tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post8317602990927733976..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Mahmoud Darwish: Under SiegeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1250866043957229322014-07-20T22:19:56.587-07:002014-07-20T22:19:56.587-07:00GREAT CRUELTY AND HEARTLESSNESS
We’re living in a...GREAT CRUELTY AND HEARTLESSNESS<br /><br />We’re living in a time of great cruelty and heartlessness<br />where instead of a sun they’re throwing up<br />anvils<br /><br />Instead of sunlight there’s the sound of<br />hammers beating<br /><br />Instead of walking there’s kicking<br /><br />Instead of thinking there’s talking<br /><br />It’s almost as if there’ve never been times like<br />these before<br /><br />Even shadows thrown by cartwheels on dirt roads<br />resemble the grimaces of armies as they<br />slide across rocks<br /><br />In the palaces of power clocks go off but no one<br />wakes<br /><br />Decisions are made by pouring acid down drains<br />or waiting for nightfall in a room lit by<br />neon tubes<br /><br />If anyone speaks all eyes are upon them<br /><br />I saw a sparrow fly over a fence<br /><br />An ant stop and not go on<br /><br />But laughter has turned to pebbles<br />falling on zinc<br /><br />And children have been torn from their futures<br /><br />_____________________________________________<br /><br />7/19/2006 (from In the Realm of Neither, written during Israel's invasion of Lebanon)<br />Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05692776372807142753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59823847808386719792014-07-20T13:21:18.462-07:002014-07-20T13:21:18.462-07:00... and spectator sports, it may be helpful to not...... and spectator sports, it may be helpful to note, are definitely trending up in Sderot.<br />____<br /><br /><br />Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza. People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive: Harriet Sherwood in Sderot, The Guardian, Sunday 20 July 2014<br /><br />As the sun begins to sink over the Mediterranean, groups of Israelis gather each evening on hilltops close to the Gaza border to cheer, whoop and whistle as bombs rain down on people in a hellish warzone a few miles away.<br /><br />Old sofas, garden chairs, battered car seats and upturned crates provide seating for the spectators. On one hilltop, a swing has been attached to the branches of a pine tree, allowing its occupant to sway gently in the breeze. Some bring bottles of beer or soft drinks and snacks.<br /><br />On Saturday, a group of men huddle around a shisha pipe. Nearly all hold up smartphones to record the explosions or to pose grinning, perhaps with thumbs up, for selfies against a backdrop of black smoke.<br /><br />Despite reports that millions of Israelis are living in terror of Hamas rockets, they don't deter these hilltop war watchers whose proximity to Gaza puts them within range of the most rudimentary missiles. Some bring their children.<br /><br />In the border town of Sderot, which has been struck by countless missiles from the Gaza Strip in recent years, one family gathers on a top-floor balcony, draped with an Israeli flag and banner of the army's legendary Golani Brigade. A house with a war view may even command a premium price these days.<br /><br />An atmosphere of anticipatory excitement grows as dusk falls, in the expectation that Hamas militants will increase rocket fire after breaking their Ramadan fast, and the Israeli military will respond with force.<br /><br />The thud of shellfire, flash of an explosion and pall of smoke are greeted with exclamations of approval. "What a beauty," says one appreciative spectator.<br /><br />Shimrit Peretz, 19, has come with her off-duty soldier boyfriend, Raz Sason, whose army-issue assault rifle is slung across his shoulders.<br /><br />"We come to look at the bombing," Peretz says, adding that this is their fourth visit to the hilltop. They plan to stay several hours: "It's interesting." The pair have brought a backpack filled with bottles of water and bags of crisps.<br /><br />Peretz says that she doesn't worry about the Palestinian civilians caught in the bombing; Sason disagrees. Despite his concern for the innocents caught in the assault, the young conscript soldier wishes he was with his comrades across the border in Gaza. "I'd like to be going in, to help my country and help the soldiers inside," he says.<br /><br />Given the dramatic views, media crews are coming to the area to cover the fighting. On a nearby hilltop, an ugly scene develops as a group of Israeli men threaten a photographer, accusing him of being a "leftist". We are warned against asking for interviews, as another cheer goes up.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-33231010832491252852014-07-20T13:01:29.015-07:002014-07-20T13:01:29.015-07:00Meanwhile, news of the day, as expected, not very ...Meanwhile, news of the day, as expected, not very hopeful...<br />__<br /><br /><br />The secretary of state, John Kerry, on Sunday appeared to criticise Israel’s claims about the targeted scope of its attacks on Gaza, as a open microphone caught him talking to an aide ahead of a TV interview.<br /><br />“It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry, who was appearing on Fox News Sunday as part of a tour of all five main US talkshows, said to an aide on the phone, in a frustrated tone.<br /><br />It was not the first time Kerry's private criticisms of Israeli policy have emerged in public. In April, the Daily Beast reported that he had warned a closed door meeting of world leaders that Israel could become an “apartheid state” if a two-state solution was not found and that if peace talks failed there could be a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens.<br /><br />Israel has launched air strikes, artillery fire and a ground operation in Gaza. According to health officials in the Palestinian territory, 340 people have been killed, nearly 2,400 wounded and tens of thousands displaced in 12 days of fighting.<br /><br />Ahead of his interview with Fox News Sunday, Kerry said: “We’ve got to get over there. Thank you, John. I think, John, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around.”<br /><br />In his interview on CNN's State of the Union, Kerry said President Barack Obama would ask him to go to the Middle East soon to aid in efforts to secure a ceasefire.<br /><br />Earlier, speaking on CNN, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said Israel’s response to rocket attacks from Gaza had been “very measured and trying to be as pinpointed as we can”.<br /><br />“What choice do we have?” Netanyahu said. “We have to protect ourselves. We try to target the rocketeers, we do. And all civilian casualties are not intended by us but actually intended by Hamas who want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can because somebody said they use telegenically dead Palestinians for the cause. They want the more dead the better.”<br /><br />-- Dominic Rushe, The Guardian, Sunday 20 July 2014<br /><br />__<br /><br />Israel must attack Gaza even more mercilessly, expel the population and resettle the territory with Jews, the deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has said.<br /><br />Moshe Feiglin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, makes the call in an article for the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva.<br /><br />Feiglin demands that Israel launch attacks “throughout Gaza with the IDF’s [Israeli army’s] maximum force (and not a tiny fraction of it), with all the conventional means at its disposal.”<br /><br />“After the IDF completes the ‘softening’ of the targets with its firepower, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations,” Feiglin writes in one of several calls for outright war crimes.<br /><br />Following the reconquest, Israel’s army “will thoroughly eliminate all armed enemies from Gaza. The enemy population that is innocent of wrongdoing and separated itself from the armed terrorists will be treated in accordance with international law and will be allowed to leave,” Feiglin writes.<br /><br />“Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever,” Feiglin concludes. “Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel.”<br /><br />-- Ali Abunimah, author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, from his blog, 19 July 2014TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-28638123290422284742014-07-20T12:57:45.334-07:002014-07-20T12:57:45.334-07:00Duncan, as hope is currently very difficult to mai...Duncan, as hope is currently very difficult to maintain (conjure up?), I fear the best we can muster is a contortion which allows us to be affected (infected?) by some sort of side-stream hope emanating from those who have understood that its maintenance requires the presence of virtues like belief and courage, probably so far out of our reach at this point that we may as well be honest and admit, we can't help, all we can do is offer compassion, and refuse to look away.<br /><br />__<br />Resisting means assuring oneself of the heart’s health,<br />The health of the testicles and of your tenacious disease:<br />The disease of hope.<br /><br />***<br />And in what remains of the dawn, I walk toward my exterior<br />And in what remains of the night, I hear the sound of footsteps inside me.<br /><br />__<br /><br />It's the sound of those footsteps one can't so easily ignore...TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-57267047912167677952014-07-20T11:48:32.671-07:002014-07-20T11:48:32.671-07:00"The disease of hope"
What a perfect an..."The disease of hope"<br /><br />What a perfect and true line.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com