darkly funny, funnily dark

Darkly funny, funnily dark. Via Ben White's blog, and Israeli T.V. Ben White is very pithy. Worth checking out.

1948

Announcer: In 1948, Israel declared independence. The following day, IDF forces

entered the Palestinian villages.

Palestinian: Wa, salaam aleikum, my friend, good morning, mazal tov on the state,

have a great time.

Jew: Thank you, wise Palestinian. But we still don’t know where we’ll live.

Palestinian: Walla, take our village. Here are the keys. We were thinking of leaving

anyway; after all, we’ve got 22 more countries.

Tall soldier: Nice Palestinian, are you sure you don’t want to remain in your home?

We can live together; there’s enough room for everyone.

Palestinian: You know what we Palestinians are like. We’ve got an urge to wander.

What’s that we say? Hoo-wha, hoo-wha, a voice calls, to roam, to

roam.

Jew: Ok, if that’s the way things are we’ll honor your request and take over your

homes. Goodbye, wise Palestinian. (Read more, it doesn't stop there.)

________________________________________________________

Fraser, one of Australia's ex-prime ministers, has been urging a balanced role in dealing with Gaza and Israel and has urged Australians to support Obama on this issue, as Obama has come across as the strongest President, since Eisenhower on the issue of trying to stem somewhat human rights abuses in the area. Not trying to stem aid, though, of course.

He also questions Australia's blind support for Israel. Rightly so, to my mind.

The typical responses have been found in the letters pages, but positive ones also. If you visit either Australians for Palestine, or Antony Loewenstein's blog you will find the original article and the letters. The original article is also at Malcolm Fraser's website, Australians All.

does leonard cohen have a sense of humour?

The following video is from John Barukhov, a very young guy (Israeli) who has a dark sense of humour and a great sense of justice. This is what he has to say for himself:

After reading "The ethnic cleansing of Palestine" by historian Ilan Pappe I decided to compose a song about the settlers whose presence makes a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very difficult. From a zionists point of view I think it is a clever strategy to occupy the west-bank bit-by-bit. And it seems to work quiet well.
However, it is immoral to expand your territory on the expense of people who try to have a normal life there. Once this period in time will be regarded as a black page in the history of Israel.
By the way, I am not a self-hating-jew. I just dont [sic] agree with some aspects of Israeli politics.

I came across the video at the Artists Against Apartheid site.



A message for Leonard Cohen, too. He is set to tour Israel in September. The story is reported here.