I have a dear friend in France who is like a sister to me. She is an expat who left the US about 20 years ago. She has worked for me as a French speaking counterpart on several of my history tours over there. She is as liberal as anyone on this board and when she's pissed at me, she picks a fight over politics. She is a complete hippy chick who goes to raves, peace festivals and all sorts of stuff. She's been to Burning Man a couple times.

When I saw the picture of the hippy gal with the dreads who was captured by Hamas, stripped almost naked and paraded around in the back of the pickup truck, I thought, geeze, she reminds me of my girl. I wonder if she knows her. She has hippy/festival friends all around the world. And I felt so sorry and remorseful for that Israeli/German girl and her family.

I have a pretty good idea that that hippy girl would not condone or approve of atrocities by the Israeli's on Palestinians. She's a peace lover and they are committed to that. I know my girl and I'm sure this one is the same. They are different and to me, very naive. They are dreamers. But they are also beautiful, inside and out. In fact, there is something very beautiful and peaceful about naivete. I wouldn't want them running my defense programs. But as friends, they are amazing.

So I've been wondering for days if my friend knew any of those festival goers and thinking about her as well as them. This morning, she surface on Facebook and posted. She didn't know the girl in the photos or if she did she didn't mention her. But she did say she had at least one friend at that festival who was killed at the hands of Hamas.

She sounds extremely sorrowful. This is not only a friend she has lost but an attack on her fantasy "can't we all get along" world. Her world has to be upside down. I wish I could give her a hug and try to cheer her up. I understand very much what she is going thru and that in turn, helps me relate to the other people at that festival. Obviously, I'm a Deadhead, I have a very hippyish/peaceful side to me. It's weird but I find that my favorite people to be around as a group are either US Marines especially but all vets or dirty hippies. I relate to both.

Now, on the subject of Palestinians/Israelis, I don't have any Israeli friends. I do have Jewish friends but none from Israel. I do have and have mentioned, Palestinian friends. They are some of the best people I know.

My hippy girl in France talked about her feelings and how sad she is in a way that I can hear coming off her lips. There was no malice towards anyone. There was no finger pointing. There was no "get Hamas". There was just sorrow and pain. She said her heart was breaking and breaking over the whole situation. But in the end, again with no malice, she said her heart is with her brothers and sisters in Israel. She would definitely not approve of retribution and obviously also hates what happened to her friends. But she didn't feel any need to be political. Just supportive and understanding.

What is happening in Israel, is fucking madness. I do stand by Israel to do what it has to do. But my heart does hurt for all innocents on all sides. And I make this post to point out that there are so many peace loving, wonderful Israelis, just as there are Palestinians. I think it's very easy to paint the Israelis as bloodthirsty and the Palestinians as all terrorists. I wish that maybe someday, everyone will come together. But...it's complicated as we are complicated beings.