Went to a demo at noontime today against the war in Lebanon. Across the road was a counter-demonstration “in solidarity with Israel.”. I suppose some people feel that Israel needs all the help it can get nowadays- perhaps this betrays a certain lack of perspective on their part about what’s going on. Tomorrow I’ll go to a bigger demo. I might not be protesting were it not for Canada supporting a military operation that is killing hundreds of people and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes and communities (so far). Didn't we go to war a few years ago to supposedly put a stop to that sort of thing in Kosovo? (Not that I favoured that war either, I must admit) As it is, I feel obliged to stand up and say in response to our government “Oh no you don’t. Not in my name.”

I won’t go into detail here about my views on the whole Mid-East mess. One problem with the last blog I did was it became dominated by tirades on politics. I invite you to read about what’s going on from people who are actually seeing it, like Robert Fisk, if you’re interested in having an opinion based on fact and on love for people rather than on lies in the service of nationalism, fundamentalism or ideology. I also like this column by Rick Salutin: “Lebanon, Israel and obscenity” (http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=51434)