Huffington Post has a number of items about the Gaza/Israel situation. The first commentary item that I read, Israel’s Blitzkrieg on Gaza Proves Politically Expedient, Disproportionate and Unstoppable, may be indicative of the view from the Arab side. My linking to the article should not be taken as either endorsing or condemning the point of view expressed by the author.  Reading it is valuable for learning how someone else may view a situation whether you agree or not.

It is remarkable how each side is able to see how they are provoking the other side, and yet remain powerless to stop pushing each other’s buttons.  This is a common human frailty that I see almost every day (and in which I sometimes sadly participate).

I am bereft of any ideas on how to stop this counter-productive behavior on either side.  Perhaps our new American leadership will be able to see a way out.

There is an imaginitive proposal posted as a comment to this article. Perhaps this idea is too insulting to the Gazan side.

Whenever I see Hamas engage in these seemingly hopeless retaliations against the much stronger forces of Israel, I have a mental exercise that I find thought provoking, yet it has not led me to see a solution.

I imagine the Jews of Europe during World War II when ever they tried to resist what was happening to them.  Their hopeless efforts also provoked a disproportionate response from their oppressor. The mental exercise is to make a list of the differences and similarities between the Gazans of today and the Jews back then.  The other part of the exercise is to also make lists comparing the similarities and differences between Israelis of today with the Nazis of the World War II era.

Initially I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to make up your own lists.  At some future point in time, it might be interesting to compare our lists.