# 109 – Ceasefire & Obama

January 20, 2009

They ‘will judge you on what you can build, not on what you can destroy’. Those were a few of the words from Obama’s lips today. They were aimed directly at the Moslem world, but I appreciate that some will feel they were also aimed at so many others.

The ceasefire in Gaza may have been partly ‘arranged’ to give a little breathing space – and respect – to Barack Obama. That’s a very strange way to ‘play’ with people’s lives, but that’s a fact. (I recall many a time when the visit of an important overseas politician heralded 1 or 2 devastating suicide attacks in Israel).

In Gaza, devastation, deaths and misery. It’s all there.

Overkill? Undeniably yes. Avoidable? Perhaps. Self-inflicted? Arguably.

The Economist calls it the ‘100 Years’ War’, and, without having read the article, it does remind people to take a step back and realise just what had been going on for so long.

Time’s headline last week was ‘Why Israel Won’t succeed’ (or words to that effect) – almost identical to headline in Canada’s McClean magazine some months ago (about which I wrote at the time).

I’m thinking of starting a campaign…something like B.A.D…Build Another Dubai. I would use every means to persuade those who, so often in the past have been helping/pushing the Palestinians to invest in self-destruction and 100 years of misery, to now invest in streets, homes, schools etc. 

Build a future, instead of a past. Persuade the mothers of suicide bombers to be mothers of builders, teachers; in future, fathers and mothers. Change UNRWA into UNBAD. Get the Arab ‘brothers’ to construct instead of destruct, and the Europeans to stop waffling.

If ‘real peace’ were declared today, a large majority of Israelis would not only show support, they would also have the mental ability to accept and live with it. The rest would be flooded under Israel’s ultra-democratic system. Unfortunately, a majority of Palestinians have had generations of negative education, have been taught to hate, to have no hope in anything but their neighbour’s destruction – they just have no concept of ‘peace’. That’s where B.A.D. comes in….

Stephen