where are the grownups?

My students were asking this week, why isn't someone doing something about this? Why is the world just letting this happen? In essence, they were saying: where are the grownups? It sucks to tell these beautiful, intelligent, idealistic kids that no one--at least, no one with the real power, the leverage to make this stop--cares to do so. And that it's their own (in most cases) government choosing to be complicit. Many of them are shocked by what they are reading in the British press, in particular--especially those who have only been exposed to very strongly pro-Israel views/coverage in the past. I'm trying to teach as sensitively as I can, especially given the emotional weight of this stuff. Not just for the kids (many of whom have relatives in Israel; one of whom is actually half Israeli and half Lebanese) but for me as well.

I think that part of the reason this is so shocking is that, whether or not we want to admit it, we're used to what happens in the West Bank and Gaza. We're used to seeing harsh tactics, collective punishment, economic and social devastation. Even those of us who don't ackowledge Israel's right to do these things are somehow deeply accustomed to them nonetheless--on some subconscious level, we grant them the status of normality. We lose our ability to be shocked. This is different: this is a systematic attempt to rain down destruction on a neighboring state. For us, for my generation especially, this is not something that has happened in living memory--this is the history books resurrected. I was a baby in 1982. I came of age amidst the faith of the peace process, the promise of withdrawal and rebuilding. For some of the older friends/colleagues/acquaintances I've talked to in the last week this all has a terribly familiarity. But for us it's a bitter turn.