MY "THE GUARDIAN: COMMENT IS FREE" BLOG

Thank heavens for a public servant with not just a brain but also a conscience. Do we want robots as policemen or judges or other civil servants? And are we so intolerant we can't imagine a policeman ever having a good reason to ask to be excused from a specific service or duty? If fascism ever rises up again, seriously, we need to know that even police and soldiers will have the integrity to refuse illegal orders and not be courtmartialled for it, or hung out to dry by public opinion.

As to Israel, and the recent war (and why his conscience was so strongly engaged), believe me many Israelis now know they are even more hated than ever, especially when travelling abroad, after this recent debacle in Lebanon. Actually, such realisation may be part of why peace is now beginning to be talked about when in the past it was all unilateralism - which has been proved a non-starter if anyone ever needed convincing.

Israel is now beginning to think about the Saudi Initiative which it deliberately ignored twice in the past 4 years, and talk about meeting with the Palestinians for negotiations for the first time in six years. Hooray. Bout time.

So personally, the more Israel and Israelis begin to understand that pariahs and rogue states are not welcome at the table and special status means even policemen are beginning to refuse to guard them, the better. It just may promote peace. If in doubt, watch the film IRON WALL online at google video
www.video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4866316426876380615

to see what's really going on. It's not about anti-semitism or Islam or war on terror, it's about ever increasing Israeli landgrab, settlement expansion and refusal to make real viable peace or end an incredibly cruel Occupation which is deliberately starving people and refusing them all their human rights, such as the right to work or have a roof over their heads.

Even when the war was going on, more and more settlement units were being announced. Already almost half a million settlers in Occupied Territory (most of them non-religious). Deliberately trying to prevent a viable Palestinian state, according to Sharon's military strategy. Is the policeman upset by Israeli policies and continuous warmongering? You bet. Are many of us Israelis? Ditto.