Sunday, January 20, 2008

Gaza and Kafka

I don't like using the word 'kafkaesque' because it gets used by a lot of sophomoric writers as a synonym of 'weird'. Which is isn't. But this story is kafkaesque. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7198798.stms

The Hamas government of Gaza is at war with Israel. It says it right there in its founding document. Its main goal in life is the destruction of the Israeli state, and as many of the jews living in it as it can manage. It also depends for virutally all its vital daily needs on that self-same Jewish state. So there is a perpetual-motion sequence of action and response; the Hamas murderers send forth the rockets hoping to blow up perhaps a jewish housewife or schoolchild, the Israeli government convenes its committees and sends over a helicopter gunship or closes the border crossings. Then Hamas go bleating to the international media about how repressive and nazi-like the Israelis are for rocketing them and shutting their borders, and the whole cycle starts again.

If thats not Kafkaesque, what is? I hope that there is an out from this situation that doesn't involve the deaths of a large proportion of the 1.4 million Gazans, but I'm not sure.

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