When I was young, a friend said, “Don’t throw around the word brilliant, most writing falls way short. Show me brilliance.” Well, this week we ran brilliant pieces. Tareq S. Hajjaj’s report from Gaza on the heat wave turning houses into furnaces is brilliant. Because Tareq has the ability to put simple observations in a series in an indelible manner, without a wasted word. And a moral punch. Even though Dina’s doors and windows are flung wide open, the heat inside the apartment is unbearable, with no fans, air conditioning, or cold water in the fridge…. A single power plant operates Gaza. The total need for power in Gaza is about 600 megawatts. The available amount is 250. Israel controls the amount of fuel Gaza receives.
Then there’s Ner Kitri‘s piece, “The transition from a Jewish state to a true democracy will benefit all.” This piece is brilliant because it frames a complex question– the effect of Zionism on Jews– in clear and economical terms: The ethnic cleansing and occupation of Palestine — what Herzl has aptly named “colonization” — has exacted a heavy cognitive and mental price for us as occupiers, many of whom are living in the very houses of the Palestinians who are not allowed to return to them. This means that we constantly need to shut out our consciences. On an international level, the pretense that “Israel is the home of all Jews” also estranges Jews throughout the world from their actual homes — their own states and societies. This eerily mirrors the approach Jews worldwide, particularly in Europe, suffered from when their fellow countrymen politicized their Jewish identity and treated them as Jews rather than as fellow citizens.
Yes and let me add, the pretense that Israel is the home of all Jews turns American Jews into tools for Israel. And our politicians into cruel clowns. Supporting what anyone with a conscience recognizes as an apartheid state. And a fascist one to boot. More brilliance– a memoir of Zionist interrogations going to and from Ben Gurion airport, by Adrian Kreutz: “But then why did you visit the West Bank?” “I was simply curious.” “Why would you be curious about an Arab country?”
What chores our writers took on this week– and what accomplishment!
Thanks for reading, |