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Today's
Stories
June 15, 2009
Michael Hudson
The Ending of America's Financial-Military Empire
June 12-14, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Who Needs Yesterday's Papers?
Gareth Porter
The CIA's Drone Wars
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Parlor Trick
Mark Ames
Elmer Fudd Nation
Esam Al-Amin
What Really Happened in the Lebanese Elections?
Franklin Lamb
Carter in Lebanon
Patrick Cockburn
Prisoner Swap in Iraq
Andy Worthington
The Long Ordeal of Mohammed El-Gharani
Heather Gray
A New Perspective on the Confederacy: Southern Greed During the Civil War
Felice Pace
Why NPR Refuses to Report on the Single Payer Movement
Ron Jacobs
Flashback to the End of a War That Really Did End
George Wuerthner
Burning Questions: Why the National Fire Plan is a Trojan Horse for Logging
Jeffrey Buchanan /
Trinh Le
Biloxi Trailer Blues
David Ker Thomson
Americana
Renaud Lambert
Brazil: More Dependent Than Ever
Kevin Zeese
Congress and the Health Business Lobby
David Macaray
SAG Vote:
A Lesson in Solidarity ... Not
Evelyn Pringle
FDA Throws Lifeline to Antipsychotic Pushers
Chris Genovali
Blood Sport Auction: Why eBay Should Stop Selling Guided Hunts for Bears, Wolves and Cougar
David Michael Green
The Rhetorical President
Brian J. Foley
Our Solar System is Not a Suicide Pact!
Charles R. Larson
No Safe Return
Kim Nicolini
Foreclosure is Hell: Sam Raimi's Frightfest
David Yearsley
Bach on Torture: Mr. Cheney, They're Playing Your Song
Lorenzo Wolff
Intent to Discord
Poets' Basement
Chris Jordan
Website of the Weekend
The Red Room
June 11, 2009
Kathy Kelly /
Dan Pearson
Down and Out in Shah Mansoor: With the Swat Refugees
James Bovard
The Latest Torture Cover-Up Scam
Tristan de Bourbon
The Toy Makers of Chenghai: the Financial Crisis Seen From China
Dave Lindorff
The Wheels are Coming Off the Recovery Program
Kevin Zeese
The Case for Disbarment of the Torture Lawyers
Ralph Nader
The Craft of Sam Maloof:
a Visionary Woodworker
Harvey Wasserman
The GOP's Trillion Dollar Reactor Plan Goes Radioactive
Nicole Colson
The Anti-Abortion Movement's Climate of Violence
Mark Weisbrot
Showdown Over the IMF
Dan Bacher
Big Water's Big Lie Unravels
Website of the Day
Top 10 Most Absurd TIME Covers
June 10, 2009
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Obama's Doublespeak on Iran
Jennifer Van Bergen / Douglas Valentine
The Dangerous World of Indefinite Detentions: From Vietnam to Abu Ghraib
Kathy Kelly
Visitors and Hosts in Pakistan
Paul Craig Roberts
Fear Rules
Rev. William E. Alberts
First the Torture of Truth ...
Peter Lee
Obama and North Korea: a Warm-Up in the Offing?
Carol Miller
Why
We Need a Holistic, Cradle-to-the-Grave National Health Care System
Emily Ratner
Dreams of Flight in Gaza
Robert Weissman
The IMF's Accountability Moment
Dave Lindorff
The Sutra of the Crushed Volvo
Website of the Day
Starving in Gitmo
June 9, 2009
Winslow T. Wheeler
Back From the Dead: Pentagon Pork!
Mike Whitney
Is Hyper-Inflation Around the Corner?
Stan Cox
Biofuel's Drug Problem
Sibel Edmonds
The Battle Against the State Secrets Privilege
Jonathan Cook
Where the Victim is the Guilty Party
David Macaray
A Bad Time for Unions
Robert Jensen
In South Africa, Apartheid is Dead, But White Supremacy Lingers On
Nadia Hijab
The Obama Difference
Mark Weisbrot
Vulture Funds Descend on Argentina
Website of the Day
Waging Non-Violence
June 8, 2009
John Ross
Mexico: Politics as Drugs / Drugs as Politics
Paul Wright
Deconstructing Gus: How a Former Prisoner Took On and Took Down Corrections Corporation of America's Top Lawyer (and Cheney Pal)
Paul Craig Roberts
Long-Term Economic Memory Loss
Franklin C. Spinney
"Natural Growth:" Israel's Demographic Hogwash
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon's Elections: Return to the Status Quo
Uri Avnery
The Tone and the Music
Jonathan Cook
Israeli Loyalty Oaths
Eric Toussaint
/ Damien Millet
The Partisans of Capitalism Have Lost All Credibility
Jim Goodman
The Dairy Oligarchy
Norman Solomon
Words and War
Reza Fiyouzat
When Accusations Fly: the Spectacle of the Iranian Elections
Website of the Day
Latino Jobless Rate Soars
June 5 -7, 200
Alexander Cockburn
High Words, Low Truths
George Galloway
Our Convoy to Gaza
Paul Craig Roberts
Obama in Cairo
Jennifer Loewenstein
How Much Really Separates Obama and Netanyahu?
Franklin Lamb
Watching Obama's Speech in Lebanon
Mike Whitney
The Biggest Rip Off Ever?
Andy Worthington
Death at Guantánamo
Missy Comley Beattie
Peace Be Upon You?
Farzana Versey
Walk Like an Egyptian: the Oprahfication of Obama
Stanley Heller
Obama's Non-Starter
John V. Whitbeck
Nothing Comes From Nothing
Robert Weissman
GM: the Path Not Taken
Lee Sustar
The Fall of GM: Why Workers Will Pay the Price
Dave Lindorff
What a State-Run GM Could Do
William Blum
The Great, International, Truly Demonic Iran Threat
Ernest Callenbach /
Harvey Wasserman
A Green-Powered Trip Through Ecotopia
Greg Moses
By George! Austin Leads the National Recovery
Ron Jacobs
The Meaning of Yasser Arafat
David Yearsley
Art Set in Concrete:
the Desolate Urban Landscape of High Culture
Tim Stelloh
Pot Home Invasions:
Bud and Blow Torches
Belén Fernández
The Joksters: Obama and Thomas Friedman
David Ker Thomson
The Academics
Karyn Strickler
Clean Coal: a Dirty Joke
Christopher Brauchli
Judicial Amnesia and the Federalist Society
Charles R. Larson
Leaving Tangier: Exile and Exploitation
Kim Nicolini
"Hunger:"
Art With a Punch
Lorenzo Wolff
Good Head (Or Why the End of Hand-Crafted Music Isn't (Necessarily) the End of Music)
Poets' Basement
Jenkins, Orloski and Willson
Website of the Weekend
Tankman
June 4, 2009
Arno J. Mayer
The Future of Israel and the Decline of the American Empire
Mike Whitney
Bond Market Blowout
Gareth Porter
Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuke Documents to Israel
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Clearing Misconceptions on Pakistan's War in Swat
Mouin Rabbani
Paradigmatic Progress?
Jordan Flaherty
Life in Gaza
Adam Turl
Is Card Check Dead?
Nikolas Kozloff
Iran's Elections: the Latin America Factor
Yifat Susskind
Obama's Double Standard
Website of the Day
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters Slams Israel
June 3, 2009
Paul Craig Roberts
As the Dollar Falls Off the Cliff...
Kathy Kelly
A Weaver's Welcome to Pakistan
Alan Farago
Bailing Out the Land Speculators
Franklin Lamb
Israeli Spies and Fake IDs
Bill Hatch
Why Congressman Cardoza Stiffed Michelle Obama
Nadia Hijab
A Stifling Embrace
Dean Baker
Reporters With Pom-Poms: Cheerleading the Recovery
Binoy Kampmark
Whither GM?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
What Happened to Air France Flight 477?
Remi Kanazi
Oslo Redux?
Behzad Yaghmaian
The End of Idealism in China?
Website of the Day
A Time Comes: the Story of the KingsNorth Six
June 2, 2009
Uri Avnery
Racists for Democracy
Robert Weissman
Bankrupt Thinking
Conn Hallinan
Shadow Wars
Gideon Spiro
Obama and Israel's Nuclear Arsenal
Roger Burbach
US-Cuba Policy: "Still Stuck in the Past"
Dylan Quigley
My Experience with Dr. Tiller
Dave Lindorff
The American Taliban Claim Another Victim
Ray McGovern
Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack
Belén Fernández
Israel's Newfound Concern for UNIFIL
Martha Rosenberg
Give It Up, Wyeth
Willie L. Pelote, Sr.
GOP: California's for the Rich (Poor People Should Move)
Website of the Day
You Bet Your Health
June 1, 2009
Pam Martens
Wall Street Braces for New Cops on the Beat
Yitzhak Laor
Washington's Mirror
Mark Weisbrot
More Stimulus, Not Deficit Reduction
Ramzy Baroud
Netanyahu's New Quest
Saul Landau
Dancing the Afghan Jig
Eugenia Tsao
Smug Toronto Seethes as Tamils "Go Too Far"
Afshin Rattansi
Women in Darfur: "We Saw No Evidence of Genocide"
Debra Sweet
The Murder of Dr. Tiller
Abdul Malik Mujahid
Obama's Trip Egypt and American Muslims
Bill Quigley
Haiti's Revolutionary Priest Gerard Jean-Juste: Presente!
John Wright
The Tragedy of Susan Boyle
Website of the Day
Young Neo Con Anthem
May 29-31, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
Sotomayor and the Last of the WASPs
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: The Mother of All Corruption Scandals
Vijay Prashad
Reeling Republicans
Gary Leupp
The Destabilization of Pakistan
Ray McGovern
The Impossible Rehab of Colin Powell
Rannie Amiri
Spies, Lies and Mr. Lebanon's Demise
Bill Hatch
The Mechanic's Tale: a Short Chapter in the History of Foreclosures
Chellis Glendinning, Stephanie Mills and Kirkpatrick Sale
Three Luddites Talking ... on a Computer!
Phyllis Pollack
Dosed, But Not Spiked:
an Interview with Grace Slick
David Yearsley
Eros and Susan Boyle; Fakery and Simon Cowell
Jean-Christophe Servant
A River of Acid: Mined Out in Zambia
Dave Lindorff
Sotomayor's Problem Isn't That She's Too Latina
James McEnteer
Straw Dogs: the Media and Sonia Sotomayor
Missy Beattie
A Place Called Despair
James C. Faris
On Evolution: a Critique of Darwinism
David Macaray
When Workers' Rights Go Unenforced
Harvey Wasserman
The Catastrophic Economics of Nuclear Power
Adam Federman
Drilling the Marcellus Shale Through the Halliburton Loophole
David Ker Thomson
Turtle Island: Adventures in Recycling
Mark Seth Lender
Great Egrets Return
Stephen Martin
Big Trouble in Little Britain
Joseph Nevins
Sin Nombre is Only Part of the Border Story
Sophia Mihic
Star Trek and the Continuing Mission of American Imperialism
Lorenzo Wolff
Dylan Kelehan Gets What He Needs
Poets' Basement
Fleming, Shields and Greer
Website of the Weekend
Petition: Grant Parole to Leonard Peltier
May 28, 2009
Joan Roelofs
The Philanthropies and the Economic Crisis
Paul Craig Roberts
Torture and the American Conscience
Ralph Nader
Corporate Frankensteins
Mouin Rabbani
The Dangers of False Optimism in the Middle East
Joe Bageant
Plain Truths From Appalachia: a Redneck View of Obamarama
James McEnteer
America Held Hostage
Dedrick Muhammad
Obama and the Harsh Racial Reality
Richard Morse
On Speaking Out in Haiti
David Macaray
Have We Turned Into Sheep?
Harvey Wasserman
The 8 Green Steps to Solartopia
Website of the Day
Col. Peters: Just Kill the Gitmo Detainees
May 27, 2009
Joanne Mariner
Military Commissions, Round Three
Paul Craig Roberts
Doublespeak on North Korea
Walden Bello
Can China Save the World From Depression?
Dave Lindorff
Recidivism and Guantánamo
Brian M. Downing
Along the Durand Line
Carlos Villarreal
Separate But Equal Just Fine in California?
Nadia Hijab
Israel's Next Move:
Armageddon Now?
Adam Federman
The PCBs of the Hudson River
Laray Polk
RadWaste and Texas' Future
Isabella Kenfield
The Fall of a Brazilian Financier
David Michael Green
Overcoming the Poverty of Ambition
Website of the Day
The Case Against Shell
May 26, 2009
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Fearful Pride: North Korea's Second Nuclear Test
Mike Whitney
The Next Leg Down: When Deflation Becomes Entrenched
Sharon Smith
Obama and Abortion Rights: What We Learned at Notre Dame
Marjorie Cohn
The Gitmo Appeasment Plan: Obama Buckles on the Constitution
Dean Baker
Waterboard the Fed
Deepankar Basu
Was the Indian Election a Debacle for the Left? If So, Why?
Fred Gardner
The Vindication of Sgt. Northcutt
Jordan Flaherty
New Orleans for Sale
Josh Ruebner
Rethinking the Costs of Peace
Brian Cloughley
The Man Who Murdered Count Foulke Bernadotte
Website of the Day
The Montana Town That Wants to Become the New Gitmo
May 25, 2009
Diane Christian
Looking at Torture
John Ross
Mexico's Shock Doctrine
Kenneth Hartman
The Trouble With Prison
Uri Avnery
Netanyahu Goes to Washington
Fred Gardner
"War on Pot" Overrides "Support Our Troops": the Punishment of Sgt. Northcutt
Cindy Sheehan
Day of the Dead
Sen. Russell Feingold
Prolonged Detention and the Rule of Law: a Letter to Barack Obama
Sibel Edmonds
Two Sides of the Same Coin: From State Secrets to War to Wiretaps
Franklin Lamb
Der Spiegel Tries Again
Dave Lindorff
Memorial Day in the Land of the Weak and Wussy
Daniel Wolff
Learning to Read in the Pacific Northwest
Website of the Day
Decoration Day
May 22-24, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
How Long Does It Take?
Michael Teitelman
Obama, Torture and John Walker Lindh
Mike Whitney
Credit Default Swaps: the Poison in the System
Ray McGovern
Cheney Breaks the Taboo: Support for Israel Feeds Terrorism
Sonia Cardenas /
Andrew Flibbert
Why We Love to Hate Pirates
Clive Hamilton
Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War:
Bush, God, Iraq and Gog
Conn Hallinan
Swine Flu Fallout
Fred Gardner
Sgt. Northcutt's Homecoming
Carlo Cristofori
The Latest AfPak War
Dean Baker
A Friendly Financial Intervention
Rannie Amiri
King Abdullah's 57-State Solution
Andy Worthington
A Message to
Obama: No Military Commissions; No Preventive Detentions
David Macaray
Democrats Betray Labor:
Card Check is Pronouced Dead
Nadia Hijab
What Kind of State?
Franklin Lamb
How Not to Win Votes for Team USA
Ted Newcomen
The Forgotten Casualties
David Ker Thomson
Joy (Or How Hope, the Thing With Feathers, Gets Plucked)
David Rosen
Porn Wars
Mark Weisbrot
Climate Change and Intellectual Property Rights?
Robert Fantina
Gitmo, Democrats and Business as Usual
Heather Gray
Some Positive Directions in Public Health?
Farzana Versey
The Myth of Manmohan Singh
Chris Genovali
A Paler Shade of Green
Ron Jacobs
His Terrible Swift Sword: the Legacy of John Brown
Jay Diamond
Why the Left Should Cheer Hannity and Limbaugh
Dr. Susan Block
The Binds That Bond
Ben Sonnenberg
"Ballast": An Endlessness of Almost Ending
David Yearsley
Handel's Ghost ... Again
Lorenzo Wolff
My Problem with Led Zeppelin
Poets' Basement
Corseri and Bohm
Website of the Weekend
Bob Graham's CIA Notebooks
May 21, 2009
Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
The Politics of Bait-and-Switch: Obama and the Environment
Paul Craig Roberts
Morphing Dick Cheney
Chris Floyd
In Defense of George W. Bush
Gerald Paoli
Inside Iraqi Kurdistan:
Life and Death in the Qandil Mountains
Zach Mason
Something's Gotta Give:
Obama and the Hustler
Uri Avnery
A Quarrel on the Titanic
Andy Worthington
Out of Guantánamo
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
India: Two Funerals and a Wedding
Norman Solomon
The Afghanistan Escalation
Dave Lindorff
A Corporate Crime Wave of Labor Law Violations
Website of the Day
Swine Flu: The Panic That Wasn't
May 20, 2009
Michael Hudson
The Toll Booth Economy
Gary Leupp
Courting Hekmatyar: Obama and the Warlord
Michael D. Yates
Work is Hell
Jonathan Cook
Netanyahu Adviser Steps Out of the Shadows
Peter Lee
The World Doesn't Have a Pakistan Nukes Problem ... It Has a David Albright Problem
Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Tamil Tigers?
Peter Zinn
Eulogizing Lawyers
William Loren Katz
Tortured Reasoning; Tortured Results
Gary Lapon
Why Women Need Single Payer
Trudy Bond
Torture, Shrinks and a Groundhog's Day Moment
Website of the Day
Meet the Climate Change Lobby
May 19, 2009
Kristoffer Rehder
Check Point Iraq: a Soldier's Tale
Mike Whitney
The Real Lesson of the Financial Crisis
Ray McGovern
How Colin Powell Got Duped by the CIA
Vijay Prashad
The Indian Elections: a Game Changer?
Mirjam Hadar Meerschwam
Intimidation and Interrogation in Tel Aviv
Mustafa Barghouthi
Is Obama Up to the Challenge of Dealing with Netanyahu?
Andy Worthington
Gitmo:
A Prison Built on Lies
Binoy Kampmark
Britain's Speaker Crisis
John Walsh
John Kerry vs. Single-Payer
David Macaray
Alcohol as Metaphor: Zero Tolerance in the Workplace
Website of the Day
So You Think That Veggie Burger is Organic...
May 18, 2009
Dave Lindorff
The US is Using White Phosporous in Afghanistan
Abdul Malik Mujahid
Thirty Years of Tragedy in Afghanistan
Jonathan Cook
How Many Secret Prisons Does Israel Have?
Ben Rosenfeld
Police Violence: How Many Kicks to the Head Does It Take?
Patrick Cockburn
These Killings Will Only Strengthen the Taliban
Ralph Nader
They Want It All: New Tricks From the Old Energy Lobby
Stephen Soldz
Psychologist Bryce Lefever Clarifies Defense of Torture
Eugenia Tsao
On the Devaluation of Labor
Walter Brasch
Cheney's Magical Mystery Media Tour
Roberto Rodriguez
War and Torture
Charlotte Laws
Politics and American Idol
Website of the Day
Disbar the Torture Lawyers
May 15-17, 2009
Alexander Cockburn
King of the Hate Business
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Case of the Missing H-Bomb
David Rosen
Sexual Torture: What is Acknowledged and What Remains Unknown
Mike Whitney
From My Lai to Bala Baluk: Obama Picks Up Where Bush Left Off
Bruce Page
A Real History of Rupert Murdoch
Jeremy Scahill
The Black Shirts of Guantánamo
Fred Gardner
Tortured Reasoning: Judge Bybee Rules Against Brian Epis
Tom Barry
Fighting the Drug War at Homeland Security
Mats Svensson
On the Beach in Tel Aviv
Ramzy Baroud
The Drones Are Coming
Mark Engler
Science Fiction From Below
Mark Weisbrot
Stealth Move by IMF to Get $100 Billion Without Congressional Debate
Farzana Versey
Of Scapegoats and Separatists
Ron Jacobs
It's Up to You to Save Troy Davis
Hannah Wolfe
What to Tell the Children
Cal Winslow
Fresno, the New Ground Zero in the Battle Between the SEIU and NUHW
David Macaray
Labor Needs a Southern Strategy
Christopher Brauchli
Involuntary Baptism
Mark Seth Lender
The Lion Tamer's Story
Robert Fantina
Lapel Pins, Arugula and Mustard
David Ker Thomson
Last Man Walking
Stephen Martin
Lipstick Nightmare for Spin Merchant
Charles R. Larson
Double Exile
Chase Madar
"Angels & Demons" and the Extraordinary Power of Imaginary Heretics
Kim Nicolini
Vaginas From Outer Space! Boldly Sitting Through Star Trek
David Yearsley
Handel's Ghost
Lorenzo Wolff
Killer Virtues
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Jordan and Moser
Website of the Weekend
Catch F-22
May 14, 2009
Michael Hudson
Where Russia Went Wrong
Andy Worthington
The Poisoned Mosaic:
Judge Condemns Guantánamo Evidence
Paul Craig Roberts
The Impotent President
Jonathan Cook
The Pope's Pilgrimage: Legitimizing Netanyahu?
Ray McGovern
See No Evil:
Ugly Questions for General Myers
Lance Selfa
The Limits of Liberalism
David Green
The Deportation of Demjanjuk
Dave Lindorff
Obama Channels Cheney
Frida Berrigan
Nuclear Options
Sue Udry
The Bybee Question
Website of the Day
Our Bombs: Tracking US Air Strikes
May 13, 2009
Brian M. Downing
The Road Out of Iraq
Gareth Porter
Gen. McChrystal and Afghanistan
Robert Sandels
Obama and Latin America: No Light, All Tunnel
Ricardo Alarcón
Cuba: Measure of a Revolution
Eric Walberg
NATO in Georgia: Fun and Games
Dave Lindorff
The Sinking of GM: When Captains of Industry Don't Go Down with the Ship
Deepak Tripathi
A Culture of Abuse
William S. Lind
Back to the Balkans: Hillary and the Sleeping Dragon
Kevin Zeese
A Populist Health Care Rebellion
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon: From Perdition to Redemption?
Website of the Day
Beth McIntosh: The Wild Ride
May 12, 2009
Gary Leupp
The Bomb Iran Faction
Richard Neville
The AfPak Blues: Corpses of the Kids by the Truckload
Wajahat Ali
Obama Chooses a Reliable Dictatorship
Dean Baker
The Banker Boys Are Alright! Time to End the Bailouts
Franklin Lamb
What Palestinian Refugees Need From Lebanon's Elections
Norman Solomon
A Progressive Challenge to Jane Harman
Paul Craig Roberts
Beware the Hate Crimes Bill
Lisa M. Hamilton
Let's Grow a New Crop of Farmers
Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman:
Why Isn't Obama Turning to Credit Unions?
David Macaray
Wading Through the Grassroots
Website of the Day
Electronic Police States
May 11, 2009
Andrea Peacock
No Justice for Libby
Michael Hudson
Gordon Brown Spills the Beans on the IMF
Patrick Cockburn
Who Killed 120 Civilians?
Ralph Nader
The Single-Payer Taboo
John Kelly
Pseudoscience and Wrongful Convictions in the War on Drugs
Saul Landau
Cuba's Biggest "Crime"
Dave Lindorff
Blaming the Dead Victims
David Michael Green
Get Obama
Anthony Papa
Gov. David Paterson Does the Right Thing
Paul Krassner
Jon Stewart and Truman, the War Criminal
Website of the Day
Generational Homelessness
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June 15, 2009
From Benjamin to El-Sousy
The Angel of History and the Ghetto of Gaza
By LEONARD SCHWARTZ
Normally a city opens up to other cities, infinite in itself because infinitely open to the world; one moves with a certain freedom through space and imagination. What is it like instead to live and write from inside a ghetto, or an open air prison, or a city closed to other cities, one in which nearly every act of resistance is taken as a pretext by the warders to tighten that very straightjacket? A famous example of such writing comes to us from the great German-Jewish litterateur Walter Benjamin, in his essays written after Hitler’s rise to power. Fleeing the Nazis Benjamin committed suicide near the closed Spanish border, rather than risk being sent to a camp the next day. It was in his “Theses on the Philosophy of History”, however, that Benjamin wrote of “The Angel of History”. The figure of “The Angel of History” has been much discussed ever since.
Benjamin wrote:
“his eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread… His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he (the angel of history) sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been crushed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
In our century it is the Palestinians of Gaza who are experiencing mass incarceration of the kind the Venetian word “ghetto” once meant for the Jews of Europe. We can see this dilemma embodied in the prose poetry of Sumaiya el-Sousy, a poet living and writing in Gaza City, active internationally but rooted in her city. In her recent prose poem “The City” el-Sousy writes:
What will this sad, silent, fallen city by the old sea oppressed by time give you? It will give you a lot if you listen to its nightly voice strewn amongst the rustling of the trees and the lapping of the waves. No one tries to listen to that angelic voice emanating from it. Everyone only hears his own voice and strives to search for himself among the city’s heaps…Often I think if only geography wasn’t so clever, if only it bestowed the city with a few more coastal kilometers and released it from its existing borders; how would your seashore look, oh Gaza? Which ships would reach you? What would be the State of your residents, teeming with feelings of exile, cries, and fear? Perhaps it is the constant thought of escaping the city’s boundaries weighing on me, or at least the idea that my city is without borders, drowning in isolation. A city where whoever enters is lost, and whoever leaves writes himself a new life story. Now there is no leaving and no entering. A city of imprisonment that consumes its own inhabitants and which everyone wants to escape…
Sumaiya el-Sousy’s prose poem “The City” comes to us not from the eye of the storm but from the eye of something other – stranger, harder to define, more everyday, though just as unstable as a storm, both more bereft and more hopeful and alive. If it is a storm after all perhaps it is the one Benjamin writes of in his passage on “The Angel of History”. Certainly the angelic voice el-Sousy writes of is beautiful and grim. It tells of a city of infinite possibilities - reduced to a flat surface. It tells of a place in which one must struggle to hear the rustling of the trees. Yes, the Angel of History is certainly here, facing backwards, contemplating the past in all its bloody injustices as they call out to be righted, or to be avenged. But the Angel is already in flight. And there is something else here too, something other than vengeance or righteous indignation...
The difference between Benjamin’s text and el-Sousy’s lies not only in its perspective on “the Angel of History” itself - in his text it is an image, in her text it is a voice – but also in the “Never Again” inscribed into the situation of language after Benjamin. When uttered in its authentic meaning this phrase does not mean “never again” the ethnic cleansing of the Jews, but “never again” ethnic cleansing at all. Will the voice of such an awareness yet prevent one specific people from continuing to permit itself to seek such ethnic cleansing under other name?
El-Sousy’s haunting words press up against the glass walls of the cyber-ghetto, and the veiled walls of dream, and the actual guns enforcing incarceration and limiting speech and movement in the actual ghetto. As Jewish people we cannot but help recognizing ourselves, or our ancestors. All ages are contemporaneous. Let it not be said Gaza City is not without a human – or an angelic - voice.
Leonard Schwartz is a poet. He teaches at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. He can be reached at: schwartl@evergreen.edu
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