Friday, January 18, 2008
Music
18th August 2007 Saturday Evening "Leilot Yaffo - Jaffa Nights"
Artist: Bob Marley
Album: Uprising
Title: Redemption Song
Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold i to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the 'and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'cause all i ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfil de book.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'cause all i ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
---
/guitar break/
---
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! have no fear for atomic energy,
'cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfil de book.
Won't you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom? -
'cause all i ever had:
Redemption songs -
All i ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.
9th September 2007.
====================================
Etta Jones at Last! Reissue of November 15 1960 Album Bought CD 18th January 2008.
With Stormy Weather (1933)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Last!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia At Last!
Studio album by Etta James
Released 1961
Recorded January-October 1960
Genre Blues/Soul
Length 28:27
Label Chess/MCA
Producer Philip & Leonard Chess
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Etta James chronology
At Last!
(1961) The Second Time Around
(1961)
At Last! is a 1961 album by Etta James, and the first LP release for the blues singer. Released through Chess Records, the album consisted primarily of pop, blues, and jazz standards. James is presented as a more mainstream R&B singer on the LP, though several tracks are more traditional blues in style and vocalization. The album marked James' major mainstream breakthrough. Six tracks charted on both Billboard Magazine charts Black Singles Chart and Pop Singles Chart, including "At Last," "All I Could Do Was Cry," and "Trust in Me." In 2003, the album was ranked number 116 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
1-"Anything to Say You're Mine" (Sonny Thompson)–2:33
2-"My Dearest Darling" (Eddie Bocage/Paul Gayten)–3:00
3-"Trust in Me" (Milton Ager/Jean Schwartz/Ned Wever)–2:57
4-"A Sunday Kind of Love" (Barbara Belle/Anita Leonard /Louis Prima/Stan Rhodes)–3:14
5-"Tough Mary" (Lorenzo Manley)–2:24
6-"I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Willie Dixon)–3:04
7-"At Last" (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren)–2:57
8-"All I Could Do Was Cry"
9-"Stormy Weather" (Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler)–3:05
10-"Girl of My Dreams" (Sonny Clapp)–2:20
11-"My Heart Cries" (Harvey Fuqua/Etta James)–2:36 **1
12-"Spoonful" (Dixon)–2:50 **1
13-"It's a Crying Shame" (James/Fuqua)–2:54 **1
14-"If I Can't Have You" (Fuqua/James)–2:50 **1
**1 Bonus track for 1999 Chess Records reissue.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
1995 Tel Aviv 4th November 1995 Rabin Square.
I DID NOT LIKE The Demo as again it was that part of the public that I belong too
when the Other part are not there. I phoned my sister and said so.
When the demo was nearly finished I returned to Kaplan st. I saw Zalli Reshef of Shalom Achshav at "Mac David" Hamburger place and spoke to him.
Then the news on the radio said that Rabin was shot at. I went to nearby Ichilov Hospital and heard Eitan Haber announcing Rabin's murder. There were so many crazy people there that I left and went back to Kaplan.
This started a most Traumatic experience personally and publicly.
12 years later we have learnt little and the situation is worse.
I beleive that the weekness of Israeli Politics is behind this assasination and the cause that has to be changed is Proportional Representation.
8th November 2008
Efrat Gosh sings ELI ELI by Hanah Senesh:
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אלי, אלי שלא יגמר לעולם החול והים, רשרוש של המים, ברק השמיים, תפילת האדם. החול והים, רשרוש של המים, ברק השמיים, תפילת האדם.
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Sunday, October 14, 2007
1966-1988 Kiron Kiriat Ono
The "True Story" "Hasipur Hamity" 14th Oct 2007.
Documentary Movie on TV about 14th Division at "Chinese Farm". And comparisen with Second Lebanon War 2006.
My opinion is that in both cases the Opposition did not do what they should do.
In 1973 Menachem Begin and in 2006 Binyamin Netanyahu. Begin did not ask the government why they are not talking to Saadat? Bibi did not ask Olmert what are the aims and how long does he expect the War to be?
Monday, October 1, 2007
Jerusalem
I made an effort to go and see The President in his residence and Sukah.
I gave him a letter about Changing the System of Elections.
I wished him success and we shook hands and he answered my question does he know about the subject.
Had late lunch with Yizhak in Sukah at Coffee Bean.
I studied Political Science in Jerusalem 1973-1978 with Yechezkel Dror he Wrote to me:
Published as the JC Essay in The Jewish Chronicle, 18 April 2008, page 45.
The consequences of 1948 are still unclear
By Professor Yehezkel Dror
From time to time, certain events "shock" history, bring about a rupture in continuity, and throw the future on to a radically new trajectory. This event can be short or stretch over
generations, random and accidental or built into the very dynamics of historic processes, sometimes taking the form of an extraordinary person and other times an aggregation of events.
Illustrations include the so-called Axial Age from 800 BCE to 200 BCE, during which revolutionary thinking in China, India, the Middle East and the Occident created a new human self-understanding and perception of its place in the cosmos;
Napoleon Bonaparte; the founding of the United States of America; Sigmund Freud; and many more. Such shocks to history take a long time to work themselves out, but they do constitute foundational phenomena, with the more extreme ones inaugurating new eras.
The founding of the state of Israel 60 years ago, against the background of the European Enlightenment and the Jewish Haskalah (Enlightenment) and soon after the Shoah, clearly constitutes such a shock to history, the more profound and long-term consequences of which are not yet clear. The main dimensions of this shock, which interact and re-inforce one another, include a shock to Christianity, a shock to Islam and shocks to Judaism and the Jewish people.
Sixty years is much too short a time for the meanings and the historic significance of the shock to become understandable; this requires generations. But some conclusions can already be drawn, and add up to the conclusion that the futures of Israel and of the diaspora will be shrouded in deep uncertainty for at least another 60 years, with both thriving and collapse distinct possibilities.
To explain this conjecture and explore its radical implications, the nature of the shock and its main dimensions must be understood. Let me start with the shock to Christianity, which is profound though in part obscured by the decreasing importance of religion in public and private affairs, which itself may well be temporary.
Christian theology, in all its versions, until recently regarded the Jews as guilty of killing God in its human incarnation and therefore condemned them to exile and suffering until they convert to Christianity or they are sent to hell - unless saved by the mercy of Christ - on judgment day. This dogma was a main basis for persecution, until the Enlightenment reduced the significance of religion and provided some basis for tolerance.
But the superficiality of that partial acceptance was demonstrated by widespread participation in Nazi Jew-cleansing in occupied countries, which should be mainly explained in terms of deeply held beliefs about the guilt of the Jews and their consequent inferiority.
Then came Zionism and its triumph, the establishment of the state of Israel. Paradoxically, Christian beliefs in England aided this success by providing an alternative scenario, according to which the return of the Jews to the Promised Land realises the will of God and will ultimately lead to their acceptance of Christianity.
But this was a minority view which does not dilute the overall shock effect on Christianity of the Jewish people suddenly succeeding in overcoming their condemnation to eternal punishment and establishing a thriving state of their own in the Promised Land, where Jesus and his Apostles had founded the "true religion" superseding Judaism.
Parts of Christianity overcame the shock, thanks to feelings of guilt for the Shoah and for not having done more to save Jews; the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, which enabled willing Popes to reverse long-held dogmas; and the further decline of the importance of religion. However, this is only part of the narrative. It is hard to explain current antisemitism and militant anti-Israelism in Europe other than as deep-rooted reactions to the success of the Jews and Israel in debunking the belief that they are condemned to eternal punishment for having murdered God.
The future of Christian reactions to the shock is wide open. Some streams, especially in the USA, follow the pro-Zionist views of some British statesmen and strongly support Israel, probably with the conviction in mind that this is all part of God's plan to bring about the redemption of Jews by becoming believers in Christ.
However, if Christianity becomes again more influential in public affairs and private life, which is a distinct possibility, new waves of hostility to the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state are very likely, as foreshadowed by widespread negative feelings towards Israel in Europe which cannot be fully explained in terms of humanitarian pro-Palestinian values or real political interests.
The situation with Islam is different, in part better and in part worse. Islamic theology always accepted the Jews as "People of the Book" and regarded them all-in-all with less hostility than did Christianity - which was regarded as semi-pagan because of its belief that God became a Man.
But Jews were regarded as treacherous and as sinful for rejecting Islam and condemned to inferior status - and were treated accordingly. At the same time, the areas of historic Israel were viewed as part of the Land of Islam. The condition of exile was seen as the just punishment of the Jews, as well as a result of their incapacity to maintain a state and defend it.
Then came Zionism and the establishment and thriving of Israel as a Jewish state. And, still more of a shock, the Jews won war after war against the Arabs and conquered Jerusalem with its Islamic holy places, thus reversing Islam's successes in defying the Christian Crusaders. All this as Islam continues to play a major and increasing role in public and private life and in large parts becomes more and more fundamentalist.
The results are obvious: states which follow raison d'etat interests can accept Israel, at least as a temporary fact, and even sign peace agreements with it. But religious leaders and masses cannot do so, other than perhaps as a temporary expedience until Muslims become strong enough to expel the Jewish infidels from the Land of Islam.
Again, the future depends on developments concerning the importance of religion in public affairs together with possible changes in religious dogmas. However, not sharing in any way feelings of guilt for the Shoah, regarding the West as an adversary, striving to regain the past glory of Islamic states as global powers, and widespread doubts about Western-type modernity - all add up to a long-term future of hostility towards the state of Israel and efforts to undo the shock of its successes.
This outlook is dismal and requires Israel and the Jewish people to adopt a grand-strategy of trying to reduce Islamic hostility, through compromises on Jerusalem for example, while maintaining the capacity to deter, and if necessary defeat, any Islamic hostility.
But things may change: humanity as a whole is moving into a new era with many shocks sure to come; and dogmas of the past may become nothing more than artifacts of history in the future. However, at best, this will take one or two generations at least, making the next 60 years extremely dangerous for Israel. Even if optimistic scenarios on peace agreements become reality, their superficial grounding makes them provisional, requiring Israel to maintain a honed sword ready for action.
Quite different but even more complex is the shock effect on the Jewish people itself. Having existed and occasionally thrived locally for about 2,000 years, getting a state - quite suddenly in terms of historic time - is a quantum leap into unknown dimensions.
Critical are at least three open-ended questions: What does it mean to be a modern democratic Jewish state? What will and should be the nature of relations between Israel and the diaspora? And what will be the impacts on Judaism and the Jewish people as a whole of having again, after a hiatus of 2,000 years, a Jewish state and of not being a people in exile - for instance, on Jewish identity and identification, demography, security and creativity?
It is not difficult to construct scenarios of thriving and decline for Israel and the diaspora, and - with very low but not zero probability - also collapse, in the 21st century. But the actual trajectory of Israel and the Jewish people into the future is wide open.
Much depends on global and regional developments on which the Jewish people has little influence. More depends on the Jewish people itself. But in order to achieve a real impact for the better on the future after the historic discontinuities, a number of requirements must be satisfied, including: unprecedented levels of cultural, spiritual and religious creativity; outstanding Jewish-people and Israeli statecraft; excellent grand-policy crafting and implementation; and a multitude of spiritual, organisational and political leaders of the highest quality, sorely missing at present.
Also needed is a lot of constructive destruction of behaviour patterns, beliefs, structures and self-understandings which fitted the conditions of exile and in part the first 60 years of the state of Israel, but which become increasingly dysfunctional and endanger the future instead of assuring long-term thriving.
Thus, clearly in need of restructuring are Israel-diaspora relations - so that they become more of a partnership between equals, a new synthesis between a Jewish state and a democratic one while having a large Arab minority - and developing Jewish-people statecraft so that if fits the realities of having a powerful state faced by dangerous long-term threats and complex opportunities. All these are demanding and also painful tasks which are just starting to be faced, and their success requires critical masses of creativity and wisdom which cannot be taken for granted.
However, first of all we must realise that the heroic successes of the Jewish people in state-building during the last 60 years (and also in building thriving diaspora communities) cannot be relied upon by themselves to guarantee a thriving future. Negative surface phenomena indicate some of the dangers, such as assimilation, demographic problems in Israel and leadership weaknesses.
But the crucial consideration is that the shock effects of establishing the state of Israel can produce deep and long-lasting boomerang-effects. These require urgent and massive counter-measures grounded in an understanding of the historic processes produced by that shock. Such insights are lacking in contemporary Jewish people and Israeli discourse, which is dominated by current events and therefore lacks the penetration, understanding and long-term vision needed for ensuring a thriving future.
Professor Yehezkel Dror is the founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and a member of the Winograd Commission which investigated the Second Lebanon War
Sunday, September 2, 2007
1967 Golan
Tamara - Shibi has been on the Golan since 1969.
At Blich Highschool we visited the Golan in the winter after June 1967.
My Mother was 14 years at Merom Golan without membership.
Friday, August 10, 2007
1980 Egypt Cairo
A New Era started in The Middle East.
19th November 1980 I was in Cairo and saw the Colour TV's in Chan El Chalili Market showing Saadat in the Knesset.
A year Earlier I was in the Transit Hotel Cairo Airport as I was not allowed in to Egypt and I was sent back to Athens.
I visited Egypt a number of times in the Eighties twice under Saadat and twice under Mubarak.