Israel or Gaza?

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we were faced with taking a position. Are you for Russia or for Ukraine? After the violence in Israel, we are again expected to take a stand. It reminds me of the corona days. Apparently, you always have to be for one and against the other. And as soon as you share your position, nay as soon as it is clear to the other where you stand, you are showered with jeers and malicious expressions. To me, that is an explicit demonstration of stupidity. Although I myself can be very decisive in my views, of course everything stops when you are no longer open to another opinion. In word that is the Leitmotif of Dutch society, in deed we abandoned this principle years ago.

Call for international intervention
You cannot take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The history of the conflict is too long and the complexity too great for that. As a child, I remember the daily front-page articles about the tensions between these peoples. I have followed the coverage and analyses surrounding the current outbreak of violence intensively and again I am not getting any further as to how this could have come to this. They have been reacting to each other for decades with acts of violence that have little to do with civilisation. An international intervention force will have to intervene quickly and keep the parties apart. Next, a belt around Israel will have to be declared neutral territory. In that area, the UN will rule.

By the way, the general opinion formation is quite predictable and dictated by our government leaders. I think there was a Teams meeting in which Biden's club explained to the heads of government how to publicly relate to the two bantams. And the people are loyal to their leaders.

Courageous are those who do shine the light on the other side, even more courageous are those who sit at the media table with a critical attitude. They are very careful in their wording, timid even, afraid of being publicly slagged off. As long as they are nuanced and show evidence of projecting their opinions onto an overall picture, I think they are heroes. So did Palestinian-Dutch political scientist Radi Suudi, who, against the storm of emotions, still called attention to Palestinian interests.

Expression always leads to terror
Every time, you are amazed at the repeating history. You can easily pinpoint where in the world terror is lurking because people's freedoms have been curtailed too severely. But we are simply not acting proactively. And it is incredibly difficult to exert outside pressure that leads to improvement of the situation. See our attempts towards Iran and Saudi Arabia, towards China, towards Qatar. Last week, Frits Barend was honoured for his critical questions to Fidela during the banquet after the 1978 World Cup football final in Argentina. The latter knew nothing about it, he replied.

All the happier I am with most of the interviews with the new political leaders. Timmermans (Green Left/PvdA) and Bontenbal (CDA) at one table would have produced a demonstration of mud-slinging 10 years ago. Now I saw two politicians from very different generations seeking to understand each other, seeking common ground in political views. If I add Caroline and Pieter in my mind, nuance reigns supreme. Then we see a revival of the middle, of solid people's parties. Leave those elections, start the formation, the country desperately needs you!