The news in brief.......

So I guess it's been a while since I've blogged...
I'm in between English classes at the moment,
and I've been editing a new edition of a book about the conflict from the perspective of a Palestinian Christian. It's been really interesting.

The lovely Becky has arrived in this part of the world which has been really nice,
I've gotten to see more of her than I expected.

Elsewhere things continue to be pretty bad.
Gaza is being hit really hard in the past few weeks,
America is obsessing about this kidnapped Israeli soldier and seems relatively unmoved by the fact that over 60 Gazans are dead.
There was a story two days ago of where the Israeli Army bombed a house in the South of Gaza, killing a university professor, his wife and 7 of their 9 children.

The same seems to be true for Lebanon where 55 civilians have died this week,
in response to 8 soldiers being killed and 2 being kidnapped.
"Israel have the right to defend themselves" is the US line.

The EU is calling Israel's response disproportionate, and the Swiss Foreign Ministry (speaking as protectors of the Geneva convention) condemned Israel's actions in Gaza;

"A number of actions by the Israel Defense Forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"There is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure."

It's crazy the justifications you can read in the news for the killing of so many people.