[New York Times] Ethan Bronner - While tens of thousands have poured into the streets of world capitals demonstrating against the Israeli military operation in Gaza, antiwar rallies in Israel have struggled to draw 1,000 participants. The Peace Now organization has received many messages from supporters telling it to stay out of the streets on this one. As the editorial page of the Jerusalem Post put it on Monday, do Israelis really believe that everybody is wrong and they alone are right? The answer is yes. "Where was the world when our cities were rocketed for eight years and our soldier was kidnapped?," asked Yoel Esteron, editor of a daily business newspaper. Israel, which is sometimes a fractured, bickering society, has turned in the past couple of weeks into a paradigm of unity and mutual support. What looks to the world like a disproportionate war of choice is seen by many here as an obligatory war for existence.
2009-01-13 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive