It is suffocating to think that everyone is getting psyched up for confrontation. Fancy the Israeli government arming citizens to do their dirty work. They are setting their own civilian people up as vigilantes. If the people start fighting the army is going to step in as well. They may even end up killing their own people...

This is no better than using children as a human sheild. What a shameful way to do politics. I would not take up arms, even if someone came to shoot me in my own home. The consequences are too horrible to imagine.

Perhaps the Israeli people themselves will have more sense than their war-mongering government.

As the Palesinians are planning this to be a peace march, why not meet them with refreshments and a meal at the end of their march at the 'red line' and get to know them?

Us Brits like a street party, it's where everyone in the street brings something, and trestle tables are set up with flags, and party streamers and everyone has a sing song to celebrate something. Like a Royal Wedding.

Just get to know the people you are fighting. Once you know them keep in contact, and have another go at having a party together. Find out what it is the people want, not what their leaders tell them they want.

It isn't the man and woman in the street in Palestine that can't get a government together, it's their government not dealing with their own factions and infighting.

I think we all want safe homes, and safe neighbourhoods. Good utilities. We want good schools for our children, good access to affordable medical help. I also think most people want to be a good citizens, and offer their time and effort to building society around them. We need stable economies, and jobs that make sense of our gifts and creativity, in whatever that form manifests itself.

I was really happy being a Hairdresser, now I haven't a clue what to do. I could not get a job even if I wanted one. I don't have recognised qualifications in any areas that I might get a job, and I am over qualified to get a job that doesn't need qualifications. I can't stand cleaning, so even if cleaners do get £12 per hour or more, I would be terrible at it, so even I wouldn't employ myself for that. All anyone needs is a little niche in a bigger society.

You know, it was the people themselves that tore down the Berlin Wall. Lets pray that all the people of a once beautiful land realise the opportunity they could share together. Israel has so much it could offer the Palestinians, and if everyone living in an undivided country, has equal opportunities and rights, there is a whole lot of land to share together.

A government that does not represent the wishes of it's people is a dictatorship.

So I read all this. http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html

It reminds me that Jersey is placed in a group of islands. During the English Civil War, Gurnsey went over to Cromwell, and Jersey stayed loyal to the Crown. Well 400 years or so later there is still a 'friendly' rivalry between us, and most people don't know why. You ought to see the turnout for the anual inter- island football game! And any other competitive sporting activities are followed with keen interest.

Their derogatory term for us is Crapauds! which is the Gurnsey name for a species of frog that only grows here. We call them 'Donkeys'. Presumably because they had a lot of Donkeys, I wouldn't mind finding that one out. Good thing there is 12 miles of water between us! We all get to visit each other on boats for holidays.

If there is a very nice red sunset the local Jersey saying is; 'Red sky at night, Jerseyman's delight, Gurnsey's alight'. It lays northwest of us. It's all fairly innocuous these days, but I understand it used to be quite serious. No doubt there are local sayings in Gurnsey that reciprocate the old sentiments. However nowadays we get along fine.

Sometimes a conflict loses the historical context of it's origins and is just perpetuated for the sake of an idealism that isn't realistic, or a desire for power in it's rulers, - that it's people simply can't see any sense in - or a true justification for.

I am speaking as a person who lives in a place that was occupied by Germany during the war, as was Gurnsey. The Germans evacuated the other islands. So many of our people were sent to concentration camps and died there too. The people who were here and suffered the occupation did their best to keep islanders alive, and not serve their German invaders.

I was reading some of the granite flagstones in town today, they are quotes from people who lived through it. I stopped and read the one that said,

                                                 'Our Parents made so many sacrifices for us during those years,
                                                  we must  always remember what they did',
(or words to that effect).

Now we welcome our German visitors, we show them where their parents or Grandparents would have been stationed. We show them our memorials, and their walls. We were explaining to the Canadians that without the German costal fortifications we would lose so much of our low-lying lands. It is still within the living memory of so many island people. We show them what they come to see.

One of the saddest places I visited was an ossuary for the German forces on the north coast of France.
It was desolate cheerless and had a sense of shamed silence about it. There was no beautiful cemetary for them like the war graves commission cemetaries. They fought a war mostly as the counterpart of the Tommy or GI joe yet what an awful place of silent exclusion. I felt so sad and humiliated for some reason.

Mainly because I know that the Germans were buried in our beautiful graveyards, and they were dug up and put in this awful place after the war.

There is no valour realy in war. Just broken lives.

I watched Ingred Bergman as Golda last night, she was asked when there would be peace and I think if this is truly one of her quotes pretty much sums up every war.

                     'When they love their children more than they hate us, we may see peace'.

Look in the mirror.

Think I might paint a few more 'sun spots' out of my picture, a nice ice age would sort out a few problems.
Nope, I just checked my original calculations, the picture looks fine. Get that permafrost sorted, bit more frosty topping where it's meant to be, and everything will look fine.

We are about 4 degrees under average temperature at the moment I think, the sky's look good, sufficient ash in the upper atmosphere. Might try a bit of rain over Africa soon, whip up a nice storm here and there, drop another tectonic plate about half a meter and we should sail through this.

Life is such fun, Himself has been researching the family tree all day, and made a lot of progress for the Canadian cousins. It turns out our best friends are the closest commen link between us. They were delighted too, to meet our common cousins.

I have to say, I do love Lebanese food. When I go to London, I always book for a meal in a Lebanese restaurant. I understand it was all so beautiful, it would be wonderful to restore all of those lands, and see people enjoying a way of life together that serves as a credit to diplomacy, and tolerance. I would want to visit if it was peaceful.