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letter from israel

i read this in a letters section of www.salon.com....its really nice...wanted to save it..if the author / copyright owner has an objection, please leave a comment and i will take it off..

Harrybbb18 - 07:13 am Pacific Time - Jul 24, 2006 - #4782 of 5044

Hi all, I'm in Tel Aviv now. Left Jerusalem because along with the war the stones, which I once so loved, seemed too harsh. And the people in Jerusalem have really changed since I left in '98. There used to be a cliché that the occupation would or was taking its toll on Israeli souls, and no doubt that was true in the hopeful, almost, on-the-verge '90s. BUT now there is no question. For you who are either Jewish or scholarly, all I could think about was Maimonides, the Rambam's "Guide to the Perplexed," which I first found at my grandfather's house. I can't tell you just how perplexed we are, that is when we aren't barking and rude. True, the younger Israelis, even those doing Millueeem (yearly 2-4 weeks in the army from age 22-45) are still, the boys I mean, sweethearts but very apolitical.

The older Israelis are increasingly sure of their paranoid notions. And this Nasrullah has surely arrived in the guise of Hitler, is what Israel always finds in its enemies. This guy is something else, is determined.

My small take, this was coming. All because and All BECAUSE we never gave the Palestinians a chance, we were going to get it, in some form soon, and sorry all you other friends for sounding harsh but my take is that Israel will not exist, whether in 10 or 20 or 50 years. Everyone I know of all sorts is thinking this. From here it is obvious. We never made a single friend in the neighborhood, minus the wonderful Rabin at the end of his life. We never cared to. We are founded on the Holocaust and we as a people lived by that, and the lesson as I wrote somewhere wasn't, "Hey, people can be really cruel so let's make friends." No, the most terrrible legacy for Jews here was, "They all hate us; they always will," and so power is all we need. And that is beyond tragic. Beyond sad. This is not a country that is manic or fun anymore. There are many who are the living dead here. And it is not fear. No one south of the border, where all my journalist friends are, is afraid. Even if Nasrullah can reach Tel Aviv, there is not only no fear but no guards anywhere. "Live and Let Live" lives on here with regard to other Israelis. You never meet a Palestinian except in the oldest restaurants and hotels in Jerusalem and rarely in Tel Aviv. It's the sea. It's the cafe night life. It's not the Israel I loved in Jerusalem. And though the peaceniks have growing crowds, up to 5,000 last Saturday p.m., where is their power?

So, sorry to say, I think the time when we could have made a reasonable peace is over. Now we have bombs going both ways, a fence that is literally bone chilling if offering Jewish Israelis' safety of a sort, that is pure delusion because we are never going to be safe. And I'm not taking sides, I hope, when I say we co-created this mess. And so ontologically and soon psychically many will leave or die, and I write this, which I may have written already, with great heavy heart. I loved this country. I liked the Palestinians. I did so much time thinking that we two would be great allies. Now we are not allowed to see each other, and this Israeli hysteria is not attractive. Nor are Olmert's pronouncements indicating we are pure innocents. We never looked at ourselves -- Israelis used to be fun but always were apsychological, and the great majority seem like they want to re-create the trauma of the last Holocaust. I am so sorry to say all this, rushing as I do, because it's beautiful here, everywhere, oh so beautiful. How sad is that. I say, let Jerusalem be left to the donkeys. Everyone I know is sad, or torn up, or agrees with the above, whether they say it or not. No more peace activities feed hope. There is little hope in the land, the "light unto Nations"... or we f--ked up ? Anyone? ...

I am tired, as it is late. But I feel that Israel's actions in Gaza are loosely related to Hizbollah. Nasrullah is the man the crazed, for reasons or no, Arabs want. He is being incredibly stupid and careless and cruel FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW. I personally am not against fighting him. BUT, it's a lose-lose and diplomacy has become a joke. No one in the 'neighborhood' trusts Israel to be fair. They haven't been. To Palestinians. So, war will kill this economy unless there's a cease-fire within a month or two.

And when the Israeli economy goes, not to mean tragedy in Lebanon, which yes Nusrallah brought on, but not out of the blue, out of the feeling that we are, we in Israel, always using violence and never deigning to dialogue, it all connects ... But I said before and say again, it's too many decades, too many genius' and the reason this conflict was and imo will NEVER be resolved is that Israel has a hold on Israelis, of course, duh, and on Americans, Jews and non-Jews.

We have had this state for 59 or so years. We blew it. Like Humpdy Dumpkin, never to be repaired. No Tikkun Olam. No psychology. Not worse that Bush, not. But worse than our best leaders and all the best people wanted. Too late. Imo. Read Ury Avery who writes, as I've said, for Gush Shalom. I was at the rally here on Sat. PM and I was at the Film Festival and no one has any hope left no matter what they write. Everyone thinks we should have created the Jewish State not in Uganda as once Hertzl thought, but in Australia. This is not going to work, and that is a thought I never, ever allowed myself to fully entertain. I meet tomorrow with two other peace leaders. They work around the clock on this. I do not see the point. Do you? Really? If you do then, as ABYehusha always says, it's your duty to come here and live. I mean that. It's a wonderful people in a place that has the worst leaders and the Arabs have the worse leaders and the PEOPLE CANNOT EVEN MEET. dat's it. I really believe you have to be here to get some piece of truth. I got the worst news and I trust my intuitions. I'm no genius. I never have been what we could call a "hard thinker" but I did give almost 15 years to fighting and loving for peace. It ain't gonna happen. We kill the Palestinians all the time and we will sooner or later get killed and we'll probably take the Mideast out with us. That is the Israeli way. So, it's a place I love, it's my home and it's f--ked. Said this before. But that's all. Love to all, extreme exhaustion due to heat, worry and more worry. xxoo Wendy

2 poems

2 poems. The first is by Jelaluddin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks); the second is by Kabir (in a version by Robert Bly).

1
Has anyone seen the boy who used to come here?
Round-faced troublemaker, quick to find a joke, slow
to be serious. Red shirt,
perfect coordination, sly,
strong muscles, with things always in his pocket: reed flute,
ivory pick, polished and ready for his talent.
You know that one.

Have you heard stories about him?
Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian world
collapsed for such a Joseph.
I'd gladly spend years getting word
of him, even third or fourth-hand.


2
Have you heard the music that no fingers enter into?
Far inside the house
entangled music-
What is the sense of leaving your house?

Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines,
but inside there is no music,
then what?

Mohammed's son pores over words, and points out this
and that,
but if his chest is not soaked dark with love,
then what?

The Yogi comes along in his famous orange.
But if inside he is colorless, then what?

Kabir says: Every instant that the sun is risen,
if I stand in the temple, or on a balcony,
in the hot fields, or in a walled garden,
my own Lord is making love with me.

good safe clean water

We had driven out to Neemrana on sunday. My trusty but non airconditioned can-on-wheels did the two hour drive without complaints. It was great day for the trip, pleasant and cloudy, threatening to rain but dry. On the way back we stopped at a dhaba. Since both my companions were Americans and a bit suspicious of the water, we ordered a bottle of water. I however had a nice drink from a plastic mug. We had a little conversation about how fresh water might actually be better than bottled water, even if bottled water is cleaner. I mean how safe is plastic actually, specially when kept out in the Indian sun.

Today while reading this article I was reminded of that discussion. Makes a lot of sense actually. We sometimes forget that bottled water is to used in an emergency, not as a matter of course. Our value systems change gradually with the advertising and lifestyle changes.

the blogs are back

"With Internet Service Providers restoring access to blog-hosting sites Blogspot.com and Typepad.com in a phased manner since Saturday, bloggers, who maintain online journals, are now able to access, edit and post new entries " says the Hindu.

skype phone coming to india... :)

The phone is expected to hit the Indian market in the third quarter of 2006...read more ..

interesting statistic about israel

Thus, as it becomes self evident that Israeli military power is no longer as effective as it once was, this will surely accelerate the flow of Jewish settlers out of Israel. Information regarding emigration of Jews out of Israel is a closely guarded secret, but using Israeli government statistics, we can infer that immigration to Israel has rapidly declined over the last several years, and that Israel may even be experiencing a net outflow of Jewish migrants. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Jewish immigrants to Israel declined to 21,000 in 2004, which is a 15-year low. In 2005, the number of immigrants rose slightly to 23,000, which is still dramatically lower than the 60,000 that immigrated in 2000. Furthermore, Israel became a net exporter of its citizens in 2003, when9,000 more Israelis left the country than entered, and in the first two months of 2004, this figure rose to 13,000

Read full article here

elegy for beirut

a link to a beautiful piece about beirut by Robert Fisk.

how it started

For some it inevitably brought to mind a bleak winter day in 1968 when, out of the blue, helicopter-borne Israeli commandos landed on the old airport and blew up 13 passenger jets, almost the entire fleet of the national carrier. The pretext: of two Palestinians who killed an Israeli at Athens airport, one came from a refugee camp in Lebanon, then an entirely peaceable country. The significance of this most spectacularly disproportionate reprisal was something the Lebanese could hardly even have guessed at then. But it was a very early portent of the long nightmare to come: military conflict with Israel, eventually to be compounded with an atrocious civil war that it did much to engender

and chomsky weighs in

No doubt Chomsky is correct when he states that Hizbollah’s daring assault exposes Lebanese people to the violence of the Zionist army. Chomsky offered no alternative. The Israeli state still occupies a section of Lebanon; it still infringes on Lebanese airspace; it still humiliates Arabs and occupies their land. What should Hizbollah do?

whats up in bay root ? (beirut)

http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Lebanon/200843

this is a good place to start reading on this topic.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allen_l__060717_lebanon_is_an_outrag.htm

the zionist conspiracy point of view -
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24725&l=i&size=1&hd=0

blogs banned

the indian government didnt like some blogs, so they asked the ISP's to censor those blogs ( ban them ) and the ISP's were too busy to do it, so they just banned the entire domain of xxx.blogspot.com and xxx.wordpress.com...leading to howls of rage from blogging nerds all over india. When the government was questioned on it, the response was " can you tell us what difference will it make to your life if you cant read a few webpages".. obviously some people havent heard of internet addiction yet.

guns on your shoulder

"The Israelis were yesterday trumpeting the fact that the missile was made in Iran as proof of Iran's involvement in the Lebanon war. This was odd reasoning. Since almost all the missiles used to kill the civilians of Lebanon over the past four days were made in Seattle, Duluth and Miami in the United States, their use already suggests to millions of Lebanese that America is behind the bombardment of their country. "



So the iranians and the american missiles are fighting each other. Why cant they fight each other directly as they seem to be itching to do...and why do they have to involve the jews ( who were persecuted by the europeans for so long that they have a permanent victim complex ) and the lebanese who are struggling to rebuild a country torn apart by war.

music @ the speed of thought

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F8E27AA-89ED-4ADF-9BF3-D0FAD35FD676.htm
there you go....the musical coup inspired by zidane....its a good example of how speed of response and execution is becoming one of the most important factors in business now.

a train journey - rajneesh

Read a nice thing written by OSho ( Bhagwan Rajneesh , Acharyaji or whatever...this is just a nice description...)..you can read the page here..

Because I had slept, and there was now no need -- and it was night, a full-moon night -- I said to myself, "Enjoy yourself, go third class."

I had an air-conditioned-class ticket. When the ticket collector looked at my air-conditioned-class ticket and then looked at me, he thought I was crazy. I said, "You are right" He handed the ticket back to me."

He said, "This is strange. What are you doing here? Your seat is reserved and it is empty."

I said, "Let it be empty. If I get fed up with this experience I will come along."

He said, "What experience?"

I said, "You don't know what is happening here. If you want, you can stay with me just for one station."

He stayed and he said, "Really, it is an experience."

What was happening was at the station, the lights of the compartment would come on, and as we left the station behind the lights would go out. And ninety people in that small space... and who is pulling whose leg? It was such a joy! I enjoyed it like nothing else in my life.

A Hindu monk was sitting by my side. I was hitting his head, and he would tell me, "Osho, somebody is hitting me."

I said, "In the dark it is very difficult. Remain patient, and if you want to hit, hit anybody! There is no question of who is hitting who."

A woman who was sitting in an upper berth... somebody pulled her leg and she fell down. And she said, "This is strange -- someone is doing this to a woman. Who is this nasty fellow?"

In the darkness nobody could be identified as nasty, and as the next station appeared, everybody was sitting perfectly correctly. And in the station the lights would come on. If it had been the other way round things would have been simpler. If the compartment lights had gone out at the station, there would have been no problem because the station lights were there.

The train was going really crazy, and people were shouting in the darkness, "Somebody is pulling on my leg." And, "Who is this fellow?" And, "I will try to find out, but it will be difficult." "Please don't pull my leg!" -- but no answer came. In the third class it is certainly the real India you meet. In the air-conditioned, it is not part of India.

one of the rumours floating around

Reports from France suggest the following is the exchange that took place between the two.

Zidane holding his shirt says to to Materazzi:

ZZ: "Ordinanza de tirare il costume!!" (stop pulling on my shirt!!)

MM": "Taciti, enculo, hai solamente cio che merite..." (shut up f*cker, you only get what you deserve)

ZZ: "si e cio..." (yes, sure...)

While Zidane starts to move away, Materazzi goes:
MM: "meritate tutti ciò, voi gli enculato di musulmani, sporchi terroristici" (all of you deserve that, f*cking Muslims, terrorist b*stards)

et tu zidane?

so the world cup has ended. Football fever is over. Zidane has retired. After a beautiful flowing balletic performance against Brazil where he showed everyone what football could be like, Zidane could not sustain the enthusiasm against Italy. He probably felt that he didnt need to put up with this any longer, and any opponent who tweaked his nipple would have to pay for it. Also it was a deadened game, the Italians defending with 11 men in the goal and doggedly holding out for the penalty shootout. Zidane gave it his best, almost getting the winner when his header was just barely tipped over the crossbar by the Italian goalkeeper, Buffon.

What a display though. What a team. Beautiful passing, stout clean straightforward attacks. Sharp tough defending, clever and skilful midfield, ceaselessly running wingers, the panther like henry prowling upfront. This was truly a worthy team to play your last game with. They produced the few moments of brilliance in the final and a fairer world would have seen them win. However it was not to be. Italian football needed a boost and thats what it got. May the show go on. But you will never see the likes of Zidane again. Someone who grew up in the rough part of Marseille, a child of immigrants, a serious man who honed his craft in the toughest leagues in the world.

as he says in his own words " 'It's hard to explain but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard,' he told me. 'And this desire never to stop fighting is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up. And, for me, the most important thing is that I still know who I am. Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.'"

mexico

so the right wing candidate won in Mexico. It was a pretty well planned and smooth win. First someone hacked the leftist candidates website and put up a letter saying that if they lost then people should come out on the streets. The rightwingers made a huge fuss and got the leftists to publicly declare that they would peacefully accept the result of the election. Big Mistake :). A few days later the elections happened and surprise surprise, the rightwingers won by the narrowest of margins.

where did she go?

that girl who used to write the riverbend blog from baghdad hasnt posted anything since her last post a month ago which was about zarqawi.... i hope she is okay

riverbendblog.blogspot.com