I Was Going to Post on Beef, Foosball and Decrepit Old Bookstores...

...but then this happened.

And so, I would like to take this opportunity to say: He's dead. Corporal Gilad Shalit is dead, or will be...soon. I am completely devoid of sarcasm when I say that I'm going to do a terrible thing and consider the humanity of this situation. I mean, why should his life be more special than all the others dying? Yet, for this paragraph, it shall be. This man, who probably believed in his country, his cause, was abducted by his more dire enemy. He has been locked up, fearful and almost definitely afraid - scared of what he might have thought to be the inevitable. His life has been changed completely, everything familiar and comfortable - friends, family, comrades, safety, security - taken from him in a single stroke. And now, either someone has put a bullet through his head, or is planning to do so. Is it not easy to hope - against all odds, as it were - that his life will be returned to him?

It's wishful thinking, that. But governments and politics is not...governed, for lack of a better word, by wishful thinking. Concordant with our hopes for this young man, the Israeli Army has moved forward into Gaza. It is late, and so I will be less than eloquent, but...never had I imagined that such blatant idiocy could be allowed to occur. Hamas and Fatah, not 48 hours ago, agreed on something - itself a marvel - that could move the situation forward. And then, the Israeli government, in it's exploitation of damned pride and bleeding patriotism, pushed forward.

Frankly, we cannot afford to be sentimental over a single man - and we certainly cannot afford to be respectful of Israeli pride. Trade women and children back for this martyr-in-the-making? Why, sounds rather good to me - I'm sorry, but I'm with the 'terrorist' groups on the humanity of this act. Unless, in some books, that man is already a martyr. The nationalist needs an enemy...an 'other'...and continuously renewed reasons to fight. Perhaps, in a sick, twisted manner, Corporal Gilad Shalit is doing his part for the nation.

Fact 1: Wishful thinking on our part is rank stupidity in the policy of this man and his government. But not stupid from a rather more extremist point of view. An extremist Israeli point of view, perhaps.

I need some sleep. Before I start yelling at imaginary Zionists again. I wonder...in my six hours of dreamtime, how many will die - and how many deaths will be justified by a 'war on terror'?