A Labour-voting Israeli explains “Why I’ve made my home at a kibbutz near Gaza“. The most striking image in the story comes near the start:

My visiting friend wanted to go and have a look at Gaza, so we went to a point at the edge of the kibbutz that offers a good look across the border. On the way we passed by the kibbutz’s pool, with its crystal clear, cool water. It was 8 p.m. and the sun was making its way into the Mediterranean, but while on our side of the border, street lamps were beginning to light up, in Shejaiya everything remained dark. Not just the streets; also the visible homes and apartments, which house hundreds if not thousands of people. Had we returned to that spot two hours later, we would hardly see anything across the border. I’ve been living in Nahal Oz for almost a year and have gone to the observation point dozens of times, but only once at night. It’s too depressing to look at the complete darkness on the other side and realize that many people actually live in it.

I get feeling sorry for the people who live in Gaza. What I don’t get is not recognising that it is only a hard line that will ever bring peace. Only if the other side comes to believe that they can never win through war will war come to an end. It is not going to come from weakness on the Israeli side or a change of heart on theirs.