27 April 2010

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird, it's a Plane, No, it's . . .


Magen David--Shield of David--struggling to form over Haifa on Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, Independence Day. But no, it is just light, and hardly even an imperfect Magen David. Imagination grasping at a suggestion based on a hint come out of an emotion. Mother Mary in a Marmite lid. Baba Sali in a dish of khoumous.

Yeah, something like that.

We all see what we want to see.

And some people want to see Signs from the Heavens. And miracles. And things of incorruptable, everlasting value.

Geez, some people!

04 April 2010

THE 1942 WANSEE VILLA CONFERENCE IN BERLIN: The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem


DIE ENDLOSUNG, the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. This was the subject of the Nazi conference at Wansee Villa, Berlin, on 20 January 1942. Mass murder was the solution of choice, notwithstanding the fact that nearly one million Jews were already dead by less systematic, inefficient means than were to be used later.

I am very sorry to report that, over the past month or so, I have heard a few of my fellow Israelis wonder if Obama has already had his own version of a secret Wansee Villa conference on a final solution to what is euphemistically called the Arab-Israel problem, and increasingly, the Israel problem. And starting to sound like a cynical reworking of the infamous Jewish Question. (Which once rated a Library of Congress subject heading all its own.)

Of course I am bound to admit that only a very few have uttered this fantastic notion. Surely this statistically irrelevent count means nothing? (Not that the establishment of truth is ever a popularity contest.) This is too much to accuse even an unfriendly American president of, is it not? The idea that the permanent solution to the so-called Arab-Israel problem is, for some leaders, such as Obama, part of an attempt at removing Israel by stages from the family of nations is unthinkable, or nearly so. Isn't it?

Shall we ask Mr Biden?

Say it ain't so Joe!