The world has gone crazy again. The surprise strike by Hamas was the big shocker this week. But in all honestly right from the time I studied about it in school and heard of it in the news as a kid, I always supported Palestine. But I can't get the images of the attacks on civilians, the music festival and the way it was attacked, and some of the reports on the massacres. This is different from Ukraine as that is still restricted to a military conflict, this is terrorism, and it is terrifying. The one image which sticks on is of the young girl being carried away by men in a bike, her arms stretched out to her boyfriend who is being held by other men. It's so unsettling. The way it happened is also unsettling and the way Israel's response has been is equally heartbreaking. For the poor, the weak and the defenseless there is no victory in any war.  I feel sad for the common people, was reading how the Israeli youth had been protesting against government policies they viewed as too authoritative and perhaps it was some of these same youth who lost their lives or are being held hostage by terrorists. Governments and their egos, terrorists and their insanity will tear apart the world, but at the end of the day it would be the weakest who would bear the biggest brunt. Just as terrifying Hamas' attack on civilians has been, the way Gaza strip is being pounded and reduced to rubble is equally bad. Two wrongs can't make a right. 

The other fact of the holocaust and the persecution that Jews have borne for centuries is also a reality. I remember reading Ivanhoe which addressed anti-Semite sentiment (of how a Jewish girl was about to be condemned as a witch), even Shakespeare didn't spare the Jews - though were they not human, did they not blead. It's very interesting how such a widely maligned community managed to stay rich and be amongst the most powerful and influential even to this day. Most big banks were started by Jews. And this leads me to the other point, the Jews are rich, and Palestinians not so much, there is so much of an imbalance there. These rich persecuted people claimed a land as their promised land, which was now occupied by these poor colonized people and then just set up a country there. This same promised land is held holy by all who live in the area. The whole situation is so complex and the irony which often  gets missed is that the very  people who persecuted Jews are now their supporters