Gaza Ceasefire in the offing? Let it be!

 

 

By Adam Keller (Gush Shalom, Israel)

August 6 was going to be for me a private day of mourning. It was last year, on August 6, 2021, that I said goodbye forever to my dear wife Beate - the final end  of 35 years of the most successful and happy marriage imaginable. But Yair Lapid, the "Center Left" Prime Minister of Israel's caretaker government, had other plans. The Prime Minister provided me with a spectacular diversion, to have much else on my mind except for sad memories. So yesterday afternoon I had no time to pine in sad memories, I was busy sending out action alerts and press releases about Mr. Lapid military assault on the Gaza Strip. First sending out the Hebrew text, then translating it to English and sending that out.

While I was doing all that, the air raid alarm sounded in my city of Holon. I did not seek shelter, I just remained at my computer and continued working. I do not claim any special heroism - the statistical chance of a rocket from Gaza landing directly on my home was very small. Indeed, it did not happen - I and my computer are completely intact.  When  it was done, I caught a taxi to attend the Tel Aviv demo myself. We were at the Defence Ministry gate, several hundred strong, chanting "Stop the War! Stop the Bloodshed! On both sides of the border, children want to live!" So many times, Beate had been with me at such emergency protests in the same place. It was a fitting memorial for her.

Tonight there will be a further protest at Lapid's private home, initiated by a very industrious group of young Feminists, and in some other locations.

Meanwhile, very welcome news of a possible ceasefire at 8.00 PM  - the exact hour scheduled for the protest of the "Broom-Riding Witches" as they call themselves.

Hopefully it will come true, and this madness will end after three days, which is three days too many, with a death toll "only" in the dozens rather than thousands as in earlier Gaza assaults. And a five year old girl whose death was certainly caused by an Israeli Air Force bomb, and four other children for whom the responsibility will temain disputed (but they are cetainly dead...).

But oh, let it end tonight!