The other night I saw Max Blumenthal for the first time since his reporting trip to Gaza. We were eating at a noisy restaurant with friends and watching football, but he said three things that echo:
1. Everywhere he went people would invite him into their homes, which were sometimes mere concrete slabs or basements open to the sun because the house was gone, and then it was: Please have some coffee. That room is where my two girls and my mother were killed. You must drink some soda, it is very hot today. Over there, that is my brother’s house. He lost his wife and auntie and his son. Here are some sweets, you must take some. Please, my friend– In that house there was a family of five, only one survived, she lost her legs. Excuse me– young man, bring our guests some water. Here–
2. Max had the presence of mind to smuggle several shampoo bottles filled with Scotch into Gaza from Israel. This made him popular. At night, several friends were overjoyed to learn of his clever trick, and took care to strain the liquor through paper towels to get rid of the soap residue. They said they hadn’t had a drink in months.
3. Max was filled with despair. Not that I had a hopeful view of the outcome before this, he said. But when you see the destruction, the utter scale and the breadth of it, and all the families destroyed, just wiped out, it’s mindboggling. Then you see that the world does nothing. It’s goes on as if nothing happened. It’s completely soulless, and it fills me with despair that there will ever be a just resolution.
(Brief commentary: 1. Reminds me of my own experience in Gaza and the West Bank, the dignity of people who are experiencing tremendous abuse; so when I want to walk away from this issue, I think of the generosity of those people to me. 2, Reminds me of all the bollocks you hear about the clash of cultures. At some level everyone is the same. And educated seculars always find one another. 3, Max is famously hardboiled and dark. The pity/terror in his voice as he described his own despair– everyone at the table looked down. Seeing this account, Max adds: “People in the US struggle to see Gaza as anything but a war zone filled with victims. They’re just cool people struggling with impossible circumstances.”)
How in heavens name did that anti semite, self hating Israel delegitimiser get into Gaza and keep his head intact , given all those Hamas (ISIS) folks running the place.
However , thanks for doing it and giving us this very emotive report.
Being amongst those wonderful and resolute people must have been so re affirming .
Makes my efforts , typing away on my laptop feel so minuscule (rightfully so).
And people think (those who think about it at all), “Hey, it’s over. There’s a ceasefire.” And individuals afraid of “taking sides” insist that aid must be collected for Israelis (I kid you not) as well as Palestinians, or not at all.
Tonight I was reminded of Max – and Dan Cohen, Jesse Rosenfeld, etc. – by this display of mind-numbing stupidity at the Daily Beast:
“The reason IMC was less than thrilled about sending Kawalek into Gaza was his middle name, Zvi. Hebrew for ‘deer,’ it couldn’t be more Jewish if it were served on a toasted bagel with a side of lox. There was no way he was getting into Gaza with a name like that in his passport. He’d have a better chance getting hit by lightning twice on a sunny day.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/22/a-gay-jewish-zionist-american-doctor-in-gaza-and-what-he-saw.html
You’d think Beast editors would have some kind of a clue, since Jesse, like, WRITES FOR THEM, FROM GAZA. But apparently that’s not enough?
“And educated seculars always find one another”
Don’t even have to be educated. Humanity always finds connections. It could be the light in a curious child’s eyes or the smile of an old guy smoking shisha.
I think Gaza is the graveyard of a certain version of Judaism, the currently dominant version.
What really protruded from all of the words written about Gaza this summer was how isolated Jews in denial actually are. The longer the carnage went on, the fewer supporters they had. And they couldn’t fight it. They couldn’t do anything.
Oren couldn’t cheer them up , Dersh was useless, Shmuley looked like the asshole he really is.
And they just don’t get it
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.612950
“The aggressive criticism in Europe of Israeli policy is neither anti-Semitism, nor is it a natural political reaction of people of conscience and sound morality. It is mainly a platform for people who are a good deal more interested in showing themselves than they are in showing the evils of the occupation. ”
Military reporter for awful Israel HaYom poses for grinning photo in front of bombed Gaza mosque (via @BarakRavid): pic.twitter.com/0CeAyoYQuV
Chemi Shalev @ChemiShalev • 6h
Death toll of 10 soldiers in less than a day bound to cast dark cloud over Israelis’ morning; most were not prepared for such a price
MJ (Mike) Rosenberg @MJayRosenberg • 3h
J Street supported Gaza war. It doesn’t deserve to exist. http://wp.me/p3JVyK-g via
http://www.haaretz.com/life/music-theater/.premium-1.607484
“Where are the rock stars expressing solidarity with Israel’s right to defend itself or pausing between songs to explain that every day is harrowing for Israeli civilians who are attacked by rockets and threatened by terror tunnels leading to their homes, playgrounds and streets? ”
Israel is descending into madness like Japan did in the 1930s. It must be all trauma driven.
The pathology of Zionism. Another argument against the establishment of Israel- they should have been treated for Holocaust trauma before sending them anywhere.
“Don’t even have to be educated. Humanity always finds connections. It could be the light in a curious child’s eyes or the smile of an old guy smoking shisha.”
Well and beautifully said, seafoid.
“I think Gaza is the graveyard of a certain version of Judaism, the currently dominant version.”
It certainly is the graveyard of Israel’s ‘humanity’. They’ve spent decades losing it. It’s why the Russell Tribunal on Israeli Genocide is so important. Max is on the witness list, thank goodness.
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/09/palestine-delegitmisation-courtroom