On its front page yesterday, November 7, The Guardian trumpeted a speech it was reprinting by David Grossman, the well-known (I think more than a little precious, but no matter) Israeli novelist. Grossman gave the address at a huge memorial meeting for Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv on the fifth anniversary of the prime minister's assassination. "What has happened to my beloved Israel?" cries out the headline, placed directly under the Zionist banner, two blue stripes and a Star of David on a white field. One thing is for sure: that Israel is not beloved by The Guardian, although 60 years ago when Henry Fairlie( who later wrote regularly for TNR) was writing editorials for the Manchester Guardian, the paper was fiercely pro-Zionist. Actually, Israel is barely tolerated by The Guardian now.
Which you can tell by the short introductory paragraph featured before the text begins. "Tel Aviv has wasted too many chances to reach a lasting peace in the Middle East, says the Israeli novelist David Grossman." Now, Tel Aviv is the big metropolis of the country, its intellectual and artistic center, a true culinary and entertainment habitat, lively, sexy, slightly salacious, a sea town with all of the cosmopolitanism that implies. But it is not the capital of Israel. As New York is not Washington, Tel Aviv is not Jerusalem. If Israel has wasted too many chances to reach a lasting peace it is not Tel Aviv, even metaphorically, that has done it. It is Jerusalem, where also the president and prime minister reside, where the Knesset is headquartered and meets, where the Supreme Court hands down its glowingly liberal rulings.
It is colossal chutzpah for The Guardian to ignore the fact that Jerusalem is the actual capital of Israel. And it tells you more than you need to know: that the newspaper's playing with this fact suggest that, in its routine coverage, it also plays with other facts, both material and symbolic. It is also true that Grossman, despite what The Guardian printed, certainly did not say that "Tel Aviv has wasted too many chances..." This is The Guardian's editors' own prejudice, and it is a scandal. As if someone were to say that the capital of Germany was not Berlin but Bonn. Or simply call Beijing, Peking.
I have my own differences with Grossman. But he is an Israeli patriot and a eloquent Zionist. He lost a son in the Lebanon war. Many of the beautiful souls of Israel did not know anyone who was killed in this last round of interminable fighting. The fighting soldiers were not Tel Avivians. I am not sure about this. But I was told by reliable and truthful people that only one child of Tel Aviv was killed in the war. And that 18 percent of the dead were children of the kibbutz, which can claim roughly 1 1/2 to 2 percent of the population. This tells you something about Zionist idealism and where it is still lodged primarily. But do not think the dissent in Israel is for the myopia of peace at any risk. It isn't. It wants a more resolute diplomatic stance not givi-give-give policy that has predominated during the last three years.
In any case, what I have learned about Grossman's son is exemplary, truly exemplary. He was brave and brilliant and beautiful. But none of this should give his father's idiosyncratic opinions more cachet than they would have on their own. Which is not much. What Grossman is telling Ehud Olmert, quite explicitly in the rally disguised as a memorial meeting, is that he must "make an offer the Palestinians can't refuse." Alas, that offer was made by Ehud Barak in 2000, and twice. And it was refused, and the great number of Palestinians who Grossman is so sure are ready to receive it were not there. Indeed, Israel started out on another process the Palestinians "couldn't refuse." The withdrawal from Gaza (I wrote from Gaza. You can find the pieces here, here, and here) should have brought some calm to the situation. The withdrawal from Gaza, one might have thought, would encourage the Palestinians to show that they can make a polity and turn it into a real society. They haven't. And, much as they have turned Gaza into a base for rockets aimed within Israel, they promise to bring (and already are bringing) agile weapons--sooner rather than later, like the ones from Lebanon--into the West Bank. And, then, what? This is what Israel has to guard against. And Grossman's fantasies do the opposite.
In all the pathos of his prose, Grossman has been one of the balmy optimists in Jewish life. Optimistic about everything. The Jews--and the Zionists--who changed the grim reality of their people were the pessimists. They knew what their neighbors intended for them. And they did not act, whatever the lubrications of the great powers, as if their neighbors intended otherwise.
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COMMENTS (10)
I can't believe I'm hearing this! Beijing-Peking is NOT the equivalent of Berlin-Bonn or Tel Aviv-Jerusalem. Beijing and Peking are one and the same. The distinction comes from the arbitrary imposition of fashionable word forms by politically correct linguistic prigs on the rest of us. Thus, Peking is now Beijing, Mao Tse Tung is now Mao Zedong and the Yangtze is now the Chang Jiang. The excuse is that these are more "corect," nearer the "native" forms. This is utter bullshit. The form depends on where in China you come from. There is no "official pronunciation," except whatever Chinese officals tell fatuous academics. Furthermore, we have our own ... view full comment
I can't believe I'm hearing this! Beijing-Peking is NOT the equivalent of Berlin-Bonn or Tel Aviv-Jerusalem. Beijing and Peking are one and the same. The distinction comes from the arbitrary imposition of fashionable word forms by politically correct linguistic prigs on the rest of us. Thus, Peking is now Beijing, Mao Tse Tung is now Mao Zedong and the Yangtze is now the Chang Jiang. The excuse is that these are more "corect," nearer the "native" forms. This is utter bullshit. The form depends on where in China you come from. There is no "official pronunciation," except whatever Chinese officals tell fatuous academics. Furthermore, we have our own Anglicized forms for foreign place names. We do not say Paree, or Munchen, or Firenze, or Moskva or Sverige or Espania. We have our own native spellings and pronunciations.
For you to buy into the pedantic stupidity and arrogance of a bunch of academic hacks with too much free time on their hands is beneath you. Wise up -- if some cocktail-party phony (you know, the same one who says omage instead of hommage) affects Beijing spit Peking right back!
[end of rant]
What stirs Grossman to mourn more? The loss of his son or the loss of peace? Both are war casualties. Furthermore, what animates Grossman, what is his ethos? The ethos of the prophets? Is he too much a kibbutznik or too much of a shtetl or diaspora Jew? As for his novels, I am a novice in Hebrew, but find his language and plot very playful. Just like Moshe Dayan's father would have settled for the existence of a farmer, I suppose Grossman is, unlike say Amos Oz, a reluctant peace activist. I think all he would prefer in life, is a simple existence of writing and family
What stirs Grossman to mourn more? The loss of his son or the loss of peace? Both are war casualties. Furthermore, what animates Grossman, what is his ethos? The ethos of the prophets? Is he too much a kibbutznik or too much of a shtetl or diaspora Jew? As for his novels, I am a novice in Hebrew, but find his language and plot very playful. Just like Moshe Dayan's father would have settled for the existence of a farmer, I suppose Grossman is, unlike say Amos Oz, a reluctant peace activist. I think all he would prefer in life, is a simple existence of writing and family
The analogous sore point to Chinese sensitivities is recognition of Taiwan as anything but a renegade province. That is more than a matter of nomenclature.
The analogous sore point to Chinese sensitivities is recognition of Taiwan as anything but a renegade province. That is more than a matter of nomenclature.
The US State Department website states:
This is hardly a ringing endorsement of Jerusalem being the universally-recognized capital of Israel. Perhaps this has something to do with today
The US State Department website states:
This is hardly a ringing endorsement of Jerusalem being the universally-recognized capital of Israel. Perhaps this has something to do with today
Wherever countries place their embassies doesn't change the rather blatant fact that the Israeli government is in Jerusalem.
So there is no "Tel Aviv says" when speaking about what the Israeli government thinks. However you may want it, mr. Mackenzie, your opinion can't change the facts.
Wherever countries place their embassies doesn't change the rather blatant fact that the Israeli government is in Jerusalem.
So there is no "Tel Aviv says" when speaking about what the Israeli government thinks. However you may want it, mr. Mackenzie, your opinion can't change the facts.
Intellectual and moral heights! That's so funny!
Under the brave middle east editorial leadership of Bryan Whitaker?? A low-minded conspiracy mongerer if there ever was one.
Intellectual and moral heights! That's so funny!
Under the brave middle east editorial leadership of Bryan Whitaker?? A low-minded conspiracy mongerer if there ever was one.
what the hell are you talking about? Beijing is the official pronounciation of the capital, everywhere in China. It is spelled that way in Pinyin. Mandarin is the official language of China. How can you call that "utter bullshit?" What is missing in our pronounciation is the tones. This is not because of politically correct linguistic prigs, but a long overdue correction, caused by the creation of the Pinyin system. Wade giles was basically gibberish. Try to use that to speak Chinese and people will think you are an idiot. Are you saying people are too stupid to learn how to say Beijing? Americans have such little grasp of geography it makes more sense to just teach Guangzhou and n ... view full comment
what the hell are you talking about? Beijing is the official pronounciation of the capital, everywhere in China. It is spelled that way in Pinyin. Mandarin is the official language of China. How can you call that "utter bullshit?" What is missing in our pronounciation is the tones. This is not because of politically correct linguistic prigs, but a long overdue correction, caused by the creation of the Pinyin system. Wade giles was basically gibberish. Try to use that to speak Chinese and people will think you are an idiot. Are you saying people are too stupid to learn how to say Beijing? Americans have such little grasp of geography it makes more sense to just teach Guangzhou and not Canton. Beside, I also happen to think it polite to try to pronounce people or place names according to the way they are, not because I am such a lazy ass I can't be bothered to try to say it correctly. Granted, the overwhelming traditon for many European places make it difficult and confusing to change all of them, at least when I go to those countries I learn how to say the names. Also, as far as it comes to real names, we didn't change Kohl to Coal to make it easier to for us, Mao Zedong is the pinyin (correct) spelling. For Gods sake, at least give people the courtesy of spelling their names correctly.
The chinese themselves are not forcing it on us either, we still call it Peking Duck, and it is called Peking Duck on the English menus in China.
I lived in China for 7 years, my kids are half chinese. Piss off if you think you can tell me how to pronounce Beijing. I at least learned the language. What the hell have you done?
end rant.
dinna feed the trolls laddie, this Mackensie fella is off his rocker. Best to ingore trolls like him. Granted my previous post was off kilter but that was a bit of fun, as it were. I never read the Guardian, nor do I have any particular desire to but I have no reason to doubt Mr. Peretzs characterization of it. From some of the nonsense I have heard spouted by some Brits I knew while I was living in China (about how sanctions were killing Iraqi babies pre-war, and how immoral the sanctions were), I could well imagine the source of their gibberish was most likely the Guardian.
dinna feed the trolls laddie, this Mackensie fella is off his rocker. Best to ingore trolls like him. Granted my previous post was off kilter but that was a bit of fun, as it were. I never read the Guardian, nor do I have any particular desire to but I have no reason to doubt Mr. Peretzs characterization of it. From some of the nonsense I have heard spouted by some Brits I knew while I was living in China (about how sanctions were killing Iraqi babies pre-war, and how immoral the sanctions were), I could well imagine the source of their gibberish was most likely the Guardian.
Piss off, yourself. What do you mean "spell their names correctly"? Chinese use idiograms, for chrissake! How we spell and pronounce their names is our business. If I'm trying to speak Chinese, of course I'll say "Beijing" or whatever the hell they want me to say. But when I'm speaking English, I'll speak ENGLISH. It has nothing to do with courtesy and everything to do with a bunch of prigs, who want to show off their erudition. Like you.
Piss off, yourself. What do you mean "spell their names correctly"? Chinese use idiograms, for chrissake! How we spell and pronounce their names is our business. If I'm trying to speak Chinese, of course I'll say "Beijing" or whatever the hell they want me to say. But when I'm speaking English, I'll speak ENGLISH. It has nothing to do with courtesy and everything to do with a bunch of prigs, who want to show off their erudition. Like you.
I repeat: Marty is full of it. Beijing-Peking is NOT the equivalent of Berlin-Bonn or Tel Aviv-Jerusalem. Beijing and Peking are one and the same. They have nothing to do with location but with the imposition of linguistic political correctness.
I repeat: Marty is full of it. Beijing-Peking is NOT the equivalent of Berlin-Bonn or Tel Aviv-Jerusalem. Beijing and Peking are one and the same. They have nothing to do with location but with the imposition of linguistic political correctness.