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As with so many of the children from the 'refugee camps' in Bethlehem this little one had a story to tell but it is not her story I want to share but the story of a woman whose words brought me to tears yesterday as I drove home from a nearby city.

Her name is Laura Blumenfeld and if you get the chance to raid the archive of the BBC for her 'The Choice' programme of this week do so......it will impact your thoughts and your heart.

Here is a synopsis of her book - but listen to her story and her words!!

"Laura Blumenfeld's father was shot in Jerusalem in 1986 by a member of a rebel faction of the PLO responsible for attacks on several tourists. Her father survived, but Blumenfeld's desire for revenge haunted her. This is her story -- and a fascinating study of the mechanics and psychology of vengeance.While plotting to infiltrate her father's shooter's life, Blumenfeld travels the globe gathering stories of other avengers. Through interviews with Yitzhak Rabin's assassin; members of the Albanian Blood Feud Committee; the chief of the Iranian judiciary; the mayor of Palermo, Sicily; the Israeli prime minister; priests; sports fans; fifth-grade girls; prostitutes; and more, she explores the dynamics of hate -- and the fine line that sometimes separates it from love.Ultimately, Blumenfeld's target is more complex than the stereotypical terrorist she'd long imagined. In a surprising twist, she gets revenge, but not according to traditional expectations. She discovers a third way, a choice beyond "turn the other cheek" or "an eye for an eye." And with it she answers the age-old question: what is the best revenge?"

....and some of these little Palestinian girls? Well they too had fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters but bullets and bombs do not always discriminate the innocent from the guilty, the fighter from the father, the fanatic from the faithful..........

As a reporter Laura's chilling account of the arguments within the Israeli military about the acceptable calculable ratio of civilian deaths against the successful killing of a Palestinian fighter reminds me too closely of a world and atttitudes many of my Jewish friends would rather forget.


Laura Blumenfeld
Published 2003
Simon & Schuster
Revenge
384 pages
ISBN 0743463390

Her Washington Post article