Operation Pillar of Cloud<\/b><\/p>\n
The name of the Israeli military operation in Gaza is based on the pillar of cloud that accompanied the nation of Israel during the Exodus as they left Egypt and were traveling toward Israel. They wanted protection from the troubles of the desert, from robbers and people that would attack them and from snakes and scorpions. The name is meant to send the message that it is a defensive maneuver.
\n<\/i>\u2013\u2013Eytan Buchman, head of the North American media desk for the IDF<\/p>\n
Six days into the aerial attack on Gaza, 84 percent of the Israeli public supports Operation Pillar of Defense, with 12 percent opposing it, according to a Haaretz-Dialog poll taken Sunday. The poll surveyed proportional samples of Jews and Arabs, indicating that Jewish support for the war stands at upwards of 90 percent.
\n<\/i>\u2013\u2013Haaretz, November 19, 2012<\/p>\n
The Israeli military\u2019s eight-day assault
\non the people of Gaza
\nwas no downy pillar of cloud
\nno feathered wing
\nmoving lightly across the landscape
\ndefending its chicks
\nleading the way
\nto life.<\/p>\n
It was iron talon and hooked beak.
\nIt was switchblade and brass knuckles
\na heavy metal club in the dark
\nfrom behind.
\nIt was panes of glass
\nfalling from the sky
\nopening arteries
\nsevering limbs.
\nIt was piano wire and guillotine
\na child\u2019s blood on the walls.<\/p>\n
Which is to say
\nit was the same as the 2009 assault
\nand the one before that
\nand so on.<\/p>\n
For something else,
\nlisten to Palestinian ambulance drivers
\nwho arrive at the scenes of missile attacks
\nand offer a lifeline,
\nwho themselves are targeted by \u2018double taps,\u2019
\nsecondary missile attacks at bomb sites
\nafter rescue workers have arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do it,\u201d Shadi says,
\n\u201cfor the sake of my country.\u201d
\nAnd Aadl, who graduated in journalism,
\nwho suffers \u201cuntil this moment\u201d from PTSD,
\n\u201cI want to give more and more to my people.\u201d<\/p>\n
For something different
\nlisten to Palestinian doctors.
\n\u201cPart of the problem is psychological\u2026
\nI hate hatred.
\nWe should talk with Israeli people
\nand learn what they actually want.
\nStart with the ten percent of Israeli society that is sane
\nand work from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For words that will stop you
\nin your tracks
\nand then point the way to life
\nlisten to the al-Nasser family,
\nwhose fifteen year old son, Odai, was killed
\nin his bed
\nin the middle of the night
\nwhen shrapnel
\nlike a chainsaw
\ncut him.<\/p>\n
Listen to Odai\u2019s aunt.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years
\nour neighborhood has been attacked five times.
\nDuring their operations
\nIsraeli soldiers take over my home
\nand fire on Palestinians from it.
\nThey also urinate in my pots and pans
\nand defecate nearby in the yard.
\nI clean up after them
\nbecause they won\u2019t do it.
\nWhen they first arrive
\nthey use me
\nas a shield
\nwhile they search my house
\neven though no
\none else is in it.
\nDuring this most recent attack
\nI was locked in my kitchen
\nfor most of the time
\nand I had to ask a soldier for permission
\nbefore I could use the outdoor restroom.<\/p>\n
There is so much to be sad about.
\nIn Palestine
\nand in Israel.
\nWe are sad about rockets killing Israelis, too.
\nWe care about their children, too.
\nTheir suffering
\nand our suffering
\nare the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
______________________________<\/p>\n
David Smith-Ferri has been an active member of Voices in the Wilderness\/Voices for Creative Nonviolence since his first trip to Iraq in July of 1999. He is an activist poet, whose newly released book, Battlefield without Borders (Haley\u2019s Publishing), portrays his encounters with Iraqi people and the events that have shaped their lives over the last eight years. Many of the poems were written in Iraq. Smith-Ferri writes in language that is accessible and powerful, and in a voice that is grounded in his experience. His poems are both a reflection on that experience and an attempt to voice the longings and the perspective of people caught in the vortex of war \u2014 Iraqi people, the families of US soldiers, et al.<\/i><\/p>\n