Mideast mess, spilling elsewhere

What the world needs now is ... not the unholy mess coming out the Mideast. Yet again.

Hard to know what to say, that hasn't already been said. It's the usual cycle of violence that serves no one. Hamas was not in the right to be rocketing Israel, and Israel isn't in the right with its shock-and-awe campaign against the Islamic paramilitary group. If these were children, we'd sit them all down in the corner and take away their marbles. Unfortunately these children all have high-tech weaponry, and millenia of religious grudges to work out.

Now Indonesian militant groups are said to be recruiting fighters to send to Gaza, the government is calling on the UN to decry the Israeli attacks, and Indonesian medical teams are on the way to help out. The vast membership of the Muhammadiyah group is actively lobbying for sanctions to help end the bombings.

In other words, this is spilling beyond local borders, poisoning religious and cultural relations far beyond the limits of Gaza. For what it's worth: Stop.


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