August 18

Hot spot: place where violence is a form of communication. Iraq. Gaza. Ferguson, Missouri.

The US knows chaos is bad; we sent in the National Guard. Looting is not covered under free speech.

In Gaza the National Guard and looters are one: Hamas. An Israeli video of Gazan parents holding up babies to sacrifice for the cause of making Israel a ‘temporary chapter in history’ makes you ask yourself if that is what they want for their children, or if it is what they say because a green Hamas flag flies over their white house, lucky it is not ISIS black?

The current ceasefire expires today at midnight, 5pm EST. It is depressing, because we have been here before. Hamas has had plenty of time to come about to reconciliation and I think the wheel will come up rockets. Again. Israeli news says the Israeli Defense Force, like the National Guard, will restore order within its borders, which means putting a stop to Hamas. In other words, Israelis are going in again, and they will still play by Geneva Convention rules. Egypt will support them. The UN will not. The UK will dither; surveys show Brits want Israel to win, just without firing any real bullets. Hey, me too. Especially me. Americans in the US will dither too: Why can’t we all just get along? Like in Ferguson, Missouri.

Apparently Ferguson isn't fulfilling the American Dream of kids getting educated, then employed. It’s what we expect from our country. It's what we demand of and model for our kids. Michael Brown’s mother said she battled with him to stay in high school and go on to college, and that it wasn’t easy. No rough circumstances in Ferguson can justify lawlessness, just as no grievances in Gaza allow for ceasefire breaches, human shields, and rockets fired purposefully onto neighboring civilians.

Order. Then dialog. Then solutions. Israel and Hamas are on that brink again today, facing each other across opposite edges of a pool. Do they jump in and meet as neighbors? I think Hamas will harbor military control, and again shoot rockets over the divide while keeping Gazan civilians, including children, inside areas of fire, for an excuse to yell genocide. What kind of Dream is that?

Dream Radical Islam: ISIS, Hamas. Both are neighbors of Israel.

The West watches from afar, convinced that the crazy, hot-headed conflict will burn itself out. It takes two to tango, and the West refuses. Not interested. And who would blame them? Only the Radical Islam Dreamers have stated they plan to be global, and play soon in an arena near the rest of us.

Back to the pool, and our upcoming litmus test of peace: Hamas at 5pm EST jumps in next to Israel, and agrees to use aid not for rockets, but for Gazans to build a better life.

It takes two to tango. It also takes two to have peace.

Or, if your partner is Radical Islam, a strong pair of rose-colored glasses. Which we wear, because they feel so much better than the increasingly clearer alternative of violence, or Sharia. Can't we all just get along, agree to wear 3D glasses and keep the violence on IMAX screens? I vote for virtual war, like the Brits.