Tel Aviv Diary February 16, 2003

I started a few hours early but who knows what will happen in the next few hours.

For Bill King who asked me about the Israeli reaction to the Belgian courts - i just wonder how the Belgian court is determining world justice after what they did the in the Congo.

Yesterday I wrote about my reactions to the peace protests. Nevertheless a protest here did take place - You can read about it in The Post I think it is naive but i think it needs to take place in Tel Aviv as well.

Robert Whitehill sent me a picture of the demonstration in London with the header "Chamberlain's Heirs." I never would have thought I would be against a peace demonstration but - yes - i am. I would like to see peace demonstrations that try to further the Israeli-Palestinian peace process without bullying one side or the other into concessions. I would like all those people who are demonstrating against the war in Iraq (and come on - they have a point) to demonstrate against Al Keida. How come no one's demonstrated against Al Keida? So many of those demonstrators were Arab - and it should be the moral duty of the Arab people to separate themselves and the religion from Bin Laden - if only for one reason - indiscriminate killing.

But I must go back to my evening's activity of avoiding watching the news - Here's how it goes. i pretend i really want to watch the news - and its on all the time somewhere or the other. So I settle down, wait through the commercials, and the minute they start talking about the 4 soldiers killed or the explosion in Gaza today I suddenly get very hungry or have to go to the bathroom. Back to work.

Do you really want war, my dear friend from Texas asks? But that's my problem. I hate war. I hate the idea of war. I am terrified of war. And I don't believe Bush knows what he's doing. But i think the subject is much more complex. And I'm sure that many people who demonstrated don't believe Saddam is better than Bush. But a demonstration simplifies issues sometimes beyond recognition. Poetry CAN maintain the complexity of a situation - but, as is rightly pointed out - once you understand the complexity of a situation you may not be able to mobilize into action - and then you wind up being the pawn of the stronger force. But once you understand the complexity of a situation you can also consider a solution that is realistic.

There are at least 2 sites for poetry against the war Poets Against War and Nth Position. There are some amazing poems, especially on the first site, by poets such as Adrienne Rich, Shirley Kaufman, Galway Kinnell, Linda Clifton.

They are human poems, complex poems, poems of humanity and the desire for life. They are the voices I want to hear - because they remind me that the world contains a great variety of people who want to live together. human beings. But in my mind they are very different from the demonstrations. What I saw on CNN were simplistic conflations - a sign saying "No More War" next to a sign showing a Jewish settler grabbing a Palestinian child and saying "Stop Israel." Now remember: I have been against Israel's connection with the West Bank since 1973 or so. And I want out. But I don't think this kind of thinking helps the situation.

In any case, the war has been put off, and I am gobbling up all the snacks I prepared for the safe room, even as I write this down..."

As I prepared to log out, Ezi walked in with an article from today's Haaretz that discusses Sam Hammill, the White House, and the web sites. A bit more objectively than me.

My only gripe with the article is that it doesn't mention Shirley Kaufman, who lives in Israel and writes in English, and captures, quite amazingly, the mood of the country in ways that Hebrew writers would be jealous of if they only knew.

(later)Phil writes "Admit it! If you lived in the U.S. you'd have been at a demonstration!" Yes - all right yes! You've forced it out of me! I'm chicken shit scared. I still remember the people dancing in the streets of Nablus when a scud fell right near my house. I know there are people who want to kill ME - personally.

Peace in Our Time". I probably have no right to put this picture on, and will take it off if it's wrong. But it sparked this reading by Ezi, "Piss on our Tie."

I dreamt last night that I was living in Baghdad, inspired by the stories of my cleaner, who grew up in Baghdad. She left well over 50 years ago but the stories are very vivid - the poverty, the persecution, the pain. My dream had some amazing details - for example a loquat tree in the space between our apartment building and 3 others that was only accessible from the back door of one of the neighbors, but all the neighbors could pick the fruit from their windows and throw out dishwater from their windows to water the tree.

Since Purim is coming up I want to post this little antiwar poem I wrote last year: PURIM THOUGHTS

PURIM THOUGHTS

What if even one of the sons of Haman was not evil –

didn’t even carry the evil gene, and might have been

so much of a reaction to the evil he had seen

his only thoughts were of love.

What if he had been the one

to father the peace maker of Persia

in our time

how can I celebrate until I do not know

the difference?

Whatever we decide - when it come to human lives, we should never decide lightly.

In the mean time Israelis and Palestinians are dying at a higher rate than usual - Israel seems to be doing a little Hamas Blitz after the tank incident when 4 Israeli soldiers blew up on Saturday. Now with the Hamas I seem to have fewer compunctions than usual because of their uncompromising approach to the situation and their bloodthirsty rhetoric. Nevertheless, it isn't simple. There's a reason why they're uncompromising

Mitzna - Before the elections no one seemed to listen to him - only took out the headlines. He said he had conditions to work with a Likkud government - they seemed impossible but now they are beginning to look realistic. And now they are saying that Mitzna changed his mind. He didn't. He is always consistent (a little too consistent for my nature, but, okay). But there must be something wrong with him if he couldn't get the press to pay attention to his words. Or - could it possibly be - perhaps there's something wrong with the press.

You ask someone in Tel Aviv you haven't seen for a while how they are and he says, "Considering the situation, I'm okay." I notice it all the time, but today when Jihan said it to me over the phone I couldn't stop laughing. Luckily she knows me well enough to know i wasn't laughing at her, but the answer, and she explained: "Most people are more or less okay - but so aware of the suffering of others they are not comfortable with their 'okay' situation." Jihan is getting married, she's finishing a second degree, she's in a very good place, but she can't enjoy it.

I used to think of that answer (and I think once wrote about it) as old-fashioned Jewish complaining. Now i see that it isn't Jewish and it isn't complaining.

February 19

My son-in-law sent me some examples of local signs that illustrate the source of some of our confusion

You need to be able think in two languages and antithetical terms simultaneously in order to survive - and realize that the contradictions are dangerous.

Appropos dangerous contradictions, let us return for a moment to my favorite hero of the past, Kurt Gerron. You can hear him on amazon singing Mac the Knife, his first big hit - a song that would in no way forshadow his humiliating demise in the hands of Mengele. It's a song of underworld power, the alternative hero, such as the jew, who succeeds through his anonymity and invisibility in secretly breaking laws and imposing his will on the world. Do I overanalyse? Very well then, i overanalyze. i am large...

I've been too fluey over the past few days to make sense, but here's a guy who does Paul Ususkin

Remember Miri Aloni? How she sang the peace song with Yitzchak Rabin in Rabin Square minutes before he was murdered? Know where that spunky singer of the sixties is now? Singing on the street in Dizengoff Square, with a cap in front of her. The situation is so bad for artists now - and she's really not someone who can draw a crowd for a one-man show - that she was happy with the 200 shekel she raked in today and may be back.