Photo from Free Gaza (http://www.freegaza.org)

George Bush spoke with Ehud Olmert according to White House spokesman Gordon “Thugs” Johndroe:

"President Bush got an assurance from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel is, as they have said they are doing, only targeting Hamas and the terrorist organisation and people involved in Hamas, and that they are working to minimise any civilian casualties," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel launched air strikes on such terrorist targets as government buildings across the Gaza Strip, including the parliament buildings. Hamas sources said the Education and Transportation ministries were completely destroyed in the strikes.

At least 25 Gazans were wounded in those attacks. Today the number of dead in Gaza reached 410 and the UN Humanitarian Coordinator warns that the situation is life or death for all the people of Gaza. Israeli tanks are lined up at the border and the cabinet has given approval to plans for “a major, but relatively short-term, ground offensive in the Gaza Strip."

As we enter the New Year, Starhawk (h/t Selise) reminds us of our shared humanity – I hope you will take a moment to read On Gaza:

The Israeli ambassador speaks movingly of the terror felt by Israeli children as Hamas rockets explode in the night. I agree with him-that no child should have her sleep menaced by rocket fire, or wake in the night fearing death.

But I can’t help but remember one night on the Rafah border, sleeping in a house close to the line, watching the children dive for cover as bullets thudded into the walls. There was a shell-hole in the back room they liked to jump through into the garden, which at that time still held fruit trees and chickens. Their mother fed me eggs, and their grandmother stuffed oranges into my pockets with the shy pride every gardener shares.

That house is gone, now, along with all of its neighbors. Those children wake in the night, every night of their lives, in terror. I don’t know if they have survived the hunger, the lack of medical supplies, the bombs. I only know that they are children, too…

To know and see the enemy, you must let them into the story. They must become real to you, nuanced, distinctive as individuals. But when we let the Palestinians into the story, it changes. Oh, how painfully it changes! For there is no way to tell a new story, one that includes both peoples of the land, without starting like this:

“In our yearning for a homeland, in our attempts as a threatened and traumatized people to find safety and power, we have done a great wrong to another people, and now we must atone.”

Just try saying it. If you, like me, were raised on that other story, just try this one out. Say it three times. It hurts, yes, but it might also bring a great, liberating sense of relief with it.

And if you’re not Jewish, if you’re American, if you’re white, if you’re German, if you’re a thousand other things, really, if you’re a human being, there’s probably some version of that story that is true for you.

Out of our own great need and fear and pain, we have often done great harm, and we are called to atone. To atone is to be at one-to stop drawing a circle that includes our tribe and excludes the other, and start drawing a larger circle that takes everyone in.

How do we atone? Open your eyes. Look into the face of the enemy, and see a human being, flawed, distinct, unique and precious. Stop killing. Start talking. Compost the shit and the rot and feed the olive trees.