Ted Belman wrote a piece that was forwarded to me by Ben Kleinerman this morning about the state of the non-state, Gaza.  It is a fair and good analysis of the outrageous conditions that beset the people who live in what was many years ago an energetic and thriving community.  It is presently governed by desperate people who do nothing to solve internal problems and only exacerbate external ones.  Gaza is surrounded by Egypt on one end and by Israel on all other sides.  Gaza attacks Israel and Israel retaliates.  This is not good for either Gaza or Israel and the world looks on and most of it encourage the leaders of Gaza to continue attacking the larger country on the other side of the border while the rest of the world shakes its head and wonders why this madness continues.

This reminds me of a story that is analogous to the situation Gazans find themselves.  They were just a city and an area on the coast of the Mediterranean at one time.  Now they find themselves in a giant aquarium, a showplace for human misery and reluctance to face facts.  This is not unlike a huge aquarium some nameless scientists built, filled with poisonous gases and in which they created life.  Now they, the scientists, had the knowledge to prod this life so that it developed into a sentient form that developed quickly and was self-aware and organized itself in a semblance of a human culture that soon had newspapers and town meetings and an awareness of the beings outside their container just to see what the result would be.  These were God-like creatures to them and a communication was begun between those inside and those outside.  The Gazan-like creations found themselves to be like experimental specimens of life that were periodically afflicted with problems provided by the superior species on the other side of their container.  In the exchange of information between the newly aware species inside with the experimenters outside, a deal was struck.  Instead of the god-like creatures outside randomly poking and prodding their creations inside to see what would happen- “Just tell us what you want and we will try to find a solution”.  This seemed to work for a time and there was peace – or quietude while new ideas were thought up by those outside and answers quickly found by those inside.

The story ends without an end.  But, the resemblance to the situation the Gazans find themselves in and the denizens locked inside their aquarium seems clear to me. But, Gaza is NOT an experiment.  The people there are not experimental animals who solve world problems in miniature.  They are not in a science-fiction story and they could tear down the walls and join the rest of the world if they could free themselves from all the forces that keep them there and cease attacking the powers arrayed outside in the real world. As it stands now, there is no hope in Gaza.