The march of madness
Of Uri Avnery
Source: Comedonchisciotte
You can look at the events in Gaza with your left eye or with your right eye. One can condemn them as inhumane, cruel and wrong, or you can justify them as necessary and indispensable. But there is one adjective that cannot be compromised on. They are stupid.
If the good soul Barbara Tuchman were still alive, might be tempted to add another chapter to her seminal text “The March of Madness”: a chapter titled “Blind in Gaza.”
The last episode of this epic began a few months ago, when independent activists from the Gaza Strip had organized, together with Hamas, a march on the border with Israel. It was called “The Great March of Return,” a purely symbolic gesture for the million-plus Arab residents [in the Strip]who had had to flee or had been driven from their homes, from that territory which later became the state of Israel.
The Israeli authorities pretended to take the matter seriously. The Israeli public had been presented with a horrifying picture of the situation: 1,8 millions of Arabs, men, women and children about to throw themselves against the border fences, break them down in many places and lay fire to the cities and villages of Israel. Terrifying. Read More