Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

This is almost relentlessly depressing:



Gaza's Children Worship Martyrdom (washingtonpost.com)

"We don't have a single child in Gaza who knows what it's like to be a normal child," said Abdul-Rahman Bakr, director of Gaza City's psychiatric hospital.



The drawings in the community center's conference room show battle scenes complete with guns, jets, helicopters and many dead bodies.



"We wanted the children to express themselves through the drawings and this is what we got," said Fadl Abu Hein, a child psychologist. "Everyone can now see what's really worrying our children."



Life in the Gaza Strip leaves children with little chance not to think of violence.



Funerals and rallies with gunmen firing in the air are almost daily events. Walls are covered with graffiti glorifying 'martyrs' killed in attacks on Israelis. Their faces stare from tens of thousands of posters, and mosque preachers exhort worshippers to emulate them.



"The climate in Gaza gives the impression that being a martyr wins respect," said Abu Hein, who, together with other experts, says parents, Palestinian media and mosque preachers are not doing enough to shelter children.



"Parents are too preoccupied with watching the news on television to listen to their own children," said Abu Hein.



A narrow coastal strip wedged between Egypt and Israel, Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas. Its economy has been hit hard by the violence, with many thousands losing their sole income because travel restrictions prevent them from getting to jobs in Israel.

First there's all the preaching of violence at the children. They want to blame Israel, but it's clear that local leaders -- secular or otherwise -- bear most of the blame.



Second, there's irony in the sentence, "Parents are too preoccupied with watching the news on television to listen to their own children." Isn't this the standard complaint against parents in the United States? And no matter how horrific things may get, the new standard of poverty apparently includes a television...as well as the necessary electricity.



Third, for all the flaming rhetoric against Israel, these rebels don't go to Egypt for work. No, they travel -- or want to travel -- to the land of their blood enemy and get a job. After all, that's where the money is, and it often seems that's what this all boils down to. Israel is a successful economy surrounded by despotic regimes who, if they can't export oil, don't have much to brag about.