And had they the corn cut before....

August 2nd, 2014, one hundred years to the day that Germany invaded Luxembourg, the first stage of a horrid war.

I wondered as I passed the war memorial whether the corn still uncut this year had been cut 100 years ago as the men from Seidmannsdorf, Lutzelbuch and Löbelstein headed off to join their battalions, answering the Kaiser's call. I presume they were so excited by the adventure, and in awe of what lay ahead, that the harvest that year will have lost some of its importance for them. They were bound for places whose names local people had never heard of, would never forget. Ypres, Somme, Passchendaele. The lengthy list of names on the Seidmannsdorf memorial is weathered dark now, though the local village committee keeps the plot in very good condition. Maybe they had no corn here that year, maybe it had long been harvested, maybe they harvested late, who knows. I am sure there is a historian in town who could tell me if I really needed to find out. The point is that when we have peace we don't treasure it enough, nor do enough to ensure its security. Israel seems to be the perfect example of this: As a small number of Jewish voices in the USA have said (e.g Henry Siegmann, Paul Krugmann), Israel's failure at the moment is not just the bombing campaign in Gaza but the fact that they are deliberately escalating the situation and do little when peace exists to pursue genuine negotiations with the Palestinians. Genuine would, of course, mean accepting the right of Palestinians to their own state just as the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the current population in Israel sought a homeland for themselves. "A gradual long-run form of national suicide." Krugmann has called the current Israeli government's policy. Well, that remains to be seen but current events remind me of the mad desire for war in 1914 when a blind belief in, and commitment to, alliances and entente cordiales had such a catastrophic outcome.

A more cheerful entry next time, I promise