Progressive Democrat Issue 84: THE MIDDLE EAST II

Related to my grassroots efforts for Middle East Peace, this is from a few weeks ago, written by Michael Bouldin on Daily Gotham:

I wonder sometimes what this whole blogging thing really amounts to. You write your little posts, people agree or do not, and at the end of the day, maybe you make an impact, maybe not. Sometimes, however, blogs matter in ways that nobody seems to have thought of before, as in this case.

Some good news to come out of the current war in the Mideast is that there is an ongoing conversation between Lebanese and Israeli bloggers. This is probably the first time in human history that civilians on opposing sides in a cinflict can freely communicate, and nobody has any idea what effect this will have.

From the link above, perhaps the most astonishing blog I've ever come across:

The internet has also been offering some surreal experiences, like the ability to have a Beirut-Tel Aviv online IM chat in real time while the missiles are falling. That's what happened to me and this blogger a few nights ago. We chatted while he was sitting on the roof of his apartment building in Beirut, watching missiles from Israeli planes fall on his city and describing it to me. He was carrying on an online conversation with another Israeli at the same time. And he was able to describe his feelings and the atmosphere in a human, personal way that no newspaper article or television news segment could achieve.

Now, given that a critical part of any war is the dehumanization of the enemy, how is that going to work when all you have to do to look at the people on the other side is log on the internets?

Much to ponder, it seems.