Opinion/Editorial

On the way I had that sinking feeling of powerlessness mixed with outrage that always accompanied me to events like this - an equal mixture of responsibility, anger at the injustice, the fundamental unfairness of it all, and helplessness in the face of an unmoving, uncaring, cruel and supremely self-righteous system of oppression.

I am writing to express my deepest opposition to the United States continued support for and participation in Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories.

Your children are hungry, irritable, and smelly. You try to calm them, singing them songs while heating up some left-over coffee and listening to news reports on a battery powered radio that promise your difficult life is only going to get worse.

The Palestinian people have made it quite clear that they will resist the occupation until it ends completely, and they are learning more about the occupier’s vulnerabilities every day. Even Sharon will have to stop and think before he does anything more foolish than he has so far.

The question remains, though, what it would take for those countries that crow loudest about human rights to be up to the challenge of holding Israel and its leaders accountable.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres underlined that Israel was pulling out of the conference because of “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments,” adding that the conference was “a farce.” And yet one more opportunity to make Israel accountable for the hell on earth it creates daily for Palestinians under its military occupation was neatly side-stepped.

A few days ago I received an email declaring that McDonald’s Corporation, the US fast food giant, would be donating money to Israel to fight against the Palestinians.

What has happened is so horrible I cannot find the words to express my reactions. I don’t have a television, so it was not until this morning when the Toronto Globe and Mail landed on our front porch that I saw the images—the huge buildings now gone, the body parts in the streets, the people with faces of absolute fear and shock.

It is extremely hard to write this morning, and yet I feel I have to. Everything hurts so much. After a few hours sleep, I woke up in the dark, hoping and praying that I had woken up from a nightmare. The nightmare is still there.

I arrived in New York City on Friday night, three days after the disaster. I drove all day from Chicago with a friend.