is by international standards the right of those occupied not the occupiers. Mr Trump decided to refuse a Visa for the Palestinian president Abbas and other Palestinians to attend the General United Nations Assembly in New York. In view of Mr. Trump's determination "to rule the world" and ignore international laws and regulations, it is high time to choose a democatic state as host nation for such assemblies. 

Greed and Deception Rule Our World

 "If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyality and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans." James Herriot.  "Animals don't lie, animals don't criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do." Betty White.   "In a real dark night of the soul, it is always 3 o'clock in the morning, day after day."  "At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look, at 45 they are caves in which we hide."  "Action is character."  F. Scott Fitzgerald.  "Democracy in US doesn't exist anymore."  Yale Professor.  "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  Albert Einstein.                                                                                    With high temperatures, even at night, leaving the bedroom window open helps a bit, but where we live it means putting up with a lot of noise from the street, pretty loud talking, gossiping and giggling until at least 1 a. m. in the morning (a group of girls/ women sitting together and another one of youngsters/ men across the road, plus deafening teenagers hanging around a staircase who like to mark "their area" with their garbage). Now we understand why many houses here have long corridors, I guess it's obvious we are not living in an academic quarter, but compensated by numerous gorgeous cats and several excellent neighbors . Folks continue leaving kittens in front of our house, an easy solution for them.....A woman asked us to look out for her Siamese tomcat that disappeared 20 days ago. Sometimes up to 3 Siamese cats arrive for breakfast. For several days there were none. This morning, though, a male came, not in good shape, eat very little, but he enjoyed  cuddling with me. Then he not only marked my house "as his property" but me too with a tiny bit of his urine. I took it as a compliment. I have been wondering if and how pets survive in Gaza. A very young Palestinian boy tries to feed them. When a poor kitten died, he cried and apologized that he didn't manage to save its life, "but you are in a better world now, without guns, rockets and drones." It depresses me to think that this wonderful boy Netanyahu wouldn't hesitate to kill "in self-defence". It seems that even some members of the German Social Democrats believe their continued rhetoric of Israelian "self-defence". They have come a long way, not in a positive sense. I remember the great Hans-Juergen Wischnewski ("Ben Wisch") who brought suitcases full of money (10 million Deutsch Mark) to Algeria for FLN to support the Algerian independence fight. The SPD MP, for a while also minister of foreign affairs, was rewarded the highest Palestinian order by Yasser Arafat for his commitment to the rights of Palestinian people. As a child Wischnewski started to collect stamps of Algeria, Marroco and Tunisia, he continued to do so as adult. Sounds like a start, anyhow, he did a lot to improve German relationships with Arabic and African countries. Madonna asked the Pope to visit Gaza, "you are the only one to whom Netanyahu can't deny access." As a mother she finds the suffering and killing in Gaza unbearable, in particular that of the children. Difficult to understand, but apparently several men and women, mothers and fathers themselves, are capable of killing innocent children, such Nazis existed and other war criminals in various countries, only howadays, though, it is called "self-defence". Rhetoric that reminds me of Goebels. The EU and 26 ministers of foreign affairs demand a stop of weapon delivery to Israel. The Israelian chief of civilian staff declared his oposition to the occupation and war in Gaza. Netanyahu decided to punish his critic (like his brother-in- spirit, Trump) and make his life difficult through  discrimination. Families of hostages informed Netanyahu that should their loved ones be killed they will hold him personally accountable in every possible way! Since the beginning of the war at least 187 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the last 4 Aljazeera journalists and a camera man were purposely murdered in a tent at a hospital. Netanyahu claimed that one of them (who anticipated in April his killing by Israeli forces) was a terrorist possing as a journalist, as usual no proof was presented for this accusation. Yet Netanyahu now says he wants to allow international journalists to visit Gaza (and risk their lives or work embedded in the Israeli army?). Meanwhile at least 197 Palestinians are starved to death, including 96 children. Using starvation as a weapon clearly represents a war crime according to international laws. Gangs of far right Israelis have blocked aid trucks from reaching Gaza. Two of Israelian NGO's, B' Tselem and Physicians for Human rights, have labeled the Israelian Gaza war as a genocide, nonetheless many Israelians believe that Hamas is responsible for the starvation in Gaza, yes, media sensorship and continuous propaganda can be very successful! Controlling the masses through propaganda enables the abuse of power. George Orwell (1984 and Animal Farm) warned in his famous literature, incredible how must he forsaw. Ethnic cleansing to create a "Rivera of the Middle East" on a big " cemetry"

it is only one side of the medal. The idea of Greater Israel, " the promised land for the chosen folk", ("Lebensraum", sounds familiar) hasn't died, Netanyahu and his far right government believe the time has come, first steps have been taken. What does it include?   - The entirety of historic Palestine, - Lebanon, - Jordan, - more than 70 % of Syria, - half of Iraq, - one third of Saudi Arabia, - one quarter of Egypt, - part of Kuwait. All of that is supposed to be "the promised land" that God wants the Jews to possess, from the Nile to the Euphrat, so they say and believe. Wonder what destination awaits the "natives" (Arabs mainly)? Looking at Netanyahu' map of the Far, Middle, and Near East, I noted that Tunisia's boarders are marked, but this piece of land appears to be nameless. With a bit of luck Netanyahu thinks it's only dessert waste land that's not worth fighting for, as a colony of no interest. It is worth remembering Lutheran Pastor Niemoeller' words:  "First they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unions and I did not speak out because I am not a trade unist. Then they came for the jews and I did not speak out because I am not a jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. " Niemoeller was sent to 2 concentration camps and narrowly escaped execution. -

 Last but not least, MP Chok'ri Bahri and others presented a great gift to all animal loving women ( plus men and  children) on women's day: strong animal protection laws.  "Protecting animals is directly protecting humans, it contributes to preserving the environment and universal balance." He strongly criticizes the brutal practices of inflicting on animals. One Health principles, e. g. Chapter 11:  1-3 years prison and fines of up to 2000 Dinars for anyone intentionally assaulting an animal and causing permanent disability. Chapter 23:  16 days to 1 month imprison  and fines of 500 Dinars for anyone mistreating an animal, whether they owe it or not. Harsher penalties in cases of repeated offences. Chapter 94: Fines of 100 - 1000 Dinars for  anyone who causes death of a pet, intentionally or unintentionally or through negligence. Very happy to hear this, thank you very much, you made my day.