statehood dreams i find it spectacular that israeli officials would force their own people from the gaza strip, a land they seized from the palestinians in a 1960s landmark war. can't they just leave them alone? after all, those jews chose to live on tensioned land. they chose to stake their lives in a place they knew was changing, and they wanted to contribute, be part of, witness that change. they called that lavalaced land their home. yesterday, the last jews locked arms and laid down on the steps of neve dekalim, the gaza's largest synagogue. their israeli compatriots pulled at their legs while their gaza neighbors held down their shoulders. they were arrested, yelling and punching every uniformed and shielded officer in their way. nearby, a group of girls chanted their protests. "you're driving jews out of a synagogue. the last time this happened was the holocaust."

palestinians, cloaked in violence, blow themselves up to make their point. simplistically speaking. they've succeeded in recruiting girls who would be journalists in their own right, girls who dreamed of medicine and worked for docorates they weren't aware yet of striving for. they've excelled at making it look like youth suicide, a trap they can't get out of, so this is the best possible contribution they can make for their seized land: if you're going to waste your life anyway by living this lie. this land. this strip. this demarcation they imposed on objects rightfully ours. this gaza, and the west, coined a bank so they know when to expect bullets and beware. we must make our point at the capital, jerusalem. and finally, finally, all the lives of those who sported gunpowder and more, who offered their lives to allah at the opportune time He designated it to be, they've succeeded for now, finally, this parcel of land will be ours. we don't know what life is like by ourselves. we've imagined it, and now it's true.

i haven't read enough of this story, and it might be sacriligeous of me to wonder if any palestinians decried their jewish neighbors being forced to leave. it would be more logical to assume they celebrated the jews finally realizing what it feels like to be abused and deemed second-class. so far this story reminds me of a repeated speech since the new york city sky fell four years ago: self-determination starts with freedom. today they released iraq's first constitution after ousting saddam hussein. i wonder what else did the u.s. massage to usher in this change.  ¶ 8/23/2005 04:17:00 PM