A benefit...

...of working in a federal building is that sometimes I leave work and find myself in the middle of a demonstration. Today I just happened to have my camera. Israel supporters to the left of me, Palestine supporters to the right.

I completely support both sides' right to demonstrate and in a way am glad they were, but the whole thing smacked to me of the underlying dilemma: both sides are good and pissed off with real grievances, yet the only things between them today were indignance and noise and police with guns directing traffic. No discussion, no attempt whatsoever to figure out the problem. Maybe if just a few more people get killed, a solution will magically appear.

UPDATE: Because I didn't know enough about why those yahoos were scrapping their cease-fire agreement, I looked it up. Turns out the Israelis in this case really do have a leg to stand on this time. Hamas members died when Israel collapsed some tunnels being dug into their territory, and the rocket attack retribution started in November. Good article, worth a read.