And for my 100th post: a tale of two commemorations

Oh, work is the curse of tbe blogging classes.

I can think of a dozen posts that I really want to do, but just don't have the time. But here  I am at my 100th post. Of course, I realise that that's totally puny stuff by comparison with the Stakhanovite post rate of a Norm, who seems to do about ten or twelve a day. But then he's really, really retired, instead of just pretend retired, like me.

Still, tonight, I'm looking at two really great posts about two very different commemorations. The anniversary of Yitzchak Rabin's murder has been in the Israeli news (and got some British coverage) all week.

Shai has a knockout post about the official commemorative rally in the very square that Rabin was murdered in. And he takes no prisoners. You have to read his mordant, witty take on the self indulgence and self-righteousness of the Israeli left's star politicians and their followers (and I read him as being on the left himself)

Things picked up a bit when Amir Peretz took the stage. Say what you will about the newly elected moustache now heading Labor, but they guy has star power. Peretz was followed by Shimon Peres, who got a rousing round of applause. But then again, it was a Peres kind of a crowd.

I found the difference in the speeches of the current and former head of the party interesting. Both men dared speak the O word — Oslo — which I suppose is on its way to being rehabilitated. Peres spoke in broad platitudes — the need for peace, etc. Peretz talked directly, calling for Israel to pull out of the West Bank. He also borrowed from Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech when he talked about Israeli and Palestinian children playing together in the area between Sderot (Peretz’s home town) and the Gaza town of Beit Jala.

Advantage: Peretz, if you ask me. But then again I’ve gotten really bored with the Shim of late.

Then his coup de grace was this on Clinton's appearance:

The evening’s biggest draw, of course, was the guest of honor: William Jefferson Clinton. Ah, Clinton, how we Israelis love you. Let us count the ways. Clinton’s speech struck just the right note of maudlin pathos and hope, and served to remind us what lousy public speakers Israeli politicians are.

The rally ended, as these things always do, with a rendition of Shir Lashalom. The same crowd who was up on stage singing in 1995 was reunited last night, with two changes. Clinton insisted in participating (and seemed to know some of the words, God bless him). Also, there was an empty microphone. Where Rabin would have stood.

Meanwhile, dear readers, had you forgotten another very important death anniversary just passed? Imaan in Gaza had-- it was the anniversary of Arafat's death.

She's written a vivid and surreal account of her first independent trip out in Gaza City away from the over-protective embrace of her in-law relatives. And guess what? She comes up against a bunch of masked Arafat-commemorating gunmen, one of whom pulls out his rocket to show her just how macho he is. She describes her mental act of defiance in a comically underplayed note of self-deprecation.

As we tried to cross a street a minivan pulled up in front of us, full with armed and masked men, wearing black clothes, army clothes, some had the Palestinian scarf rapped around their face. The man closest to the window looked at me for a second, then pulled out a rocket as to show off and you will realize now that I’m totally ignorant when it comes to weapons, but my feeling when I saw it was that it’s that kind of rockets that land in Israel… When he didn’t see me I stuck out my tongue to him. In my imagination.

And she gets her retaliation in with an hilarious photo of the sacred Arafat image, printed in shades of pink and puce on a T-shirt, hanging out to dry, upside down, alongside a row of identical white socks. Somehow, that just seems to say it all.

Don't miss it.

Comments

[Imaan]

I'm glad we got the same sense of humour, Judy! Love //Imaan

[Joanne]

I think Amir Peretz sounds like a good bet. I don't know a lot about him, but I hear that he is a progressive and a Mizrahi to boot! A non-Ashkenazi leader of the Labour Party! Maybe he could pry away some Misrahi or Sephardic voters from the Likud. And if he has star power, all the better. Domestically for Labour, but also abroad for Israel. I think Israel is badly in need of representatives with charisma.

[Chris]

Wikipedia does need some quality control!
I love this part of the Stakhanovite entry:
" Despite the fact that the Soviet authorities often falsified the actual statistics, the Soviet people showed unprecedented enthusiasm and firm belief in their own ability to make a difference and contribute as much as possible to the cause of socialist re-organization of the Soviet economy."

[Shai]

Mazel tov on your 100th post!

I don't know that I would characterize myself as a member of the left, although I did once count myself as one of them.

The issue of how Rabin should be remembered has finally cropped up in public debate after 10 years. A lot of people, from the right and the center are finally speaking out about how Peace Now and other groups appropriated the assassination to turn Rabin's legacy into something a lot more left-wingy than he would have liked.

It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.

[Yusuf Smith]

[Oh, work is the curse of tbe blogging classes.]

I know what you mean ... when I'm working I think of so many blog posts I'd like to write, and when I get home, I'm too tired. (My work is usually driving trucks.) Then again, a lot of them are whinges about the jobsworths I meet during the course of the day, so they are better off not being posted, but I often get people asking me when I'm going to update after I've left it two or three days. (Right now, no link due to hosting problems. Message to all aspiring bloggers: find a host which appears aware of bloggers' needs and will not down your whole site due to one spam attack.)

[Judy]

Yusuf-- it's wonderful that people value your contribution so much that they call you up and ask for more after two or three days.

I'd find it interesting to read about your jobsworths, and the joys of driving trucks...

[Yusuf Smith]

Well, I don't know how much they value them, but I generally update at least once a day when I have the time, even if it's just with a link to an interesting story. So when I leave it for a couple of days or more, they wonder what's happened to me. (When the bombings happened, one of my American readers actually sent me her mobile number and asked me to call her in Tennessee and tell her I was OK.)

When my site is back up, check out the category "Road Life", in which I've written quite a bit about the subject.