July 23, 2025

 Wednesday. Left around six. Beautiful summer evening after some mid-day rain. Spectacular left-over skies with cumulus clouds in white and gray interspersed with some elongated ones, and to the southeast some parts in solid gray. Ruygenhoek, and five or more storks in the field amid many more geese. Molenpolder, Westbroek, Korssesteeg, airfield, Hollandse Rading, Maartensdijk. In the woods some slight, left-over dampness from the earlier showers. Dutch dinner and vacation time, and so fairly quiet. Groenekan, de Bilt, and back. Non-stop depressing news from the Middle East. In the papers and among specialists the debate about genocide-yes-or-no. Serious, knowledgeable people coming to different conclusions. When you're a Palestinian civilian under Israeli fire in Hamas-controlled territory, whatever would be the most appropriate term ("human shield" comes into it too), the violence just has to stop. Granting that Hamas, or what's left of it, will never stop fighting Israel and trying to kill Israelis, it is Israel that could do the most in that department. Its partisans like to point out, among other things, the murderous nature of the enemy (correct), and the absence of a reliable negotiating party on the other side (also correct). They also mention how, as they always call it, "the state of Israel" is the only democracy in the region, one that gives its Arab citizens political rights and generally a decent existence within its borders. What they rarely address is state-supported settler aggression against local residents on the occupied West Bank. With regard to Gaza, they don't get much beyond "but Hamas." And the military balance between Israel and its enemies in the region is more in Jerusalem's favor today than perhaps ever before. And yet, the war goes on. It is nothing new, but a big part of the reason has to be found in Israeli politics and society, and how it has been radicalized, already before October 7. Looking back over the past half-century, or longer, it is perhaps no surprise, but still doesn't mean that even a traumatized and threatened democracy does not have choices.