Word from a friend

[Heidi and Dan Chay]

Hi Tova,

In response to Artur, you wrote:

>>
As a way of bringing this letter to a close I would like to share two
thing from last few days in my personal, private life :
1/ Yesterday, two streets away from were I live there was a suicide
bombing in a snooker club. 15 civilians, unarmed, unprotected, half of
them 55 years old and above, were murdered. 50 wounded,12 of them
sevirly. It could have been me, or you. Is that a "massacre or not"?

2/ Sometimes I envy people who live in situations in which there is
right and wrong in a clear cut way. I don't believe I do. My 14 year old
daughter, Shira, had spoken to me few days ago with deep reflection in
her voice ( after arguing with kids her age who hold extreme opinions)
:"you know, Imma (Mommy' in Hebrew), I do not understand how people can
be extreemly leftist or exrteemly rightist in this situation" when I
questioned 'why' she answered: " because the only sane position in this
mass, were every one is right and does wrong, in not to be sure that you
know, and to look for what is right". that made my heart move.
<<

To me, your example of the suicide bombing is a massacre. The pain and
horror of that reaches all the way here to me in Alaska.

Your daughter's words also strike me with feeling, wonder, and sense of
wisdom.

And I still wonder also if the Israeli military (members of it)
perpetuated massacres themselves. I am currently fairly sure they
perpetuated horror. It concerns me less whether any perpetuators of
horror Palestinian or Israeli were by some justification "right" to do
so or not, compared to whether perpetuating horrors on others will help
anyone achieve their higher aims.

It seems to me your neighbors and you and the different Palestinians
have closely-felt experiences to help shape your understandings in a way
that I do not.  I imagine for some that has been a mixed benefit.  It
looks from here to me like living so close to the edge of survival has
resulted in many of both Israeli and Palestinian people not being able
acknowledge and understand other peoples' perspectives very well.

I find our US mainstream press gives a fairly homogenous picture of
middle east conflict -- and Bush fairly well reflects that picture, I
think, unfortunately.  It is, among other things, a mainstream picture
that draws vividly and often the horrors felt by Israelis and weakly and
infrequently the horrors felt by Palestinians.

For some time I have sought also to understand the horrors felt by
Palestinians. There is, for example, a mailing list by Ali Abunimah that
provides alternative (to US mainstream news) selections of news and
analysis about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that can be joined by
sending a blank email to aliabunimah-subscribe at yahoogroups.com.

It seems to me it is these kinds of perspective WITH what we learn from
various Israeli and other perspectives that will help us understand more
profoundly each others' pain  -- by way of beginning to better
understand the complexity of the whole and to shift from vicious to
virtuous cycles of interaction.  I see you as a heroine in your efforts
to cultivate such openness.

Love and best wishes,

Dan Chay

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