Jerusalem, looking north from an outlook in the city's southern Gilo neighborhood. I shot this with a camera-phone, and Photoshopped the lo-rez image to bring out the dreaminess of the landscape. (Photo: Dave Bender All Rights Reserved)
Because Glen Sheridan at The Australian newspaper slams this one out of the park:
..."Israel of the Western mind (and indeed of the Arab mind) is a hateful place: right-wing, militaristic, authoritarian, racist, ultra-religious, neo-colonial, narrow-minded, undemocratic, indifferent to world opinion, indifferent especially to Palestinian suffering.Yes, I know it's not a new post, but it's worth repeating."Yet the Israel I know is mostly secular, raucously, almost wildly democratic, has a vibrant left wing, having founded in the kibbutz movement one of the only successful experiments in socialism in human history. It is intellectually disputatious; any two Israelis will have three opinions and be happy to argue them to a lamp post. It is multi-ethnic, there is a great stress on human solidarity, there is due process. And I've never heard an Israeli speak casually about the value of Palestinian life. I've heard Israelis voice a desire to neutralise Hezbollah or remove Hamas from leadership in Gaza, but I've never in any context heard an Israeli express the view that the value of a human life is determined by race."
