Peace in the Middle East & a Piece of Cake

This isn't Mrs Sparkles and Mrs Twinkletoes but it is how we imagine ourselves in Paris sometimes, with cake naturellement!

A more contemporary image can be found in the 1st post, a photo taken outside Joe Bananas at Glastonbury 2 years ago, I had wandered around for about an hour with my lousy sense of direction before we found each other, but was rewarded with a feather boa, some v.potent blackcurrant wine & a reminder that great friendships survive blissfully even when we don't live at the opposite end of one street, which we did in London.

As I went off to sleep, not terribly successfully last night, 2 things were occupying my mind. One was the Middle East crisis and the other was CCG's Blogging is Retarded Post. He always gets me thinking that boy, not least about Noblesse Oblige, so you should go visit, I left my comment there and may or may not expand at some other point in time. I might even ask if I could link to him if I knew how to do that. So my other train of thought was the mess which is the Middle East, of which Hezbollah is the latest symptom, the solution to which was not bombing Lebanon to bits; one man's terrorist is the other's freedom fighter? We have to talk to the enemy, not concede our freedoms, but create dialogue.

As a card carrying liberal, with socialist leanings, I suppose am almost bound to be pro-Palestinian despite originating from a Jewish family, although that does mean I know the theology, history and politics of the area. If we really want to delve, the region has been unstable since the days of the Ottoman Empire & the now Israel is a tiny nation, surrounded by its enemies. It is hard for me to find myself so anti-Israeli but, the liberalism I once found in the population has been obliterated by suicide bombers, and suspicion has replaced a dynamic multi-cultural Jerusalem.

While neither solution is perfect, we (we being the human race) can manage peace and reconciliation in South Africa, and the peace process in Northern Ireland, so we have precedent. Everyone is to blame for the yesterdays; the post war agreement which displaced a race, the US funding of Israeli arms (BTW have the Irish-Americans stopped funding the IRA now?) etc. etc. ut we can't look back. a 2 state solution appears to be the optimum & Jerusalem would be no less part of the Holy Land if it is shared by other faiths; Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all heirs of Abraham. It will remain an anathema to me that a persecuted race can persecute, the settlements were a disgrace & the checkpoint still is.

BTW thanks for the tips on posting images, I'm still crashing but managing to fool blogger sometimes. Can anyone able to tell me how to add links on my sidebar? I did read the instructions but am not much wiser yet.