Iyow - in your own words

Reading the news is just too depressing these days, and I am an avowed former newspaper junkie. I feel as if I’m peeking between my fingers, waiting for the headline, “The End of the World Is Officially Here.” And then I’ll be sorry for not ordering those Red Cross survival kits.

This past week Israel’s fatal bombing of a residential neighborhood in Qana, in Lebanon, prompted the Lebanese prime minister to tell Secretary of State Condi Rice not to bother coming for those peace talks after all. Qana is also a site of biblical significance – where the story goes that Jesus turned water into wine – and a place of modern military significance, where Israel launched the “Grapes of Wrath” offensive in response to purported Hezbollah mortar fire. Thanks to Andrew Rice at Slate’s Today’s Papers for the history lesson.

All of this (and surely much more than we remember) plus the perception in the Middle East of Israel as an arm of the U.S., compounded with the war in Iraq… makes containment of violence there so very, very tenuous. Though Dr. Rice and the State Department are putting the best face on it, saying that there is an emerging consensus on a cease-fire, going to the U.N. for a resolution. But it seems this administration goes to the U.N. only when it wants to stall for time.

But then again, maybe we won’t be touched directly by any of this, except for higher gas prices, a few politicans get booted at the next election, and the families of the dead will have to console themselves. Until the next generation tries to make its mark.

Is that the best we can hope for?