Blogosphere: Bloody New Year

Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds.

Bombings in Gaza made a grave start to 2009, but bloggers hope for a new beginning

It's been a very sombre start to the year, with not a great deal to cheer about for bloggers in the region. The Israeli war on Gaza has intensified, taking hundreds of lives, injuring many many more and causing enormous destruction to an already shattered infrastructure.

There are dozens of blogs with personal accounts of the bombing in Gaza, and a great deal of understandable anger.
So I thought I'd highlight a blog which offers both the stark reality of the situation as well as the possibility of hope for the future.

The Gaza-Sderot blog (www.gaza-sderot.blogspot.com) has been running for almost a year, and charts a dialogue between the two authors — named Peace Man and Hope Man — who live just a few kilometres from each other. But while one of the bloggers lives in the Sajaia refugee camp Gaza, the other lives just over the Israeli border in the small town of Sderot.

Rather than write too much about the it, it is better to pick out two of the latest extracts from a blog which is both compulsive reading and touching.

On Sunday December 28, Peace Man, who is in Gaza, wrote: "Since the operation started in the Gaza Strip, more than 300 people have been killed in two days and 200 went missing and about 160 were in a critical condition. Israel destroyed all the police stations and all the government centres. Police and civilians and children were killed in this operation."

Terrible disaster

"It is hard to describe what is going on in Gaza, a terrible disaster, where the aircraft do not distinguish between civilians and military [personnel] and children. At this moment there are tanks in the [area] around Gaza in preparation for the invasion of the Gaza Strip.

"I am asking the international community to stop what is going on in Gaza. I hope to [see a] return to ceasefire and [a] move away from violence. Because violence will bring more violence."

Hope Man — on the other side of the border — replied on January 2 (before the ground offensive began): "There is a feeling in most of the Israeli society, that there was no choice but to attack Gaza and stop the rockets once and for all. This is an expected human reaction to the on-going situation.
long-term agreement

"With that said, I personally think it is a terrible mistake that could have been avoided. For five months there was an almost complete ceasefire.

Instead of taking advantage of this long period of quiet to reach a long-term agreement, both sides spent their time preparing for this war by planning and arming. No serious efforts were made to start a dialogue. The siege by Israel continued and the smuggling of arms by Hamas continued. It was a ceasefire, but only to prepare for the next terrible round which we are experiencing this very moment.

"I am very pessimistic at the moment. My fear is that a ground attack is coming and that much more pain is still ahead. Eventually, some kind of agreement will be [reached]. I hope it will happen soon, I fear it will not.

"Peace Man and I talk every day. We support each other and worry for each other's well being. I am in contact with others in Gaza and share my situation while hearing of theirs. [There is] much fear and pain on both sides.

What myself and others are doing is continuing the dialogue with friends in Gaza. We are working to widen and deepen this dialogue with more people on both sides.

The day after the war [ends] we want to start finding ways to work together and create normality. We are only several kilometres apart, and that will never change. It is extremely important to widen our dialogue and create trust between those who are willing to talk. To share our stories, fears and hopes.

"The day after the war [ends], we need a new beginning. Let's start planting [the] seeds of humanity and trust now."