The great missed opportunity to sort all of this out for ever occurred just last year  2011 in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. Clearly the people had won the day, power was in their hands and easily graspable. Unfortunately most had a touching but misconcieved faith that the army was on their side, and handed the power “temporarily” over to them. Whether that was a result of bad leadership or no leadership we could argue all night, but in the absense of an informed understanding of the history of such revolutions,  that tragic missed opportunity happened again. Better guided, the spontaneous uprising that became known as ‘arab’ spring would have continued through and made permanent the victory of a genuine international revolution spreading throughout the middle east and far beyond. This would have led to the configuration of a voluntary cooperative federation of post revolutionary states, including both  Israel and Palestine, in a position to thrive at once seperately and together in peaceful plenty. Instead we have the nightmare that continues.

So just maybe next time, when the martyrs are lying around dead in the streets and the downtrodden have come out to make the biggest sacrifices to ensure victory at all costs, how about NOT handing power straight back over to the old order again?

We live in hope.