Palestine

“I have suffered fear, hunger and humiliation when I passed from the Warsaw Ghetto, through labor camps, to Buchenwald. Today, as a citizen of Israel, I cannot accept the systematic destruction of cities, towns and refugee camps. I cannot accept the technocratic cruelty of the bombing . . . I hear familiar sounds today . . . I hear ‘dirty Arabs’ and I remember ‘dirty Jews’. I hear about ‘closed areas’ and I remember ghettos and camps. I hear ‘two-legged beasts’ and I remember ‘Untermenschen’ [‘subhumans’] . . . Too many things in Israel remind me of too many things . . .”
-Dr. Schlomo Shmelzman, Holocaust Survivor

No Coward's Song

I am afraid to think about my death,

When it shall be, and whether in great pain

I shall rise up and fight the air for breath

Or calmly wait the bursting of my brain.

I am no coward who could seek in fear

A folk-lore solace or sweet Indian tales:

I know dead men are deaf and cannot hear

The singing of a thousand nightingales.

I know dead men are blind and cannot see

The friend that shuts in horror their big eyes,

And they are witless -- O, I'd rather be

A living mouse than dead as a man dies.

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915)

Dinner 4th Jan 2008

A very enjoyable dinner with friends.
The people and the place shall remain unnamed.

Wahhluli wiehed ....

Kelma bejn tnejn

What is he saying??