Guernica has published an excerpt of the great Harvey Pekar’s posthumous volume on Zionism, Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me, and the promise of the title is undermined, just as I feared it would be, by the intervention of JT Waldman, a young Jew who serves as Pekar’s interlocutor in the discussion and who is constantly interjecting things like, Israel has no partner for peace; they left Gaza and got Katyusha rockets, I called a friend in Israel yesterday… Or, There must be an economic peace; give the Palestinians prosperity. These are propaganda points that a liberal Jew passes on with no awareness that they are tired old hasbara; and so the dialogue reminds us that our community– and when I say our I am putting on my Jewish hat– is reactionary on this question. Pekar (1939-2010) was a great irascible leftwing oddball who took on NBC when Letterman had him on air and who is lionized for that eruption. Yet his unvarnished thoughts on the new Jewish Question question could not be passed on without some Zionist sugarcoating. Tragic, really. And you ask how the Jewish leadership could marry apartheid? Because the conscience community was muzzled.
News
I think Pekar’s working title was How I Lost Faith In Israel. Waldman glued it back from his own spit or spite, or at least, despite Pekar’s vision. Gotta keep the faith going. Pekar’s enraged in his grave!
Publishers Weekly
Instead of the single-minded polemic that the title promises, this posthumous work by Pekar functions as a multipronged exploration of religious, political, and personal histories and is all the richer for it. Pekar structures his narrative as a long-running bull session with his collaborator, artist Waldman (Megillat Esther), as they amble around Pekar’s hometown of Cleveland.
“…and is all the richer for it.”
I don’t think Harvey would agree. It’s as if Harvey had not considered what’s put in Waldman’s dialogue balloons. I bet he did in his original version of his last project.
“and when I say our I am putting on my Jewish hat”
It’s called a yarmulke, Phil. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.
“Because the conscience community was muzzled.”
Remember, an inheritance is a gift, not an obligation, or a right.
American Splendor is on HBO Go this month, so I was watching it and although I’m sad that what was published was not what he had initially intended, I can almost hear him say, “So what else is new?”
I think the fans of Harvey Pekar will see through the sugar coating.