Simon Kuper At last common sense on the interminable conflict in the Middle East! Fortechno/ legal reasons, we may not adduce a direct link to his article What George Orwell could teach us about Israel and Palestine (those are the names the combatants have chosen for themselves). But we can praise its cool objectivity, and have dared to offer this tiny extract in the hope it will whet your appetites
…….”Those now treating the Israel-Palestinian conflict as an emanation of themselves aren’t seeking truth. They know the truth before it happens, because they picked their team long ago. Everyone on Team Israel is sure Israel didn’t bomb the Gaza hospital; Team Palestine is sure it did……….
we urge you instead to put “SIMON KUPER ISRAEL FINANCIAL TIMES” into Google or a similar search engine and it should give you unfettered access to his full text
We feel pity for the sufferings of those on both sides. But we feel greater pity for the lost opportunities and the utter retardation of economic and intellectual progress which their mutual quarrel has inflicted on them both. It’s a twentieth century conflict in a twenty first century world.
Frank Borman For those who were alive, and watching TV, during that fate charged Christmas of 1968, the voyage of Apollo 8 will remain one of the most moving memories of their lives, as Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell broadcast their message in one of the earliest collective experiences which technology had gifted to humankind. Yet the best was yet to come. On returning to earth, it turned out that Anders had snapped what has been generally acknowledged to be the greatest photograph ever made. Sitting at what was then the pinnacle of human achievement, it showed a distant world: at once small, vulnerable, crowded and incredibly precious. It is still the symbol of hope that one day reason may prevail, and we could yet achieve that sunlight world which human learning offers us.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/nov/10/frank-borman-obituary
Learning, Science and Society 