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Today's
Stories
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
August
3, 2004
An
Israeli Refusnik Visits Vermont
The
Man Who Didn't Walk By
By
JULES RABIN
This story ranges from the skies over
Palestine to a sewer in Montpelier, Vermont.
Part 1.
The man who "didn't walk
by" is Yonatan Shapira, until recently pilot of a Blackhawk
helicopter and captain in the elite Israeli Air Force. I met
Yonatan not many days ago when he came to speak in my town, Montpelier,
Vermont, about a major turning point in his life
Yonatan is a lover of his country,
a composer, and a handler of extraordinary machines. He was dismissed
from Israel's air force in 2003 because he refused to take part
in aerial attacks in areas of the Occupied Territories of Palestine
where there exist large concentrations of civilians liable to
become "collateral damage." In Yonatan's view, such
attacks are both illegal and immoral because of the near-inevitability
of their killing innocent civilians. In support of his position,
Yonatan cites the authority of the Israeli army's own code of
ethical behavior, and the fact that, (by a recent reckoning)
of 2,289 Palestinians killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in
the current Intifada, less than a quarter (550) were bearing
arms or were fighters.
At the same time, Yonatan has
declared himself absolutely ready to fight in the defense of
Israel proper. He is not a pacifist, though I think his conscience
and his understanding of the complex character of modern warfare
may bring him to that position, too.
* *
*
Yonatan was shocked into his
refusal to obey orders by two occurrences, among others.
One was the action of a fellow
Israeli pilot who fired a 1-ton bomb from his F16 fighter jet,
as ordered, at a house in Al-Deredg, where a suspected Palestinian
terrorist was staying. Yonatan identifies Al Deredg as one of
the most crowded districts of Gaza, and indeed of the world.
Besides the targeted Palestinian, 13 local people were killed
in that attack: 2 men, 2 women, and 9 children, one of whom was
2 years old. 160 other people were wounded in the explosion.
A 1-ton bomb, Yonatan calculates, has approximately 100 times
the explosive power of the type of lethal belts worn by Palestinian
suicide bombers. In proportion to the US population and the fatalities
of the original 9/11 disaster, now an icon and classic measure
of terrorist devastation, the fatalities of that single attack
on tiny Gaza (population 1,200,000) were greater by 10% than
the fatalities in America's own 9/11.
Nor was the bombing of Al-Deredg
unique in the scale of its impact on civilian life. Yonatan has
cited the casualties resulting from 7 other targeted assassinations
conducted in Palestine by the Israel Defense Forces, where, along
with the 7 targeted individuals, 44 bystanders were killed. Taking
Palestine's overall population at 3,500,000 and that of the US
at 290 million, those 44 bystander deaths would represent, in
proportion to the US population, another one and a-third 9/11's.
As a volunteer in Selah, a
group that assists victims of Palestinian terror, Yonatan has
first-hand knowledge of the appalling effects of the multiple
9/11-scale attacks that Israel has tself experienced, at the
hands of Palestinian terrorists. He was nevertheless -- or consequently
-- appalled by the action in Al-Deredg of his fellow pilot. He
considered the means used in the attack , a 1-ton bomb, and its
goal, the assassination of one man, to be wildly disproportionate
to the attack's predictable collateral effects, and a violation
of the rules of engagement concerning which all Israeli soldiers
are instructed. Those rules, as Yonatan has understood them,
include the obligation to refuse to obey orders that are clearly
illegal and immoral.
The other occurrence Yonatan
cited, that pushed him to become a refuser, came out of a disturbing
exchange he had with the commander of the Israeli Air Force,
General Dan Halutz, concerning his refusal to serve on missions
in the Occupied Territories. In Yonatan's words:
"In the discussion of
my dismissal, I asked General Halutz if he would allow the firing
of missiles from an Apache helicopter on a car carrying wanted
men, if it were travelling in the streets of Tel Aviv, in the
knowledge that that action would hurt innocent civilians who
happened to be passing at the time. In answer, the general gave
me his list of relative values of people, as he sees it, from
the Jewish person who is superior down to the blood of an Arab
which is inferior. As simple as that."
As simple as that.
Yonatan is convinced that actions
like those of his fellow-pilot and attitudes like those of his
commanding general are destroying Israel from within, whatever
their effect on Palestine.
* *
*
Superficially, Yonatan conforms
to a stereotype of a career military officer, air force style.
He's tall and lithe, dresses trimly, and wears his hair closely
clipped. He's good-looking, in a high Mediterranean way, and
young.
He departs from the military
stereotype in other respects. There's nothing of the eagle in
his bearing. He's unassuming, and in conversation and argument,
he's almost humble in his appeal to his interlocutor's reason
and understanding. He listens and speaks with the innate respect
and the close attention of a scholar pursuing an investigation,
or a navigator studying a chart.
*
* *
Part 2.
This section of the story of
the man who didn't walk by took place following a public address
Yonatan gave at the Beth Jacob Synagogue in Montpelier, Vermont
towards the end of a recent speaking tour in the Northeast.
The meeting in the small synagogue
had been crowded, and feelings in the audience ran high. Of the
ten or dozen people who rose to speak and raise questions after
Yonatan's half hour address, the majority were critical of his
position some of them bitterly so. Their composite position
devolved on the conviction that the extreme actions Israel takes
against the Palestinians are justified by Israel's need to defend
itself against the steady menace of Palestinian suicide bombers
and against what they conceive to be a sea of hostile Arab neighbors
surrounding it.
Following the meeting, the
audience spilled out into the synagogue parking lot where, in
the lingering daylight of a midsummer evening, the discussion
continued. After a quarter of an hour of this, when I heard a
red-faced elderly woman, standing on a stairway one step above
Yonatan, berate him as a traitor to his country and an enemy
of the Jewish people altogether, I thought that Yonatan needed
a break. We were expected at a nearby restaurant where a table
had been set for us and half a dozen friends. Yonatan said to
the woman, as I drew him away, that he was sorry in his heart
that she felt that way.
* *
*
A few minutes later, as Yonatan
and I approached the restaurant, we heard a young woman who was
standing at the curb gasp out, "Oh my God!" On her
way to her car just then, she had let a bunch of keys drop down
into a sewer grate, where they disappeared from sight. She stood
helplessly at the curb, her face flushed with surprise and helpless
misery. Diners on a balcony situated in front of the restaurant
looked down at the drama, in mid-bite.
Yonatan took an immediate interest
in the case. The woman's unspoken appeal was to the anonymous
world, but Yonatan considered himself personally summoned. I
followed his lead, in comradeship. As the woman looked on, we
both kneeled down at the edge of the sewer to see if the keys
were visible below. Peering through the grate, we could make
out that the sewer's bottom, six feet below us, was covered with
water; how deep, we couldn't tell. We hooked our fingers into
the grate and tugged, to lift it off. It was as immovable as
if fixed in cement.
The woman's case looked hopeless
to me. And friends and dinner were waiting. I suggested to the
woman that she call the police; that she could get help from
the city maintenance people the next day; that she leave a note
of explanation on her car, which happened to be parked illegally;
that she call home for someone to pick her up. I was hungry,
and worn out from the stress of the meeting. I wanted Someone
Else to take care of the stranded woman.
While I spoke all this good
advice to the woman, Yonatan had disappeared, momentarily. With
good instinct, he had gone to an alley-way beside the restaurant,
where he found a substantial length of flexible bell wire. But
of what use, I wondered, could that floppy, thin wire be, in
retrieving a heavy bunch of keys from an unknown depth of sewer
water, six feet or more beyond our reach?
Another contribution came along
that minute, from a friend, Deborah Stoleroff, who had been eating
dinner at a table on the outdoor balcony. She handed us an old-fashioned
wire hanger that she had located. This is, incidentally, the
Deborah who for a year has been turning out a weekly newsletter,
"What's a Citizen To Do?", that lists local community
activities connected with stopping the war in Iraq.
As Yonatan fingered the bell
wire, experimentally, and I unbent the wire hanger, a small crowd
began to gather, including the amiable restaurant manager. The
distraught woman's problem was dramatically apparent: "keys"
and "sewer" are ideas that, brought together, represent
an archetypal dread strong enough to provoke everyone's sympathy
and engage their ingenuity -- Yonatan's most of all, as matters
were developing.
Now we needed something both
rigid and with a long reach, to combine with our two kinds of
wire. I asked the restaurant manager if he could lay his hands
on a pole, and in a minute he produced one ... not long enough
to reach the water's surface, but capable of taking us almost
there.
Yonatan took full command,
without words, and by common consent. He bent the stiff coat
hanger into the shape of a long L with a short foot, and using
the bell wire which was as good as common cord for this purpose,
he bound the upper part of the "L" to the shank of
the pole, thereby adding a foot to the pole's reach.
We were in business. Yonatan
and I knelt on opposite sides of the sewer. He slipped the pole
through the grate, and we peered into the dim depths of the sewer
as he began trawling for the cluster of keys ... which were attached,
fortunately, to a small chain. As we peered down and our eyes
became accustomed to the gloom below, we found that we could
faintly make out the sewer's bottom. The water there stood in
fact only a few inches deep, and was clear. Our pole/coat-hanger
combination, it turned out, was long enough to scrape the sewer's
floor.
While Yonatan fished, in the
murky light of the sewer's bottom, I went from door to door hunting
for a flashlight. For Yonatan, the want of light down below wasn't,
in any case, an absolute obstacle. At the meeting, earlier, he
had spoken about his experience of making night-time landings
without benefit of lights, when he feared his helicopter might
be fired on.
Before I could locate a flashlight,
I heard someone call out, "He's got it!"
Yonatan, wonderfully, had hooked
the keys. Returning from across the street, I saw him draw the
pole up, carefully, carefully, and, reaching his fingers through
the grate, pluck the chain loaded with keys off the improvised
hook at the end of his rig.
With perfect timing, a waiter
came out of the restaurant with a supply of paper napkins. Yonatan
dried the keys off and returned them to their owner.
There was standing applause
from the diners on the balcony and from the handful of people
who had gathered on the sidewalk to watch the little drama. The
woman, dazed with relief, thanked Yonatan simply for restoring
her keys, and he disappeared inside the restaurant to wash up
for dinner.
The woman was herself ready
to leave now, with the take-out bundle she had picked up from
the restaurant. I lingered a minute to tell her who the tall
man with the foreign accent and princely manner was, in the wide
world, and gave her my phone number in case she might have some
further word to say to him. Dazed as she was by the events of
the quarter of an hour, she seemed not to understand what I blurted
out about Israel and Palestine and a soldier's refusal to perform
bad acts.
I haven't yet heard from her.
My fellow Vermonters are courteous, but separate and shy in the
presence of strangers and their strange acts.
Jules Rabin lives in Marshfield, Vermont. He can
be reached at: jhrabin@sover.net
Weekend
Edition Features for July 31 / August 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
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