Israel attacks Lebanon and the rabid Fox News pundits scream, “World War 3!!”
Or is it 4?
Whatever is said on Fox News I assume has been rubber stamped by the White House. No calls for ceasefire from Washington. The crickets are chirping at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Bush is “no en casa”. He’s busy sexually harassing German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Condi is not en route to Tel Aviv. Instead she met today with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters from New Zealand, a regular hotbed of unrest down under.
Evidently World War 3 carries the Bush Administration’s Seal of Approval.
Fox News is already trotting out so-called “Middle Eastern scholars” to say Iran supplies Hezbollah and Hamas in Syria, a sound-bite echoed by Presidential spokesliar Tony Snow at today’s news conference. Just the ammunition the Administration is looking for to attack Iran. Kinda makes you wonder if the US maybe instigated this latest blow up.
Yeah. I know. It’s all about a captured Israeli soldier. It’s the last straw. Israel lost it. She must defend herself against the terrorists. But the timing sure – in the words of Babs Bush – “works out very well for them” – as in Washington’s aggressive Mideast agenda pushers.
We, the people have no say in the matter. That fact has been drilled into US over the past 5 years. What we can do is refuse to march to the drumbeat. Ignore the fearmongering. The truth is, Israel has been at war with terrorists since the beginning of time. This is not World War 3. It’s just the same old shit.
War is not funny. Yet sometimes humor is our only salvation in this madness. This cartoon made me laugh:
The End of the World
When it comes to Israel’s sovereignty, history has shown there is no negotiation, no middle ground. Extremism drowns out all other voices.
Three years ago my hand was nearly severed when I publicly dipped the very tip of my pinkie into the Mideast boiling pot. As managing editor of the Writing World newsletter I wrote a regular column titled, “From the Managing Editor’s mind. In the May 15 issue (3:10) I wrote:
A young adult novel not yet released in the US has already incited a firestorm of controversy.
Randa Ghazy, an Italian teenager of Egyptian-Muslim heritage, entered her short story about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a contest. She didn’t win, but her story impressed one of the judges, an editor, who asked her to expand it into a novel. In April 2002, 16-year old Ghazy’s, “Dreaming of Palestine” was published by Italian publisher, Fabbri Editori. It is worth noting here that Ghazy’s mother is an executive with the publishing company. The novel follows the lives of six young Palestinians who have lost family members in confrontations with Israeli solders. One of the characters kills himself and five Israeli solders in a suicide bombing. Ghazy, who has never been to the Palestinian territories and had never met a Palestinian until after her book was published, has claimed she relied on newspaper and TV reports for her research.
When the French edition was published in November, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and other anti-racism activists pressured the government to ban the book, citing a 1949 law that prohibits forms of expression that promote violence and hate among minors. The book has also been published in Egypt, Germany and Norway, and will be published in the US this year by George Braziller, Inc., a small independent publisher. Rabbi Cooper has promised to organize massive protests against the American edition. Already the current College Art Association newsletter contains a letter to the editor signed by 53 students and scholars criticizing the book’s content.
Does this bubbling controversy amount to “much ado about nothing”? A typical teen, Ghazy has called the criticism “stupid.” She may be right. “Dreaming of Palestine” is, after all, a work of fiction, the product of a young girl’s imagination, published by her mother’s employer. At a time when parents and educators worry about kids spending too much time watching MTV and playing video games, perhaps we should be applauding a young writer’s effort to understand world conflict by writing a book about it.
Within 48 hours of publication, I received 3 vicious hate emails (cc’d to the editor) from Christian Zionists be-rating my column and labeling me a “Jew hater”. One writer accused me of calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “much ado about nothing”. I couldn’t let that stand and replied sanely that she had misunderstood. I said the controversy over Ghazy’s book was much ado about nothing. She replied that it was the same thing as condemning Israel, therefore I was still a Jew hater – so there.
Argh!
The editor was upset about the emails, which translated to my column – which she cancelled. I didn’t lose my job as managing editor but I lost the column and the revenue from it – because I wrote about the controversy over a fiction novel written by a 15-year old Egyptian Muslim. The whole thing struck me as beyond extremism into the realm of ridiculousness. I thought about quitting, but that’s exactly what my accusers wanted. I never gave them the satisfaction. I proudly wear my censorship as a badge of honor.
Several weeks later, a representative from George Braziller, Inc. (the publisher of the English version of Ghazy’s “Dreaming of Palestine”) emailed me. She complimented me on my column (someone had sent it to her) and asked me to do a review of the book. I agreed. I also forwarded her email to the editor. Unfortunately there are no happy endings in this biz. The publisher’s glowing praise did not carry the same weight as the 3 hate emails and my column was NOT re-instated because of it.
Here’s my review, which was published widely on the tubes:
I wasn’t expecting to like “Dreaming of Palestine.” I assumed it would heavy-handed, manipulative, and – since it was penned by a then-15-year old – perhaps not even well written.
But I was wrong – on all counts.
It’s not heavy-handed. Ghazy’s stream of consciousness prose woven through the narrative (translated from the Italian by Marguerite Shore) is at first distracting, then mesmerizing. As I began to grasp the reality of the characters’ lives, I realized their story couldn’t be told any other way. Violence, destruction, and grief don’t happen in ordered, logical sentences, with proper structure and format. The story follows the intersections of the lives of eight young Palestinians – Ibrahim, Nedal, Riham, Mohammed, Ramy, Gihad, Ahmed, and Ualid. Religion is not the common denominator that draws them together, since one of them is Christian. Instead they share the common experience of having lost family members at the hands of Israeli soldiers. Generations of war have destroyed their families and their heritage. They have every reason to be terrorists, but they are not. They strive — not always successfully — to live lives committed to non-violence and peace. Throughout the novel, the recurring theme of achieving non-violence one person at a time resonates.
It’s not manipulative. The seven men and one woman are like orphans in search of a family. This desire for family, to live among human beings who care for each other, is what binds them together. They cope with the unpredictable violence from the Israeli occupation forces by living together and helping each other create some sense of normalcy in their lives. Their bonds of friendship and love for each other give hope and meaning to their lives, under utterly hopeless circumstances. Politics and war represent disruption and devastation in their lives, not the force that drives them.
Each character is so uniquely drawn I couldn’t help but wonder if they are based on actual people. Ghazy shows a keen understanding of the lives of young adults, their dreams, fears, and the everyday struggles unique to that stage of life that seems far beyond her years. In contrasting these essences of normal life with the horror of neverending war, she displays real sophistication as a writer.
Dreaming of Palestine is not so much about religion or politics as it is about how war destroys young lives. It should be required reading for all young adults because they are the ones who will ultimately deal with the tragic inheritance of this conflict, and the trauma that will endure well into the future.
In 2003, I was also writing my own novel about the effects of war on young lives – the Iraq War. Dreaming of Palestine inspired me. My book, PFC Liberty Stryker is still in limbo. An agent held it up for a year then passed. Another agent is looking at it.
Because I got caught up in the controversy over Ghazy’s book, I am better able to cope with this delay. It’s possible my book will never be picked up by an agent. I understand that the reality of war – the devastating effects on the lives of real people just like you and me – is hard to swallow. I have briefly felt the heat from the flames of hatred. I know most people really CAN’T handle the truth.
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