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Now Available! Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils Order Here! Today's Stories November 5, 2004 Jo Guldi The Beast of History is In November 4, 2004 Sharon Smith The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism CounterPunch Wire Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004 Ben Tripp My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed! Michael Donnelly Why Not Blame Rosie? Vijay Prashad An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny Jules Rabin De Profundis: the Morning After Robert Jensen Politics and Professions of Faith: --Your Rich Men are Full of Violence-- Zoltan Grossman Blue State Secession: the Only Solution? Jonah Birch 1968 and Today Dave Lindorff What Went Wrong? Jack McCarthy I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before He Was Against Him Donna J. Volatile Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare Paul Craig Roberts The Bright Side of Black Tuesday     November 3, 2004 James Hodge / Linda Cooper The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of Training Torturers Ann Harrison The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation Greg Moses Blues for Fallujah Anis Memon The Moral (Values) of This Election Mickey Z. Post Mortem Josh Frank The Dems Should be Ashamed Chris Floyd No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine spArk Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats Friedrich von Schiller Folly, Thou Conquerest Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame Now?   November 2, 2004 Gary Leupp Democratic Elections in Historical Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins Lance Selfa Selling the War on Terror Laura Carlsen The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good Neighbor? James Davis To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists Richard Oxman Getting Up with Osama Dr. Ira Kay A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency Jesse Walker Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election Thomas C. Mountain Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the --Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes--   November 1, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It Dave Lindorff Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns Greg Bates Nader Voter Survey Results Roger Morris Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do This Election Justice Diane Christian Death Tolls Lenni Brenner Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe Christopher C. Conway Can the Left Sink Any Lower? Francis Boyle Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors, Too Jason Leopold Rummy's Failed War Plan Website of the Day Dylan Resurrects --Masters of War--   October 30 / 31, 2004 JoAnn Wypijewski The Long March and the Million Worker March Winslow T. Wheeler Spartacus Tells All Bruce Anderson Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal Vicente Navarro They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime Robin Blackburn How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security Greg Bates A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick? Nancy Welch The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David Himmelstein William Lind Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For? Brian Cloughley Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies Suzan Mazur Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs Greg Moses Standing at the Graves of Iraq John Chuckman Osama's Endorsement Richard Oxman Why Not Accept Osama's Offer? Ken Avidor Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious Niranjan Ramakrishnan Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond Hope Bastian Strangling Cuba's Economy P. Sainath Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric Dave Zirin Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez Jon Swift The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It Ron Jacobs The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1 Alexander Billet Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for --Stuff Happens--? Poets' Basement Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert Website of the Weekend The Origins of Halloween October 29, 2004 Harry Browne No Justice for Peace Activist in County Clare October 28, 2004 Forrest Hylton --The Gas is Ours:-- Bolivia's Ghosts of October Col. Dan Smith Rebellion in the Ranks Alan Maass Jon Stewart v. the Pundits Ron Jacobs Ecstasy in Red Sox Nation Alexander Cockburn Kerrycrats and the War     October 27, 2004 Jules Rabin Crammed with Distressful Politics Dave Lindorff Bulgegate: the Lies Continue Katherine Van Tassel On the Home Front: Both Parties Ignore Working Parents Jeffrey St. Clair The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil   October 26, 2004 Brian Cloughley Three Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan William Blum Fear Factors Lenni Brenner The 1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004 Ben Tripp The Chicken Salad Election Fidel Castro After the Fall Greg Bates The Nation's Flawed Calculus Walter Brasch Gag the Public: the War on Dissent Niranjan Ramakrishnan An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan Mickey Z. Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo Amir Taheri The Boom in Conspiracy Theories Alexander Billet Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry Doug Giebel The Religion of G.W. Bush Kathleen Christison Why I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't   October 25, 2004 Ralph Nader Letter from a Minnesota Highway Werther West Texas Wahabbism Dave Zirin Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License Omar Barghouti Executing Another Child in Rafah William J. Nottingham Lori Berenson's Story John Chuckman A Foolish Consistency Uri Avnery On the Road to Civil War   October 22 / 24, 2004 Alexander Cockburn You Can't Blame Nader for This Rev. William Alberts On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions Willliam A. Cook Killing for Christ Saul Landau George W. Bush: a Man of His Words? Bill Quigley I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children While Arresting Priest Christopher Brauchli Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really Means William S. Lind Fallujah and the Moral Level of War Sharon Smith Guilt Trippers for Kerry Greg Bates Kerrynomics: --Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us-- Justin E.H. Smith Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil? Rebecca Evans Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military Mike Whitney Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion M. Junaid Alam Purchasing Individuality in America David Krieger Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and Kerry David J. Ledermann The Emperor's New Crumbs Lawrence Reichard Same Old FBI Story Website of the Weekend Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling     October 21, 2004 Ben Tripp The Undecided Voter Examined Joshua Frank Kerry and the Environment: It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green Stan Cox What the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses Bill Martinez State Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply Mark Engler The War and Globalization Lina Britto and Lucia Suarez Bolivia: a Year After the October Insurrection Website of the Day Two Pampered Children of Wealth     October 20, 2004 Yitzhak Laor --Did You Two Squabble?--: a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian Child Jason Leopold Sinclair Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception Jesse Sharkey A Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School Students Col. Dan Smith Choking Free Speech About the Draft Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Using My Religion David Vest If Bush Wins, Blame Me Jack Random The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny Ron Jacobs Time to Kick It Up a Notch James Brittain Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside? Christopher Dols Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest Dave Lindorff First They Came for the Nurses... Website of the Day Banana Republican Catalogue   October 19, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe Jeff Taylor Confessions of a Swing State Voter Matt Vidal American Myopia: --More Money in Your Pocket-- Victor Kattan --It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For--: Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum William Loren Katz What Goes Around Comes Around Sean Carter O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims CounterPunch Wire Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?     October 18, 2004 Saul Landau Facts and Lies; Slogans and Truth Dave Lindorff Bulletin on the Bush Bulge Diane Christian Sheep and Goats: On the Language of Goodness Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency Uri Avnery Ariel Sharon's Philosophy Peter LaVenia Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank Mike Whitney O'Reilly at the Whipping Post Elaine Cassel The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11   October 16 / 17, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern Leslie Brill Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the True Measure of Bush's Character Jules Rabin Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World Dave Lindorff About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was the President Just Glad to be There? Peter Linebaugh Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices Gary Leupp Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire M. Shahid Alam America, Imagine This! Ron Jacobs Trying to Cross Lake Champlain Fred Gardner The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It Jenna Orkin The Toxic Legacy of 9/11 Dave Zirin Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results David Hamilton Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader? Ralph Nader Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism Doug Giebel Thinking the Unthinkable Mark Engler Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador Derek Tyner Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence Thomas on the Million Worker March Evan Jones Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and --The Mind of the South-- Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert Website of the Weekend No More Bush Girls   October 15, 2004 Paul Craig Roberts Where Did These --Conservatives-- Come From?: The Brownshirting of America Laura Carlsen Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon Greg Bates Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers Michael Donnelly News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine? Katherine Lahey The Venezuelan --Threat--: Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear Hugo Chavez? Robert Jensen / Pat Youngblood Election Day Fears Leah Caldwell From Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse Website of the Day An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism     October 14, 2004 Darcy Richardson The Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown Willliam A. Cook Turning Myths into Truth Laura Santina Water, Women and War Evelyn Pringle Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug Importation Alan Farago Lessons from Nature Rep. Maxine Waters A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti Nicole Colson Maimed for Oil and Empire       October 13, 2004 Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and Bill Quigley Aftermath of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti Sharon Smith Barak O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran Christopher Brauchli God and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: a False Beacon? Website of the Day Operation Truth     October 12, 2004 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz --Indian Country-- Greg Bates The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters in Swing States Steven Conn Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader Jason Leopold Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from UN Oil-for-Food Program Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy Time for a Change of Course Timothy J. Freeman Dying for a Mistake Pierre Tristam Deconstructing Bush Niranjan Ramakrishnan The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience Bill and Kathleen Christison Israel as Sideshow Website of the Day John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters   October 11, 2004 Robert Fisk Iraq: Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises Kevin Pina The Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti Patrick Gavin Rethinking Columbus Day Chris Floyd Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most Dangerous Nuclear Plant Walter Brasch The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and 40% of All Americans Mike Whitney The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink Ari Shavit --He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day--: an Interview with Sharon's Lawyer Paul Craig Roberts The Debates and the Big Lie Website of the Day Dylan's Greatest Recording?     October 9 / 10, 2004 Alexander Cockburn --There Are No Innocents-- Paul de Rooij Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry Adams M. Shahid Alam Making Sense of Our Times Laura Carlsen Protest and Populism in Latin America Fred Gardner Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court Col. Dan Smith Bush's Credibility Gap Paul Craig Roberts Faith-Based Economics Greg Bates What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand? Joshua Frank Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left Felice Pace Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement Walter A. Davis Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium William A. Cook The Agony of Colin Powell Phyllis Pollack Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later Poets' Basement Klipschutz, Albert, Ford Website of the Weekend Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes   October 8, 2004 Jennifer Loewenstein The Israeli Invasion of Gaza Moshe Adler Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities David Swanson Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition to Iraq War Dave Zirin CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team! Rep. Ron Paul The Draft is a Form of Slavery William S. Lind Keeping Our SA Up Samar Assad Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine Jim Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar The Elections in Afghanistan     October 7, 2004 Dave Lindorff All Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air Masha Hamilton Fear in Kandahar Christopher Brauchli Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay Jason Leopold Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush? Bruce K. Gagnon Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida Meredith Kolodner Where is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge     October 6, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair --Please, Dude, Can I Take Them Out?--: Targeting Civilians in Fallujah Ron Jacobs Going Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives Michael Colby The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead? Tarif Abboushi More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates Matthew Behrens Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood Mike Whitney Rethinking WMDs John Pilger Stealing Diego Garcia Ben Tripp Kerry's --Triumph-- Kevin McKiernan Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target Patrick Cockburn Elections Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq Website of the Day Is There an Islamic Problem? October 5, 2004 Anthony Loewenstein Rupert Murdoch and the Marginals: --Personally Creating Outcomes-- Mark Clinton and Tony Udell The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran Greg Bates Trading Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman Dave Lindorff What's the Frequency, Karl? Norm Dixon Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers Larry Kearney God Talk and Burning Children Bill Linville Dirty Politics in the Land of --Clean-- Government Gary Leupp What Edwards Should Ask Cheney Website of the Day A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate   October 4, 2004 Diane Christian The Gates of Hell Joshua Frank An Interview with David Cobb Doug Giebel Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie? John Chuckman Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump Ramzy Baroud Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage Julia Stein Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM Sean Donahue Outsourcing Terror: Kerry and Special Forces Website of the Day Mapping Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks   October 2 / 3. 2004 Paul Wright John Kerry on Criminal Justice Kathleen and Bill Christison An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris Kathie Helmkamp My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill Phillip Cryan Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia Lenni Brenner The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio Fred Gardner Pot Shots: In Case You Missed --Montel-- Ron Jacobs It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia Ben Tripp Sticker Shock William S. Lind The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces Dave Zirin The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC Dave Lindorff Lies from the Great Debate Luscon Pierre-Charles Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway Zoe Moskovitz & Sasha Kramer Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti Nelson P. Valdes Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned Cuban Academics Alan Farago The --Ownership Society-- and the End of the Everglades Nancy Haley What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us? Alex Billet Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years Steve Fesenmaier Save and Burn: The War on Libraries Poets' Basement Smith, Holt, Albert   October 1, 2004 Steve Breyman Kerry's Missed Opportunities Rose Gentle My Son Died for a Lie Lee Sustar Iran in the Crosshairs Ralph Nader What We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy? Walter Andrews We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever Mike Whitney Pandora's Government Mickey Z. Debate This Saul Landau The Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases                   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.     Subscribe Online

November 5, 2004 The Poetry of Laor and the Courage to Refuse A Personal and Political Moment By DAVID ZONSHEINE Three years ago, when I was 28, an article by Prof. Meira Weiss came into my hands: "The Chosen Body: The Politics of the Body in Jewish Society in Israel." At the time I was a commander of a reserve unit in the Israel Defense Forces and the previous day I had returned home after 28 days of service in the southern Hebron hills. I took the article out of the mailbox and skimmed it with pleasure. After a month of checkpoints, Shin Bet security service arrests and ambushes, the option of diving into a discussion of the significance of the human body in the history of Zionism, a topic that has always fascinated me, looked to be very good for the soul. The mention of Max Nordau and his muscular Judaism as a reaction to diaspora Judaism was especially intriguing. Right at the beginning of the article my eyes landed on lines of a poem by Yitzhak Laor in a Hebrew rich with alliteration and internal rhyme: Thus, mothers, you must diaper your son in uniforms, give him army cathartics to lick fever, to lick artlessness, to lick the everyday lust that will love his prick, the nation's prick, the military and the smell of cordite will titillate him, sounds of gunshot will bring him wet dreams, generals will bring him butterflies in his tummy, O sweet sacrifice, what will you be if you grow up? A paratrooper and a man. And what after that? A grave, O Jerusalem - from the poem "Rue Rue Jerusalem" in "As Nothing," Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1999 Prior to reading these lines I had been entirely unfamiliar with Laor's poetry. But I too was a paratrooper, and I too hoped, like everyone, that I was a man, and generals did indeed give me butterflies in my tummy. Reading these lines a moment after a violent month of reserve duty, which was full of a sense of the righteousness of the way, was no easy thing. I remember that for one alarming moment I felt that I was looking at something I was forbidden to see. What this thing was I did not know, but on that same Friday afternoon I went out to look for every book by Yitzhak Laor that I could find in the shops. A brief skim through the first book that I found brought me to the following poem: On a rainy night we walked through the streets of an occupied city under curfew. At the head, a Shin Bet guy in charge of the commander in charge of us in charge of the informer wrapped in a blanket and two holes for his eyes (We shall live, we shall live forever, the Angel of Death is in our hands) but the voice is always the voice of Jacob: This is the Voice of the Jewish Fighting Organization. Who are you? I am Mordechai Anielewicz, and who are you? I am Mordechai Anielewicz. And who are you? I am Mordechai Anielewicz. - "I Itzik" from "Night In a Foreign Hotel," Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1992 This is a poem that no foreigner will understand--certainly a person who has never experienced walking on a rainy night with a Shin Bet coordinator up ahead of you, 20 soldiers behind you and one Palestinian who was going to inform on his neighbor and send him for interrogation in the Shin Bet cellars. Eight years later this poem told me with painfully dazzling clarity why I had been a partner to a horror that had occurred in a wadi near the city of Nablus, and what the terrible conspiracy of silence had been between me and my soldiers with respect to the near-fatal torturing of a boy of 14, the books in the library in my parents' house about the Jewish communities that were destroyed in the Holocaust, and the visits to Uncle Daniel at Kibbutz Lohamei Haghettaot when I was five or six years old. Laor precisely encapsulated in his writing what for me was not yet even vague. The sense of mission with which I enlisted in the IDF was based in part on those books and the painfully simple message that we shall not allow the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe to repeat itself no matter what the costs, and when the moral price became more severe, the sense of mission only increased. "Who are you?" I asked myself then, as I helplessly watched the boy gradually losing his consciousness. I am Mordechai Anielewicz, answers Yitzhak Laor in my stead. I am a freedom fighter. I am fighting the Nazi-Arab enemy, not an occupier, not cruel, certainly not immoral. Disturbing memories Suddenly, as if they had never been there, many memories began to creep up on me and disturb me. The man of 50 who comes back from a wedding and is stripped as his children look on in a routine inspection, the moment of alertness that led me to grab the hand of a soldier before it landed on the elderly woman's face, and the old man, and the checkpoint and the curfew and the dispersion of the demonstration and the company commander who replaced me and was killed half a day after we had shaken hands and parted when they opened the Western Wall tunnel. Something in Laor's texts spoke to me about the place inside me that had been closed and denied until then. I continued to leaf through the books, and when I came to the next poem, in Laor's second book of poems, it socked me like a brass-knuckled fist in my belly and accompanied me for months afterward, in repeated readings: To pity the burnt offering? As a commandment? On an ass? With much obedience? From the Negev to Moriah to be sacrificed? To trust such a father who will rise up early to kill him? Let him imprison his father. His only father, Abraham, in a jail, in an almshouse, in a cellar at home, so that he will not be slaughtered. Isaac, Isaac [Yitzhak, Yitzhak], remember what thy father has done to thy brother Ishmael. - "This Fool Yitzhak" from "Only the Body Remembers," Adam Modan Publishers, 1985 These lines immediately bring me back to Barak, my buddy in the battalion, who was felled during his last stint in the reserves at Kfar Darom by a mortar shell that killed him in a place where he should not have been, and the battalion commander, always a father figure, who said at the memorial service that Barak's unnecessary death in defending an isolated Jewish settlement in the territories was necessitated by reality, "a link in the chain of Zionism." Trust a father like that who will rise up early to kill him? And, in fact, which father to trust? And to whom is the father, the parent, more faithful--his son or the state? And does the blind preference for the state, even when it is mistaken, serve the state or harm it? Here I am, 28 years old, returning home from another month of reserve duty in Gaza and suddenly asking myself questions that are beginning to penetrate even the armor of the righteousness of the way in which they had dressed me years ago. And Laor's strong words return to echo in my ears: "With such obedience? With such obedience? With such obedience?" Intensely political Ever since I refused to serve in the territories and the Ometz Lesarev (Courage to Refuse) movement was established, I have returned again and again to Yitzhak Laor's texts and now also to "Leviathan City," his new book. In Laor's most recent books, there is a strong subterranean movement between the personal and the political and back again. In this respect, "Leviathan City" is the climax of a process that began back in "Night in a Foreign Hotel" (1992) and continued through "And Loveth Many Days" (1996) and "As Nothing" (1999). This has been a process of the personal end of the spectrum and the political end of the spectrum coming closer until, in the current book, they are nearly one and the same. In "Leviathan City," it is almost impossible to speak any longer about the personal Laor and the political Laor. There is only one poetic persona in it, which is simultaneously absolutely political and absolutely personal. The voice is that of a poetic persona through whose life the "situation" passes and touches everything he has, grasping and refusing to let go. The child, the wife, the hours of wakefulness alone at night, memory, the very act of writing--everything is political. And from the other extreme, every terror attack, every act of occupation, every moral injustice--everything is completely personal. In this respect, it is possible to see in the poem that opens "Leviathan City," "Poem of Leave-taking from a Great Love," one that maps the whole book. The poem, which opens in a personal tone of relinquishing (in the English translation by Edeet Ravel)--"I give up ... I won't play the violin again, / Though I've kept it kept for forty years ... And I won't sleep with students anymore, / ... Won't remember who hit me when I was a kid ... Won't walk on spring nights / Hand in hand with the beautiful Michal with beautiful Michal"--is transformed in a move that is hardly felt into a poem that is intensely political. It ends with the words: "Do not speak of love of country, / Not out of pain of longing, / But because no one should love a graveyard, / And the smell of blossoms is / The smell of a slaughterhouse." And the reader, who rubs his eyes at the end of the reading, goes back again to the beginning of the poem and he does not understand at which moment all this began and how we got from beautiful Michal, from "the thick black mud / In the neighboring fields," to the smell of the slaughterhouse. He reads it again, slowly, looking for where it all began and finds: There is that elusive ambiguity in the word "betray," which can indicate either unfaithfulness or treachery, and in the original Hebrew text there is a line break between the word for betray and the word "ba'aravim" (which can mean "evenings" or "Arabs"). This word initially resonates as though it refers back to "the spring nights," but it immediately becomes clear to us that the word should be understood as "Arabs." Probing report For a moment Laor touches upon betrayal as the opposite of the love for beautiful Michal and leaves us confident that this is a personal poem, but immediately thereafter we realize that we are already deep in a political place. The real blow, however, falls on us in another moment when we suddenly realize--and herein lies the great strength of this poem in particular and of the book as a whole--that there never have been two moments here, but only one moment which is simultaneously both things: absolutely political and absolutely personal. "Leviathan City" is a probing report, which gives no rest, on the inability in today's situation to distinguish between life at home and going out to fight. This is the great thing with which this book confronts its readers. By virtue of its consistency and the clear-eyed life experience, the book demands of the honest reader that he make a reckoning for himself of whether and why he chooses to blur for himself this unity of the personal and the political, that is, whether and why he chooses to barricade himself into his comfortable life and ignore the horror outside. From all of those who deny within themselves the horror that is occurring in their name beyond the Green Line (pre-Six-Day War border) and within it, from all those who oppose the horror but take part in it for a limited period once a year, and from all those who know but prefer to ignore the removal of the defense mechanisms, this book demands that they release the repressed and bring the personal close to the public, the personal to the political. It demands that they connect to the place where they act from inner strength and not just from calculated ideology. In "Leviathan City," we meet a Laor who is more penetrating than ever, living among his people, unable to shut his eyes for a moment and unable to bear that others shut their eyes. Therefore in this book, Laor acts not only as a wonderful poet but perhaps above all as a prophet of rebuke. This is disturbing poetry, threatening to many and annoying to many, that touches the reader in the painful place of doing nothing. This is a poetry of discomfort that impels action, a poetry that does not seek parental approval or any other approval, a poetry that liberates from the limitations of criticism of the discourse, and a poetry that, through the unfinished discourse between son and father, finds the independent place that revolts and refuses. The time has come to separate between those who obey orders and those who refuse to obey. Period. David Zonsheine is leader of Courage to Refuse. Unless otherwise noted, poetry translations are by Vivian Eden with Yitzhak Laor. This article originally appeared in Ha'aretz. Weekend Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004 Winslow T. Wheeler Spartacus Tells All Bruce Anderson Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal Vicente Navarro They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime Robin Blackburn How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security Greg Bates A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick? Nancy Welch The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David Himmelstein William Lind Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For? Brian Cloughley Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies Suzan Mazur Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs Greg Moses Standing at the Graves of Iraq John Chuckman Osama's Endorsement Richard Oxman Why Not Accept Osama's Offer? Ken Avidor Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious Niranjan Ramakrishnan Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond Hope Bastian Strangling Cuba's Economy P. Sainath Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric Dave Zirin Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez Jon Swift The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It Ron Jacobs The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1 Alexander Billet Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for --Stuff Happens--? Poets' Basement Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   /