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Monday, July 16, 2007

Two quotes from two different articles

This isn't going to be a very well-constructed post, I'm afraid, just two quotes from two different, but related, articles. The first is from David Margolick reviews Tom Segev's new book about the 6 Day War in (last) Sunday's Times.
Ancient history? 1967? If you don’t think so, picture a time before suicide bombings and settlements; when American support for Israel was not a given; when a majority of the Knesset spoke — and thought — in Yiddish; when Israelis still had no television programs, and Jerusalemites assumed explosions must be earthquakes; when terms like intifada, Hamas and even Palestinian were either unfamiliar or not yet coined; when Israelis argued — with straight faces — that Jews everywhere were safer thanks to them. That’s beyond ancient; it’s prehistoric.
Neat, huh? It's a nice, quick snapshot of haw far we've travelled in forty years. The second is from an article in Azure by Yossi Klein Halevi sent to me by [on request.]
What I love about your photograph at the Wall,” I told [the photographer], “is that it was the image of our highest self, the moment before we fell into gloating in the summer of 1967–the jokes we told about Arab cowardice and the mocking songs we sang about Egyptian leader Gamal Abd al-Nasser and the bullets we wore around our necks.”
There's a link here, between'67 and Tisha Bav and hubris, and distance and loss and though I've struggled with it for the better part of the day, I haven't found it yet.

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