Time for a Laugh

Today I finished reading 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine' and a "godsend", would describe how I feel about saying goodbye to Pappe's book, while, at the same time being an appropriate introduction to my, now, "current read", 'The God Delusion'.
For the Palestinians, for people like Pappe, Jonathan Cook, the brave souls at "Zokat" and for many others dotted here, there and everywhere, Palestine cannot simply be switched off and I am reminded of the people in the El Mina area of Tripoli, who I used to share a beer with and who were thoroughly pissed off when the Israelis started bombing all and sundry and there they were, feeling that they were going to have their "normality", at least, for the summer. Moreover, they weren't alone in the Lebanon that summer and along with the disillussioned bar and hotel owners, the poor fuckers in the south who were about to be bombed out of their homes and yes the Beruit middle classes, who were enjoying the 2006 World Cup and "La Dolce Vita" in Hamra, there were also these three young Palestinian teachers who I used to hang around with, who really, like all young men, just wanted to have a "normal" life. In the Lebanon, in Palestine, in the occupied territories, everyone's "normality" gets suffocated at regular intervals and it tends to get suffocated just when you are coming up for air and, while an effort is made by all and sundry it can never be easy.
For me it has to be easy to switch off, to change the record and to get my head out of something that is depressing me and is leading to an involvement, the extent of which has still to be determined. Pappe's book has left me depressed and angry, enough is enough and I am now looking forward to leaving "Palestine" alone for a few days and coming to grips with the great "gobbly gook". Of course, there will be no revelations here and Dawkins is, as I mentioned in an earlier post, preaching to the converted. If it entertains me as much as Sam Harris's 'The End of Faith' did and if it gives me as much extra ammunition when facing the great "gobbly gookers" and as many laughs, it will have been worth reading. A laugh now that is what I need and there are not a lot of laughs to be had when you read the "nitty gritty" of one of the biggest crimes in the history of humanity. However, when you read things like, "In the time of the ancestors, a man was born to a virgin mother with no biological father being involved", you might just be forgiven your little giggle.