Pray for Parity... People Everywhere.*

Do you see what I see?

Yes, it's the holiday season once again, kicked off here in Wisconsin's north woods last Saturday with the gun-deer season opening day. The bucks, and does, are being harvested for the meat, helping drivers avoid collisions in this population control.

Speaking of,
if it's the holidays, surely it's the time for the Middle East to erupt once again, with Israel and Hamas displaying the nifty new toys (Bang. Boom!) they've amassed over the year.

My wish?
Get it over with, already.
Pray for Parity, people everywhere.

Only when the women -- yep, I said women: the life bearers, the nurturers, the ones who perhaps grieve the losses most greatly -- on BOTH sides begin to understand their own are in grave danger will peace come.

Sadly, the US has only helped -- on our "rock solid" taxpayer support -- to artificially inflate Israel's fighting powers via superb technology.

Remember the last Gaza invasion? I'd like to see another, because this time, I think the Israeli army would rack up more losses in their ranks. Enough of the IDF sitting on the sidelines -- not present in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. -- those Israeli boys surely are itching, just itching, to experience and understand prolonged combat, serious sacrifice, and a ... dirtier war. Where they rely less on technology and actually go in and get their hands dirty...

If the US is committed now to Israel -- no longer playing at this "neutral" peacebroker role -- I'd like to see a stronger player step up to match the Palestinians, to help sponsor them financially in taking a side, as America has done for Israel.

It's happening, I know.
Surely I'm not the only one who thinks that Iran getting the nuclear bomb would offset Israel's own artificial imbalance. Perhaps -- it sounds cold I know -- an effective strike on Tel aviv, on the scale of the minimal (relatively) casualties of our Sept. 11 here (say, a thousand Israeli civilians or so) might be what it takes to end this cycle once and for all...

You'd hate to see Gaza become a Dresden, or Tel aviv disrupted to the point that tourism and the economy are disrupted, but if nobody is willing to address the underlying grievances and think they will "win" militarily, let's make a game of it already?

We here at home are war weary enough already, accepting the huge numbers of our own sacrificial losses to the point we just tune it out: what are the odds that most of us will blink twice at seeing Israeli citizens as bombing victims this go around. To be honest, all those dark-haired, brown-eyed little babies seem beautiful to me; I don't really share Kissinger's assessment that some human lives are worth more than others, by dint of a religious story or superior breeding or some other such nonsense.

But then again, I'm a woman.
I see Binyamin Netanyahu as just another arrogant white man, who hasn't yet felt the roots of his own traditional powers dying out yet. He's so confident in his military superiority, so much seeming to be enjoying this ... "winning", I don't think he'd see a big loss coming at all.

Elections are on the horizon is Israel.
As always, it won't be the Palestinians who best them, but Israel who ultimately beats itself -- overreaching, grabbing for more, celebrating the seeming superiority until one day when it rains down bigtime, horrific losses that in their short-sightedness the leaders just never saw coming.

Nevermind Sec. of State Clinton temporarily buying off the parties to pursue "peace". Enough already, close the checkbook. Peace will only come with parity, a mutual respect born of a power equality: if you don't want it done to you, for God's sake, address the underlying grievances already and don't do it to others.

If it takes some innocent heads cracked open on the streets of Tel aviv, some charred baby bodies on the ... "other" team to show us the folly of thinking military diplomatic policy is working, so be it.

Enough already. Forward -- no matter how much bloodshed it takes this holiday season to teach the world it's better to address the conflicts honestly, and value the worth of men, women and children of all races and creeds.

Happy Holy Days, then,
to you and yours.
Let's get er done, and not just kick the Middle East can down the road, while busting up all the new "toys", cuz Santa Sam can always provide more.

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or,
IF the Boys Wanna Fight, You Better Let Em...