Remember Saturday 27 December 2008

We must not let Saturday pass. Israel crossed a line on that day and it must be held to account for it. At least fifty civilians have been killed and there must be some justice for them. They can not be forgotten in this pathetic, endless search for peace in the Middle East. Ehud Barak has some questions to answer, as do the Rabbis who justify this kind of action. Two aphorisms come to mind. The first is the line at the beginning of Schindler's List: 'Whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved the whole of humanity'. And the second is from a Rabbi I heard at an interfaith conference about twenty years ago who said that the Golden Rule of Judaic law is 'deal with others as you would expect to be dealt with yourself'. I asked him then if this meant that Israelis were not living up to the teachings of their faith and he agreed. Come on Rabbis, speak out.

Even if the others were wearing uniform, I cannot but notice the resemblance between sending a missile into a police station in which fifty policemen are instantly killed (were they all supporters of Hamas? Can one be a supporter of Hamas and disagree with their policies? Does being a supporter of Hamas mean that you can be killed? Does this logic sound familiar?) and the suicide bombers in Iraq who kill Iraqis training to be policemen. This is indiscriminate slaughter and approximately 200 were killed on Saturday and Ehud Barak has some questions to answer.