so

someone i never met before approached us at lunch (to talk to someone esle at the table).  he saw that i was wearing an orange shirt and blew up at me.  his son volunteered for the army in israel for a year, and is apparently stationed in gaza.  i feel for the kid and his father, as i feel for every soldier.  i do not, however, stand for every problem in israel that his son had encountered, or the people who are making trouble down there.

i hate watching jew turn against jew.  i hate the politicking.  i hate that saying that i do not agree with dismantling settlements could ever be interpreted as standing against tzahal.  i hate to think what my grandfather would have had to say about all this. (i miss you)

am very sad.  have been very sad for days.  i have nou doubt that if i were there i would have thrown up long ago.

my soul is crying.  it's crying because jews don't feel for other jews, because israelis don't recgonize fellow israelis as country men.  they see them as enemies.  i fear civil war.  i fear an end to israel.  i think it may happen in my lifetime if we don't prove strong enough to fight for it the way people did before us.

our biggest mistake is to think that we're like anyone else, that we have the luxury to relax and take things for granted.  that's not our birthright.  nothing is granted to us for free.