FIRST ENCOUNTER 1974

Written2/16/2012

America was in a deep recession during the summer of 1974 and I had returned to Boston after a two-month hitchhiking trip across the USA to discover that banks and corporations weren't hiring long-haired college graduates. I finally found work at the Shaba, an Israeli restaurant on Beacon Hill, as the cook.

I had never been to Israel and had never met any Israelis. My knowledge of Middle East cuisine was zero. The young manager, Ari, taught me how to cook falafel, spread hummus and bab-ganoush on a plate, and toast pita bed. At the end of my training Ali declared that I was head chef. My pay was the minimum wage. I worked sixty hours a week. My take-home pay with overtime was about $130. It was better than nothing.

The two waitresses at the Shaba were from Tel Aviv. Ari came from Jerusalem. The three of them ordered me around like a slave, but I didn't mind the bullying from the two girls. They were very cute and I thought I might have a chance with one. Sillva was a skinny redhead with freckles two months out of the army and I sometimes caught her looking at me. She always smiled, as our eyes met for a moment.

I was good-looking in a Neanderthal way.

"Are you doing anything after work?" I asked one night, washing up the dishes. My job included that chore.

"I am meeting with friends." Sillva made it sound like none of them were a boyfriend. "I'd invite you, but israelis like hanging out with themselves. It comes from not being able to trust anyone."

"Not trust anyone?" I had been a hippie. We believed in peace and love.

"Israel is surrounded by hostile nations. The Nazis killed Jews and everyone watched. Who should we trust?"

"I understand." I had dated a Jewish girl in high school. My best friend was a Jew from Long Island. They were nothing like Israelis. I put away the final pot. I was free to go.

"You do?" She took off her apron. Her hipbones jutted above her jeans. Her skin was darkened by the sun. I imagined her in an army uniform for a second.

"Yes, in grammar school I had been beaten by bullies. Everyone watched the show. No one did anything." The three boys were not the SS, but their punches left no marks. "After that I didn't trust too many people either."

"Maybe one night, but not tonight."

Outside Ari, the other waitress, and Sillva walked toward Charles Street. I was living at home. The last train to Ashmont was at 12. I made it with five minutes to spare. There was no way I would ever get together with Sillva and I resigned myself to being the cook. Life was easy without desire.

The next month I labored from 9 in the morning to 11 at night. I never complained about the hours. I needed the money. The three Israelis drank and laughed together in Hebrew. I was an outsider. Sillva and I never had time alone. Ari and the other girl made sure of that.

The night Nixon resigned from the White House I was frying falafel in the kitchen and upon hearing the news I ran into the street to join in the celebration. Massachusetts was the only state to vote against Nixon in 1972. Car horns blared throughout the city and I turned around to see the two waitresses standing in the doorway. The manager had the night off.

"What?"

"Nixon was a good friend to Israel." Sillva eyed me with suspicion.

"Every president has been a good friend to Israel." The USA supplied them with arms.

"Not Eisenhower. He backed Egypt in the seizure of the Sinai Canal." Sillva stepped aside for me to enter the restaurant.

"Eisenhower was pissed, because the French and English hadn't warned him about the war and this gave the Soviets a free hand in Hungary." I had read about this war in several books. Every author concluded it was a mistake.

"Who cares about Hungary? They were Nazis." Sillva spat out the accusation without any opening for a rebuttal.

"Zsa Zsa Gabor is Hungarian. She's no Nazi."

"I thought you were different, but you're like everyone else. No one cares about Israel." She was actually close to tears. My attempt to apologize was waved off by her friend.

"You are what you are. Sorry won't change that."

"If you say so." I couldn't see what I had really done wrong, but saying sorry is what you're supposed to say to a crying woman.

We didn't speak for the rest of the night. Orders were placed on the counter in silence. I left without a good-bye and the next morning Ari fired me as soon as I walked into the restaurant.

"We have a new cook coming from Jerusalem."

5 It was a lie, but I didn't need an explanation

Either you were with the Israelis or you were against them. I stopped by the restaurant several times for my last check. The next week the manager said it would be ready later in the day. He was lying, but Sillva said, "Make him his check. He worked for it."

As the manager went into the office, I asked Sillva, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You can not hurt an Israeli. We do not get hurt."

"Sorry."

"Don't ever say sorry to an Israeli. It's a sign of weakness."

"John Wayne said the same thing in THE SEARCHERS." It was my favorite John Ford Movie.

"Then he must be Israeli too." She turned away, as if she expected me to become a pillar of salt. Ari came back with the check. I cashed it at the bank. I spent the rest of the day at the Sevens on Charles Street. The bar was a dive. None of its patrons cared about Israel. They were there to drink beer and I was too.

Free Palestine,free Tibet, free the world___

Repentance Of Guilt

Repenting for the sins of others is a crime against the innocent. - James Steele Yesterday the Middle East Media Research Institute or MEMRI released a three year-old video of Mohammed Morsi, then-Muslim Brotherhood leader and the present Egyptian President pitching defiant Anti-Zionist talking points on several unidentified TV broadcasts. Under siege by the GOP for appointing a purported anti-semitic Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense the White House was quick to issue a statement harshly criticizing the 'unacceptable rhetoric'. "We believe that President Morsi should make clear that he respects people of all faiths and that this type of rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic Egypt," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at a White House briefing. In the speech Morsi categorically rejected the two-state solution and called the USA and Zionists 'bloodsuckers who attack Palestinians' as well as describing Zionists as "the descendants of apes and pigs." Zionist leaders have not been kind in their words judging from the following quotes, which are online, but in redacted form to reform their meaning. "We must expel Arabs and take their places." -- David Ben Gurion 1937 The actual quote according to Wikipedia reads as follows; "We do not wish, we do not need to expel the Arabs and take their place. All our aspirations are built upon the assumption — proven throughout all our activity in the Land — that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs." Ben Gurion did say, "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So, it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army. Our whole policy is there. Otherwise the Arabs will wipe us out." Sound reasoning, but words are words and sometimes they can be more deadly as a lie than the truth. "[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs." - Menachem Begin 1982 supposedly in reference to the PLO and not the Palestinian people. "(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." - Yitzhak Shamir 1988 This statement allegedly was derived from these two statements as reported by Andrew Sullivan. Mr. Shamir, standing atop an ancient West Bank castle, told reporters: "Anybody who wants to damage this fortress and other fortresses we are establishing will have his head smashed against the boulders and walls." Then in remarks aimed at Arab rioters, the Prime Minister said: "We say to them from the heights of this mountain and from the perspective of thousands of years of history that they are like grasshoppers compared to us." And then there was Einstein - “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.” This is also reputed to be false, then again not once in the speeches was the Arabic word for Jew 'yahud' mentioned by Morsi. Neither is there a single mention in the BBC, Huffington Post, or New York Times that the ex-IDF colonel of the counter-terrorism brach Yigal Carmon and the current-director of MEMRI said of torture in 1995, "Pain is not taking life. Pain comes and goes. Pain disappears. You know, everyone experiences that. Unwillingly, of course." No mention of their connection to hardline Likud Party, but that is expected in the light of shoddy jingoism of the western media as well as According to the Huffington Post a group of senators, including Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. and Christopher Coons, D-Del., are currently in Cairo and a pro-Israel White House spokesperson said she expected they would make their views known to Egypt's leadership. Expect these hot dogs to have plenty to say on TV. They love the limelight. The AP reported that the Muslim Brotherhood refused to comment on Washington's reaction to Morsi's remarks. $3 billion dollars in US aid is coming their way this year and while $3 billion might not be what it once was it ain't a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, so saying nothing is almost as good as never having said nothing. This rehashing of old news to re-ignite the interests of the ignorant has a purpose even beyond what is written between the lines. We the people can only watch and wonder what 'they' are saying to each other and we will never know who they are. Dank Himmel. ps no one is ever innocent. Just talk to the NYPD. They know best. Everyone is guilty of something.

In Our Best Interests

The Democratic convention platform in Charlotte left out any mention of Israel and God. The GOP bible-thumpers attacked the omission of their Almighty Deity and those farther to the right have been outraged without surprise, for as resistance.ning.com states; "For Democrats there is NO God because they believe in the merciless slaughter of America’s innocent, unborn children, the elderly, disabled and sick population as contained in the deadly ObamaCare law. They believe in the destruction of the family as ordained by God — marriage between one woman and one man — so-called same-sex marriage. They believe in enslaving the citizens of America to their communist agenda and if we don’t comply we are called “terrorists,” falsely arrested and detained without due process. They don’t believe in God even if they falsely claim they do, because they don’t do his will. Their ways are not the ways of God. God’s way is not man’s way; God works in His own way. The Democrats don’t seem to understand this. In essence, they are anti-God; anti-Christ; anti-Israel; anti-American." The bass grumblings of the Fundamentalist base of the GOP thundered across the country and the Democratic leadership caved under the multitude of demands for God's inclusion into the party platform. Last night they added that government should help people "make the most of their God-given potential". As a devout atheist I was disappointed by their cowardice in principles, especially on the separate issue of declaring that Jerusalem is the de facto capitol of Israel. This change was decided on a voice vote, but clearly less than two-thirds of the delegates were in favor of saying that, "Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel". The 'nos' ruled the vote and Antonio Villaraigosa, the Democratic convention chair, asked for the crowd to voice their opinions three times before favoring the ayes. Boos rang from the floor, for the President has suggested to the Israeli prime minister that the Zionist nation return to its pre-1967 borders to solve the long-standing conflict with the Palestinian people. The LA mayor was clearly taken aback by the rejection of Jerusalem as Israel's capitol, but he did as told and affirmed the vote and the fact that the USA will stand by its best friend and ally in the Mideast. To see the vote please go to this URL; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZJvcjni8-U