Death Comes Hunting

Death comes hunting on silent wings
Like a falcon poised and ready to strike
Death sits back and hunts with sharp eyes
From a mile away the aim is taken

Death hunts in whistling bombs falling to a target
That will rise a high plum of dusty debris
The bomb doesn’t differentiate between an office or a home
A bicycle or a bus or children running to play
Missiles with winged appendages for stability and lift
Fly to targets secretly chosen and swiftly achieved

Death comes on a lack of water and leaking sewage
It stalks with cramping pain seeking old and young and weak
Death takes its victim a little slower than a bullet
But just as deadly it stalks and spreads and death is here

Death comes as hunger pains with a hurt that goes
All the way to the backbone then- simply goes away
It arrives on sleepy wings, as the head grows heavy
And the eyes gently begin to close
Irresistibly tired is how it feels and in giving in
There is blissful sleep that will never end

Death comes hunting with determined perseverance
Lack of food, lack of water, summer heat with no relief
Disease has gone hunting and in too many places
Men aid death in its’ seeking journey across the earth
Young and old, rich and poor, male and female all succumb
Sooner or later this shadowy hunter wins us all

Death takes us to another place beyond this reality
It carries some away gently like a welcomed friend
It drags some away fighting and screaming to the end
When the hunter wins he closes the door on the here and now

Death too often is willfully sent like a hunting dog on a trail
He catches our scent and steadily pursues until he wins
In this battle for heartbeats and pulsing breath we fight
Resistance drags our heels and struggles onward
The enemy overcomes every ounce of our strength
One day we stop fighting and forever we are gone

Death comes riding on polluted winds and metal fins
Our blood is sucked dry in bullet holes and missile pools
Breath escapes ripped and battered lungs that can not fill again
The enemy has crept in against our will, the mujahdeen has gone home

Death came hunting empowered by hunger, hatred, and vengeance
It robbed me of friend, parent, mate, and child, and I walked on
An enemy that could not wait for time hurried it to my side
It stole my thought, my joy, my beating heart and left me lonely
Like a bombed out building turned to dust and sagging twisted ruins
Death comes a hunting, seeking, and somehow always wins

What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world: Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, 1864

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime: Ernest Hemingway

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war: Pentagon official explaining why the U.S. military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-19-israel-lebanon_x.htm?csp=24
Israeli troops push into south Lebanon

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14061.htm a list of typical American news with pointed commentary

http://gaza-flash-news.blogstream.com/ for current Middle Eastern news all day and night....

Like a good laugh but not really funny....... http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20145&Itemid=1
Israeli shells fired at UN convoy leaving Gaza forcing them back ... they had come for Kafi Annin.... UN .... to assess the situation and on leaving came under Israeli fire... that should give them a good perspective of the situation! All that was missing was being hit and loosing a few family members to know just how Palestinians feel.

http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.org/

I read and watch and almost plead…. What is happening is the Gaza? My world news tells so little and only parrots Israel’s self-serving – perennial victim - filth. I go to Palestine’s own sites and those of neighboring nations. The funny thing – I find more truth in Israeli papers than in America’s freedom press. They actually print condemnation of the system while here no one tells much of the truth. Anti-Semitism cuts off the collective tongues—And leaves the reporters both dumb (stupid and ignorant) and speechless…

My good friend is there but I can not see him. Our only lifeline is an unpredictable Internet connection powered by almost non-existent electricity. Death and heartbreak are on every side. There is too little food. Too little sleep. No place is safe. Even home is a target now. No place is off limits. Families eating together are dying together.

The nightmare that is Gaza seems to have no end. Body parts in the street are common. Sadly families are decimated within their own homes. Bloody pools draw gawkers like football games draw onlookers. With some kind of perverse delight helicopter crews waiting to get more kills, wait for bystanders and medical personnel, then fire a second or even a third missile and call it …. Oops, a miss.

While the carnage piles deeper and the blood pools on the street…. In their perverse delight…. Do they ever think… that “what goes around comes around!” ? Do they remember Hashem – the Name – unspoken personal name – creator – judge – owner of the right to ultimate vengeance – He is watching. Someday He will repay. Or do they think – or – perhaps they’re taught – that as the “chosen ones” it is their right to destroy land, infrastructure, families, and lives of all who are not “ The chosen”.

On the other side the Muslim acquiescence to what comes – It is what Allah wills, is both peace and madness to my mind. It is the thinking inaction is made of until pain and anger and protectiveness take over and one would kill. It feels like a form of insanity. There is not enough calculated action in this resistance and when it becomes angry – it is insane desperation – suicide bombers among the people of the occupation - and the world will not accept it as fair or right. Not even if it is a pretty equal response to the deaths in homes and on beaches and by shelling and by missiles.

Planned action and reaction bounded within the true hopped for borders of the “67” line would make more sense. Go after the infrastructure of the colonies, buildings, Jew’s only roads, military installations….. Those should be fair game. They are illegal anyway. Blow holes in the precious wall they build annexing and dissecting the heart out of the future nation of Palestine. Where it is not built on the border it is steeling land and water and the ability to be free. Destroy the roads that dice up the land and ban you from your own – blow up the internal checkpoints that make your life hell. That is resistance.

The raid that netted the capture of the soldier, Shalat, was a courageous act of resistance. He was part of the tank crews who shell Gaza day after day.

Just a word of warning – it is called Terrorism or insurrection by the opposition until you win…. Then it is resistance and suddenly you are heroes. If you don’t win – Oh God – you remain terrorists and evil.

A perfect example is Menachem Begin head of the Zionist underground group the Irgun, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first right-wing Likud Prime Minister of Israel. Under England he was a terrorist but in Israel he was a hero. Now Irgun, Stern Gang, and Lehi are heroes in retrospect. How did these killers of the English and the Arabs become heroes? By being in the winning position.

Winners get to tell history their way!

So – Palestine – if you ever want history to tell your suffering and and your heroic efforts – you have to win.

Be aware Israel has perfected the knack of portraying herself as the perennial victim inspite of being the aggressor, occupier, thief, with superior numbers and superior armament.

If you kill an Israeli the name, age, sex, occupation and family are all over the world news hundreds of times until the story is milked dry – then it is used as future reference. Kill 10 Palestinians and not one name, age, or place is mentioned most of the time.

You must learn to use facts but milk them for all they are worth.

Do not whine – Just tell it like it is and tell it again. Tell the names till they are household words.

Every death must be a memorial to your suffering and collective pain, a memorial to the struggle to be free.

Viva Palestine - and today I add - Viva Lebanon

Same kind of war with the same destroying horde.