I’ve been wondering why the universally anti-Putin and pro-Ukraine Russians who have formed God knows which wave of immigration are equally universal in their support for Israel. Palestinians are not called other names but terrorists and the recognition of the state of Palestine by France, Canada and UK was met with a series of posts lamenting idiots in the West who can’t do anything about Putin and won’t do enough for Israel.
Is it because there are family ties? Probably.
Is it because there are friendly connections that are impossible to ignore? Probably.
A few months back, a dear friend of mine came visiting. Now 65 and a granddad, would he have any sympathy for the children suffering in Gaza? Not at all. In his view, all these kids can do, is assemble primitive missile launchers. I learned to stop certain conversations to avoid losing another friend of relative so I practised this recently acquired and much needed skill. This was about two weeks before I learned that a Lebanese family I’ve been talking to had lost their house after an Israel attack. They certainly weren’t terrorists. Their kids, a boy of 12 and a girl of 10, weren’t building missiles. Their aunt, a school teacher, advised me to try Amin Maalouf and never once went into radical Islamist rant. But there they were, in a sovereign country, left without a home, all the memories from their family taken forcibly away from them by a neighbouring aggressor state.
I suspect that peace and love can’t really interest people who choose hate.
Garry Goldman Random Angle 