Viewpoints
April 12, 2002
What's in a Word? * The Mission
What's in a Word - Words have invented and reinvented history -
http://www.mideastweb.org/wordhistory.htm - condensed version below.
Introduction
Around us is chaos. We are none of us quite sure what is happening, but it
is not good.
Bullets and bombs and words are flying thick and fast. Much of the chaos
was created by
words. Words of a holy book, words of an editorial, words of fake interview
make real people
hate and die. Can words stop the chaos too?
What's in a Word?
[ A longer version appears at http://www.mideastweb.org/wordhistory.htm
]
The area of Israel and Palestine is not rich in resources. We have our
famous conflict, though. It is our conflict, and we are happy to export it.
It is our second greatest export.
What is our greatest export? It is not oil, as there is no petroleum here to
export. But we have words, and have had words since words first created
civilization in the middle east. The middle east is famous for exporting
words. The Old Testament, the New Testament, the propaganda of two
sides in the conflict, and fittingly enough, software, are our greatest
exports
in all history. For the Bible and the propaganda are programs for humans,
and people and history are "programmed" by them, as well as by that other
great program for the human computer, the Qur'an.
At this moment, as is usual in our area, a battle is raging. The words are
fighting alongside the tanks and the bombs. Partisans are busy rewriting
history. Suicide bombers are being written out by one side, civilian
casualties are being written out by the other. They do not play well. They
will not sell. Words are changing history, and people are being programmed
to act on the words, never mind what happened. So the words help to
create reality.
Words and symbols are taken seriously here. A right-wing Zionist tract
explains the reason that justifies the bloodshed: "Jews pray facing
Jerusalem, Muslims pray with their backs to Jerusalem." It is not written
in jest. Gulliver, in all his travels in Swiftian satire, never found a more
exotic reason for killing people.
Never mind what the fact is, it depends what it is called. Is it
"legitimate?" If
the Palestinian house is "illegal," then you can demolish it. If the
settlement
is "illegal" then you can blow up the children who live in it.
A man loses his brother to the enemy. He detonates an explosive charge in
a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing himself and a dozen others. Is he
a "terrorist?" a "militant?," a "freedom fighter?" or a martyr. Is the
suicide
attack "terror" or "resistance?" If the suicide attack is in Manhattan, is
it also
"resistance?" A tank destroys a house with children in it, because the
house also includes people set to explode themselves in a suicide attack. Is
it "conducting a defensive operation" or a "war crime?" Is a leader a
"partner for peace" or a "terrorist?" If we add "war criminal" to his name
and
repeat it consistently, does it change the facts? Are the Zionists or the
Palestinians just regular folks, or are they the same as the Nazis? Does it
change the facts of what people did in history? Perhaps not, but it changes
the actions we will take; it changes what people will do in the history they
are making now.
The words are also used to redraw history. Nowhere is it more true that the
pen is mightier than the sword. Nowhere is "creative writing" more
"creative." Partisans, intent on stirring up hate, crank out fraudulent
interviews with Ariel Sharon, in which he states that he wants his soldiers
to
rape Palestinian girls and kill more Palestinians. A bit of satire by an
Israeli
writer is turned into a fact. The excuse given for the lie is, "There is no
doubt, that what has been expressed in the interview is the kind of
dangerous thinking shared by Sharon and showing through in his policies."
Reality is shaped by art. First the reality is reinvented, then it is acted
upon.
We are acting out a trashy historical novel, a comic book version of
reality.
The words are not meant to be aesthetic. They are tired, grating writing.
The same adjectives and pejorative words appear a dozen times in a
hundred words. For some reason, the hacks cannot write "Arafat" without
writing "terrorist" and they cannot write "Ariel Sharon" in less than four
words: "War Criminal Ariel Sharon." The words are meant to program
violence in human computers. Computer programs do not make good
reading. They are bad literature. They are worse reality. The words
programmed all
these impossible things we see before us, good and bad. Can we use the
words to "program" Israel and Palestine for peace?
Ami Isseroff
Rehovot, Israel
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The Mission
Shalom wa Salamat,
This is a message for all those who are always seeking and making peace
wherever they are, no matter how difficult the situation may get, they are
always helping others, keeping in their hearts the hope of a better tomorrow
and a smile which says so much but is so mysterious.
This is a message for all the warriors of peace...
No matter how far we are from our home, the Mideast, we�ll keeping meeting
with each other; it�s our mision, our dream to defend and win it with the
heart, the mind and with G-d�s word and promise of a better Sunland as is
our Middle East.
In these difficult days we look around us and all that we see is a little
light coming through the violence, the hate and the annoyance of those who
don�t care about their brothers and don�t think or pray for them. For that
we must follow and reach this light, no matter how distant it is and all the
ugly words we hear and the sad pictures we see because our faith may be
greater then any evil.
Think of the children there who are obliged to suffer so early ,while many
of
us had much better lives. Every day there�s somebody hoping that celestial
help would come and liberate them from the hell they�re living in and the
memory of every tear they shred because of the stone hearts of those who
don�t care about them and who don�t think or see farther then their noses.
If nobody hears them,what are they fighting for?. Don�t you think
that our kind of better life is a chance that G-d is giving us to help
others and make them feel the joy that we feel for receiving a new nice day
in our lives?
Remember that there�re no heaven and no hell other than the one we are
building
here in Earth, those others come from our mind, and don�t give up every time
you
see what those people are doing to the others and how they kill innocents
without thinking about the pain it will cause their parents. There will
always be a light
shining for you and guiding you.
How delightful it would be to return home, the land of the same father and
the only G-d, and feel again the sweet breeze, the burning sun, the fresh
nights, smell again the delicate flowers that only grow there, the deep sea
and the mighty mountains! There is no sky and no land as there is in the
Middle East.
Let us make the difference, all we must do is be impartial, friendly,
sincere, with faith in G-d in our hearts and the love of helping others with
mercy, without wondering how difference they might be from us, because in
the end there �s no real difference between us, and you know that.
Let�s us think and pray for those children who can be the heroes of a better
future beside us. And think that in the final Egypt, Assyria and Israel are
G-d�s promise of a better land for all us (Isaiah 19:24-25).
Remember the words of Hussein Issa, founder of Hope Flowers school,
"to suffer for peace is better than to suffer for war," may he rest in
peace; and
remember too that if you wish something
with all your heart and soul, the universe will work to make it true.
Please, make this letter reach every peace warrior, every Palestinian, Jew
and anybody else who keeps a hope in their hearts and needs a consoling
word.
Make it a reality!
May G-d protect and be with you all.
With all my Love,
Sara El Halabi.
Venezuela
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