Thursday, April 29, 2010

Out of Order

I know this is out of order. Today is Wednesday. I think. We walked around the Old City of Jerusalem after 3 days kissing the residents of Sderot with art and beauty. Visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and matched the ancient art with the beautiful, beating sun of a Jerusalem morning. Collectively, we inhaled 10,000 years of belief. 10,000 more of hope to follow. I opened my computer so full of kitty whiskers, sunflowers and rainbows that I could barely maintain the excitement. Turned to the news. In a world where there is Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and falafel and hummus and Kinder chocolate, there should only be good news. Perhaps today was the day we cured cancer or something. Mockingly - not so. It turns out that today is the day after yesterday. Yesterday was the day a Gaza terrorist approached the Israeli border threatening and waving a weapon. That man got shot - a case of suicide by cop. He was there when we were there. He attacked the border as we stood directly next to it. He got shot as we took cover. This was a day ago. Took my time mentioning it because I know that parents and wives and children of our artists are reading this and did not want to alarm them. We are not by that border anymore. It is wrong and out of order when art can be threatened in this nature. It is out of order when the young men and women of the IDF (the only army in the world to have "Defense" in their very name) who had been painting with us and laughing like the children they are must become adults so quickly. It is out of order when the jolly and folly of life must be sacrificed to the defense and protection of innocents. Innocents should be left innocent. Artists should paint. 18 year olds should dance or sing or do anything but defend themselves and their fellow countrymen from terrorists.

But, when the order is reversed. When it is your father or daughter standing by that border, you are happy that when the world is so out of order, someone is there to protect them and maintain the order where innocents live and bad men are stopped.

1 comment:

  1. http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=280186

    You mean this terrorist? A man protesting against being imprisoned in the tiny refugee-camp-enclave that is the Gaza strip?

    You can watch the video, I don't see him threatening and waving a weapon, do you? He was simply protesting, and he got shot, because Israel is a racist, fascist state. Clearly from this post you found his death shocking, the hoops you jump through to spin your visceral reaction to it in a pro-Israel way are astounding.

    BTW you said the IDF is the only army in the world to have "Defense" in their very name. Were you talking about the Israel Defense Force, the Iceland Defense Force or the Ireland Defense Force?

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