Resting Peacefully
madhavi, as you may know, is not jewish.
we were talking about jewish stuff in preparation for the wedding and she said this:
it's hard for me to invoke Israel in all of these blessings. when i hear Israel, i think of horrible things.
well, yeah. me too.
when i was in high school, and much more into being jewish, i did a report on the israeli-palestinian conflict for my World Crises class. i looked into the history and dug past all the rhetoric and read all sorts of papers. and i figured it out:
they're fucked.
the israelis and the palestinians both are completely right to want what they want. they can't possible both have what they want. they both do unspeakably horrible things in the name of self-preservation.
it's awful.
in my paper, i was supposed to come up with some solution. well there is no solution except: stop wanting what you want.
but now arafat is dead.
i'm not sure what that means.
there's an ancient story that both jews and muslims believe.
i'll simplify it here.
sarah was barren, so she gave abraham her maidservant hajar and hajar gave birth to ismail. then god spoke to abraham and told him he would father a son with sarah. he did. the son was issac. with a son of her own, sarah became jealous and sent hajar and ismail away to die in the desert. they did not die. ismail became the father of the muslim people. issac became the father of the jewish people. both from the same father. brothers who did not know each other.
there was one time in their lives that these two people met with common cause. at the funeral of their father, they met. they came together to bury him.
so. you see. it's all clear. jews and arabs, brothers. sons of the same father. unable to come together until that father is dead.
i don't think arafat is that father.
i'm not sure what arafat did for the palestinians. he unified them, but kept them from their goals. did he really want them to succeed? i'm not sure.
bush says, "may god rest his soul." i'm more than happy to let arafat do his own dealings with whichever god he likes.
waiting until you're dead to get some rest is idiotic.
i hope the palestinians find someone to lead them who can let them rest now. i hope they do a better job of selecting a leader than we did.
i think people who aggressively support israel or who aggressively support palestine are fools.
lately, i've also felt like people who aggressively support republicans or who aggressively support democrats are also fools. it isn't about positions and politics. it's about people.
it's about trying to understand other people.
R.I.P. yassir.
R.I.P. everyone else, too.
i, for one, am just fine with him being dead. he's a dinosaur. he and sharon are dinosaurs.
incidentally, i think people who call people fools are fools.
"I'll speak a prophecy ere I go:
When priests are more in word than matter;
When brewers mar their malt with water;
When nobles are their tailors' tutors;
No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors;
When every case in law is right;
No squire in debt, nor no poor knight;
When slanders do not live in tongues;
Nor cutpurses come not to throngs;
When usurers tell their gold i' the field;
And bawds and whores do churches build;
Then shall the realm of Albion
Come to great confusion."
--Fool, King Lear
that's the highest compliment i've received all day.