I had a friend in the 1990s, a very gentle quiet man, who was killed in an automobile accident near Oxford, MS.  His friends collected money to send his body home for burial, only the government there wouldn't accept it.  My friend was Palestinian.  His home was in Israeli occupied territory, illegally occupied in defiance of UN Resolutions calling for compliance with international law, against world opinion, morality and humanitarian considerations.  His hometown was Bethlehem.  His name was Isa, which I'm told would be anglicized as Jesus.

I attended the ceremony with some coworkers who had also known Isa.  There was no sense of anger in evidence against Israel, or against the US government for its support and complicity in Israel's genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people, certainly no resentment of us as outsiders.  In fact, we were treated as honored guests, though not one of us was Muslim and most of us weren't not religious at all.  The Turkish coffee made us crazy.

But when I tell Isa's story to family or friends, regardless of their politics, they are almost always struck by sadness and outrage.  I think it's because they know me, and I knew Isa, and he didn't deserve it.  But when the news (http://www.amnestyusa.org/)reports that hundreds of women and children, or other civilians who don't deserve it, are being blown apart by that same government, with the same wink and material support from the US, what then?

And when we learn that the conflict occurs because Israel has cut off civilian access to food and other supplies, and jobs, etc., which are desperately needed (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/downloads/oxfam_gaza_lowres.pdf), cut off because Israel disapproves over the Palestinian election of Hamas - an organization that Israel itself funded as an alternative to the more secular PLO and whose hand Israel has continually strengthened by refusing to deal fairly with more "moderate" representatives, and by its belligerence, including illegal "settlement" outposts in Palestinian territory - what then?

Does it make any sense to be any less saddened or outraged than aboout my friend Isa's story?  Or more?  Much, much more?

There was essentially nothing, beyond sympathy, that could be done about my friend Isa's final 'resting place'.  It's here in the US.  There is, however, something to be done about the ongoing crimes in Palestine.  The US regularly supplies weapons, fuel, spare parts, and political support, to Israeli aggression.  There is considerable evidence over the years, some of it very recent (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/2/132414/3479) that US influence can be decisive in Israel's policy decisions.

And, if we are determined enough, it seems the people who live in the US can influence its policies - at least to an extent.