Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Panama: journey into the abyss
The air-conditioning whirred as the bus bumped and swerved along a dirt and gravel pathway, snaking ever deeper into the rainforest of el Darien. Outside, pitch blackness prevailed owing to the thick vegetation and lack of habitation along the highway and yet each stone, rut or snake egg dotting the road could be perceived with a jitter or a thud. As if to distract from the frequent discomfort (and the searing tropical heat), the driver had not only turned up the air-conditioning to the highest notch but turned up the volume on the a loud, raunchy salsa music videos blaring from the television. Dancing and frolicking and screeen alongside the jittering and thumping... Every so often the bus would stop for a member of the nation's defence forces to board for an "inspection." THrough hushed tones of anxiety, it was overheard that we were "heading towards the border" and "drug smugglers," "illegal logging"... After each such stop (accompanied by a reprieve of light), the bus continued into darkness, jittering, salsa dancing, the air-conditioning whirring and now, every so often a piercing howl (from outside).... A sense of the surreal, near hallucinatory indulgence amidst the risk of danger prevailed.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Takeaways from the latest bloodbath in Gaza
1. Objectively speaking, this is not a "conflict" in any form whatsoever. It is a brutal counterinsurgency operation carried out by Israel's Likud government with the presumed intention of annihilating Hamas politically (whether it actually achieves this is a different story). Like any classic counterinsurgency/colonial war, the conflict pits a fully-equipped army against a ragtag lot of guerillas and civilians.
2. The fiercest battle being raged is not taking place but on the ground in Gaza but in public opinion forums abroad, between supporters of Israel and Palestine Solidarity Activists. (see here and here) It is not a battle between supporters of the fighting parties (Israel and Hamas) so much as between upholders of opposing narratives: Pro-palestine activists portraying the conflict as a wanton massacre by an Occupying power and pro-Israeli zionists, upholding the killing as mere "self-defense" by a besieged state.
3. Ultimately, both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine supporters extend their arguments way back into history: Palestine solidarity activists emphasize the conflict's roots in the 1948 Nakba (and the very realization of the "Zionist Dream") while Jewish activists compare Hamas to previous waves of anti-semitism like Hamas and Hitler.
4. How involved are the Arab states in this conflict? Iran?
This latest round of fighting has been almost entirely focused on the fight between Israel and Palestine, largely to the exclusion of outside powers...
Thus, a new stage of the I-P conflict, has come into being, one centered on the root conflict between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism to the exclusion of power politics. The deep-rooted, manichean tensions at stake make for a very difficult road ahead.
2. The fiercest battle being raged is not taking place but on the ground in Gaza but in public opinion forums abroad, between supporters of Israel and Palestine Solidarity Activists. (see here and here) It is not a battle between supporters of the fighting parties (Israel and Hamas) so much as between upholders of opposing narratives: Pro-palestine activists portraying the conflict as a wanton massacre by an Occupying power and pro-Israeli zionists, upholding the killing as mere "self-defense" by a besieged state.
3. Ultimately, both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine supporters extend their arguments way back into history: Palestine solidarity activists emphasize the conflict's roots in the 1948 Nakba (and the very realization of the "Zionist Dream") while Jewish activists compare Hamas to previous waves of anti-semitism like Hamas and Hitler.
4. How involved are the Arab states in this conflict? Iran?
This latest round of fighting has been almost entirely focused on the fight between Israel and Palestine, largely to the exclusion of outside powers...
Thus, a new stage of the I-P conflict, has come into being, one centered on the root conflict between Zionism and Palestinian nationalism to the exclusion of power politics. The deep-rooted, manichean tensions at stake make for a very difficult road ahead.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Hillel and the Milstein affair: a catalyst for self-reflection
I am angry. I am mad. But I'm not in the least surprised to discover that the UCLA Hillel has been in cahoots with a bigoted real estate baron, Adam Milstein, who not only fears Islam but donates to organizations (like Aish HaTorah and Christians United for Israeli) that support Israel's brutal military rule and settlement-building in the Occupied West Bank. Not only that, but Milstein and UCLA Hillel seem to have cooperated to provide illicit, under-the-table funding for Bruins United political candidates, before the 2013 elections.
I always felt that Hillel was an uncomfortable place for Jews who did not toe the community line on Israel-Palestine. Whether it was being privy to conversations on Shabbat about the rise in "campus anti-semitism" (codeword for Palestine solidarity activism) or being bombarded with emails prior to student elections demanding that Jewish students "stand with the community" in supporting the Bruins United slate (whose opposition to divestment initiatives and other progressive causes seemed to conflict with the belief in social justice on which I had been raised), the Hillel community always offered a litmus test to which I could not genuinely comply. The easiest thing to do was remain silent.
It was not just Israel-Palestine politics that got me off. Frequently, when I attended Shabbat dinners, I would receive glances followed by a question of "who do you know" or "what are you here for." Several times, the real intent leaked out: "you aren't fully Jewish...are you?" My Asiatic features apparently made me a suspect outsider, possibly a criminal: such "racial profiling" likely profiling likely bore a connection to many Hillel member's nationalistic or ethnic conceptions of Judaism. (i.e. Jewfroed, hairy, fair-skinned Ashkenazim with Yiddish- or Hebrew-sounding last names).
During my freshman and sophomore years, when I lived on campus, I attended Hillel only for religious services and Shabbat dinners, almost always sticking to a small circle of acquaintances from the UCLA J Street U chapter (in which I was then involved). These friends all either graduated or drifted away from J Street at the end of sophomore year. I went once for Shabbat at the beginning of junior year only to become privy to an intolerable conversation about the "dangers" of BDS (at my table). Afterwards I only attended for High Holidays, when the scholarship and eloquence of Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller's sermons put aside my concerns with the community large.
The details coming out about Hillel's history of accepting of Milstein's endowments, in spite of the horrendous bigotry and fanaticism that Milstein has displayed, has made me come to see even Rabbi Chaim in a less favorable light. This, of course, follows on the stances Hillel took-with the open support of Rabbi Chaim and other high-ranking staff-that openly opposed last year's divestment resolution (by erroneously linking it to a monolithic BDS movement purportedly aiming to "delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel) and that masqueraded Hillel's opposition to renewed Palestine Solidarity Activism (in which Jewish Bruin students have played a prominent role) as a "fight against anti-semitism."
Getting back to my main point, I love Judaism as a religion and cultural system but hate any groups or institutions that engage in close-mindedness, exclusion and/or (now, worse) chicanery. The latest Milstein affair, which sees Hillel's leadership refusing to answer for the revelations of its deceptive, under-the-table activity violates the portions of the Torah and the Talmud that condemn lying (indeed the Talmud claims that the lyer is among the three types of people whom God most despises). Furthermore Milstein's fear-mongering about "radical Islam" provides a prime example of what the Torah calls Lashon Hara (or slander), deemed sinful even if the accusations are "true." Jewish students of all backgrounds should be mad at Hillel for its pursuit of narrow-minded nationalism at the expense of Judaism's ethical teachings.
I always felt that Hillel was an uncomfortable place for Jews who did not toe the community line on Israel-Palestine. Whether it was being privy to conversations on Shabbat about the rise in "campus anti-semitism" (codeword for Palestine solidarity activism) or being bombarded with emails prior to student elections demanding that Jewish students "stand with the community" in supporting the Bruins United slate (whose opposition to divestment initiatives and other progressive causes seemed to conflict with the belief in social justice on which I had been raised), the Hillel community always offered a litmus test to which I could not genuinely comply. The easiest thing to do was remain silent.
It was not just Israel-Palestine politics that got me off. Frequently, when I attended Shabbat dinners, I would receive glances followed by a question of "who do you know" or "what are you here for." Several times, the real intent leaked out: "you aren't fully Jewish...are you?" My Asiatic features apparently made me a suspect outsider, possibly a criminal: such "racial profiling" likely profiling likely bore a connection to many Hillel member's nationalistic or ethnic conceptions of Judaism. (i.e. Jewfroed, hairy, fair-skinned Ashkenazim with Yiddish- or Hebrew-sounding last names).
During my freshman and sophomore years, when I lived on campus, I attended Hillel only for religious services and Shabbat dinners, almost always sticking to a small circle of acquaintances from the UCLA J Street U chapter (in which I was then involved). These friends all either graduated or drifted away from J Street at the end of sophomore year. I went once for Shabbat at the beginning of junior year only to become privy to an intolerable conversation about the "dangers" of BDS (at my table). Afterwards I only attended for High Holidays, when the scholarship and eloquence of Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller's sermons put aside my concerns with the community large.
The details coming out about Hillel's history of accepting of Milstein's endowments, in spite of the horrendous bigotry and fanaticism that Milstein has displayed, has made me come to see even Rabbi Chaim in a less favorable light. This, of course, follows on the stances Hillel took-with the open support of Rabbi Chaim and other high-ranking staff-that openly opposed last year's divestment resolution (by erroneously linking it to a monolithic BDS movement purportedly aiming to "delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel) and that masqueraded Hillel's opposition to renewed Palestine Solidarity Activism (in which Jewish Bruin students have played a prominent role) as a "fight against anti-semitism."
Getting back to my main point, I love Judaism as a religion and cultural system but hate any groups or institutions that engage in close-mindedness, exclusion and/or (now, worse) chicanery. The latest Milstein affair, which sees Hillel's leadership refusing to answer for the revelations of its deceptive, under-the-table activity violates the portions of the Torah and the Talmud that condemn lying (indeed the Talmud claims that the lyer is among the three types of people whom God most despises). Furthermore Milstein's fear-mongering about "radical Islam" provides a prime example of what the Torah calls Lashon Hara (or slander), deemed sinful even if the accusations are "true." Jewish students of all backgrounds should be mad at Hillel for its pursuit of narrow-minded nationalism at the expense of Judaism's ethical teachings.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
On Divestment resolution, Hillel was not entitled to speak on behalf of all Jewish students
The lengthy public comment period at last week's USAC
meeting presented the undeserved impression that the resolution calling on the
university to divest from five companies abetting Israel's occupation of the
Palestinian Territories offended the campus "Jewish" community and
representing a strike by an "anti-semitic" BDS movement.
Such rhetoric not only ignored the fact that this resolution
made no mention whatsoever of the BDS movement but denies the voice of Jewish
students like myself who support the resolution as a means of opposing an
Occupation illegal under international law and harmful to both Palestinians and
Israelis.
However the message voiced played by our campus's most
prominent Jewish institution, Hillel, in fighting the resolution. In an email
sent out the on the day of the meeting, Hillel's Student Board called on Jewish
students to "join our community in voting NO" the resolution,
erroneously tying it to a "BDS movement" aiming to "delegitimize
and demonize the Jewish, Democratic state of Israel."
(https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/1446a40b64faeb3f)
The same e-mail furthermore recommended that students check
out the Facebook page of Bruins against BDS, a group led by Hillel student
leaders that also made use of Hillel facilities for a meetings.
This overt opposition to Tuesday’s resolution reflects
considerably on the “Israel Guidelines” laid out by Hillel at UCLA’s parent
organization, Hillel International, which state that Hillel will not partner or
affiliate with groups or individuals who “support boycotts, divestment and/or
Sanctions against Israel” or who “delegitimize” or “demonize” the state of
Israel. (http://www.hillel.org/jewish/hillel-israel/hillel-israel-guidelines)
These guidelines have been used by Hillels at Harvard and
Brandeis (respectively) to refuse to host former Speaker of the Knesset Avraham
Burg (for giving a talk co-sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, (http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/11/26/hillel-speaker-open-policy/#))
and to deny membership to Jewish Voice for Peace (a Jewish organization that
supports Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/national-news/brandeis-hillel-again-rejects-membership-bid-jewish-voice-peace).
In this light, Hillel at UCLA’s mobilization of opposition to
the late divestment resolution should be seen as especially stringent given the
steps taken by the authors of the resolution to dissociate it from the BDS
movement and focus only on the most pressing issue of corporations aiding
Israel’s violations of human rights and international law in the Occupied
Territories. (http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/24/submission-resolution-supports-divestment-not-bds-as-a-whole/)
Given the willingness of Hillel at UCLA to accommodate Jews
of various denominations and levels of observance, it disheartens me that it
should take such a strong stance against a measure that prominent
Jews and Israelis
feel necessary to end Israel’s occupation and bring long-lasting peace to the
Middle East.
It should be added that I have been a regular attendee of
Hillel’s Shabbat and High Holiday
services since I have been a Freshman appreciating the warmth of community and
Jewish learning that I have received there. In light of Hillel’s failure to
incorporate my opinions in drawing its stance on divestment, I vow not to
attend events held at or sponsored by Hillel until the day I graduate.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
the Cloudy Evening
Cloudy whisps of pink,grey and white
too dark for day, too mellow for night.
blocking out sun, filtering in light
At this hour, we scurry with fright...
Back into the suburb, the shtetl and barrio
Driving at 50, ears blasting radio
Or out on the sidewalk, amidst a faint haze....
men push and shove, each an obstacle maze
The day is over.
What's done is done.
Atoms fall proportionate to mass.
And clouds and people...drift.
too dark for day, too mellow for night.
blocking out sun, filtering in light
At this hour, we scurry with fright...
Back into the suburb, the shtetl and barrio
Driving at 50, ears blasting radio
Or out on the sidewalk, amidst a faint haze....
men push and shove, each an obstacle maze
The day is over.
What's done is done.
Atoms fall proportionate to mass.
And clouds and people...drift.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
In search of lost time...and love
It was a typical Los Angeles winter night.
Temperature: 50-something degrees, with a slight breeze from the northern hills.
As I begin to sober up, the short gusts of wind pang rudely against my awakening nerves.
Having yet to recover my memory of the apartment code I stand anxiously awaiting...
After a few minutes, that pass as if a fortnight, I hear giggling and talking
Prating banter reminiscent of a bygone carefree.
She catches sight of my eyes as she inserts the key.
"you...I know you"
Five girls my age, carrying the most outlandish contraption.
But only one of them, her lips overdone but her handsome brown eyes, eyes that modestly invited,
tantalizing in both their beauty and good intention.
I could sense something oddly familiar, besides that inner attraction
In the elevator, pressed together, passing the third floor...
I spot the music tattoo of erotic etched in my memory
The young, exotic alluring senses...of Fridays,
Fall Quarter
Freshman Year of undergrad
"You were in comm 10 with Schubert, right?"
"Chubbyish guy with glasses?"
"Yep,
and our goateed hipster TA?"
"Alfred!"
I knew at that moment, I was speaking with a figment of my post-puberty sexual imaginary.
That tattoo, Notes cascading along a line of sheet music.
A innocent melody, wavy and slender, heightens the temptation of that fair skin,
and those haunting eyes.
"Where do you come from?"
"A bachelorette party."
"Whose?"
"Mine."
"You getting married already? When?"
"Tomorrow. But tonight we're having fun. Want to join us?"
By now we are passing the third floor.
"Sure," I say, giving a clumsy wink. Her mouth perks up into a smile of abandon-and sincerity.
She's looking like Daisy from Gatsby.
As house keys and a vodka bottle clink.
I plop down on a couch, and pick up a remote.
I scroll through music playlists on the HD screen before pressing "select" on 90s' hits, par request.
We take shots
She's sitting beside me, smiling fatigued, and draws a card
"Never have I ever..."
That foolish Freshman-year version of "truth or dare,"
interposed with Russian Roulette a la vodka
As a PhD. student, working round the clock meticulously analyzing documents (when not at the bar)
The bygone stupidity caused a well of warmth, strangely familiar yet eons...
"Your turn"
Half-slouching and at an oblique angle, I fuddle two fingers through some cards,
"six...dicks"
As I dutifully imbibe, eyes cross and lock...
Yes, those eyes, her eyes...that once gave me butterflies forty-five minutes of each week
Now acknowledging me...responding
I feel her hands grasp my arms, smell the perfume whiff in my nostril...
and feel her lips around my mouth
Drawing back then...
her lips clasp the rim of a Coors
her comrades can be heard laughing
I can bearly conceal a blush,
euphoria and arousal.
My eyes widen tepidly.
A searing gash throttles my head,
hardwood and tile
a candy wrapper, nutshells and a bottle
but I see no eyes..
Rays of afternoon sun gleam through,
And I know she is gone forever...
That thirty-second instant,
mired in beer and lipstick
remains eternally
bygone
in my mind....
Temperature: 50-something degrees, with a slight breeze from the northern hills.
As I begin to sober up, the short gusts of wind pang rudely against my awakening nerves.
Having yet to recover my memory of the apartment code I stand anxiously awaiting...
After a few minutes, that pass as if a fortnight, I hear giggling and talking
Prating banter reminiscent of a bygone carefree.
She catches sight of my eyes as she inserts the key.
"you...I know you"
Five girls my age, carrying the most outlandish contraption.
But only one of them, her lips overdone but her handsome brown eyes, eyes that modestly invited,
tantalizing in both their beauty and good intention.
I could sense something oddly familiar, besides that inner attraction
In the elevator, pressed together, passing the third floor...
I spot the music tattoo of erotic etched in my memory
The young, exotic alluring senses...of Fridays,
Fall Quarter
Freshman Year of undergrad
"You were in comm 10 with Schubert, right?"
"Chubbyish guy with glasses?"
"Yep,
and our goateed hipster TA?"
"Alfred!"
I knew at that moment, I was speaking with a figment of my post-puberty sexual imaginary.
That tattoo, Notes cascading along a line of sheet music.
A innocent melody, wavy and slender, heightens the temptation of that fair skin,
and those haunting eyes.
"Where do you come from?"
"A bachelorette party."
"Whose?"
"Mine."
"You getting married already? When?"
"Tomorrow. But tonight we're having fun. Want to join us?"
By now we are passing the third floor.
"Sure," I say, giving a clumsy wink. Her mouth perks up into a smile of abandon-and sincerity.
She's looking like Daisy from Gatsby.
As house keys and a vodka bottle clink.
I plop down on a couch, and pick up a remote.
I scroll through music playlists on the HD screen before pressing "select" on 90s' hits, par request.
We take shots
She's sitting beside me, smiling fatigued, and draws a card
"Never have I ever..."
That foolish Freshman-year version of "truth or dare,"
interposed with Russian Roulette a la vodka
As a PhD. student, working round the clock meticulously analyzing documents (when not at the bar)
The bygone stupidity caused a well of warmth, strangely familiar yet eons...
"Your turn"
Half-slouching and at an oblique angle, I fuddle two fingers through some cards,
"six...dicks"
As I dutifully imbibe, eyes cross and lock...
Yes, those eyes, her eyes...that once gave me butterflies forty-five minutes of each week
Now acknowledging me...responding
I feel her hands grasp my arms, smell the perfume whiff in my nostril...
and feel her lips around my mouth
Drawing back then...
her lips clasp the rim of a Coors
her comrades can be heard laughing
I can bearly conceal a blush,
euphoria and arousal.
My eyes widen tepidly.
A searing gash throttles my head,
hardwood and tile
a candy wrapper, nutshells and a bottle
but I see no eyes..
Rays of afternoon sun gleam through,
And I know she is gone forever...
That thirty-second instant,
mired in beer and lipstick
remains eternally
bygone
in my mind....
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Happy New Year
First off, Happy and Healthy New Year to any readers of my blog out there.
2014 will confront me with several testy but exciting challenges.
In the next twelve months, I will need to complete a Bachelor's thesis, take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) Graduate School Examination, find a full-time career for after I graduate and complete my coursework with outstanding marks so that I can graduate with honors.
The degree to which I succeed in these endeavors will influence my success in applying to graduate school. For that reason, I am ignoring the more typical, mundane resolutions (e.g. learning the drums or getting a car) this New Year's.
By starting off with a full-formed blog post, I hope to establish a pattern of disciplined regularity in my writing that will be essential to achieving the desired outcome in all of the upcoming tasks.
Speaking of my writing, Friday will mark the one-year anniversary of this blog. In that time, I will have made more than 51 posts or approximately one post per week!
That may not be the daily or twice-weekly pace that I had originally hoped for but it is a marked improvement over my progress at the old Livejournal site (60 posts in the course of three-and-a-half years).
On a final note, I chanced across two great articles in the American Conservative (one of the few right-wing publications that offers genuine intellectual output) today. One on the futility of neo-con "you're with us or against us" foreign policy thinking and the other, by Andrew Bacevich on America's alienation from its entangling conflicts, a complement to my piece last January on the fin-de-siecle.
Read up, comment and welcome to 2014, landofrye's second year on blogger!
2014 will confront me with several testy but exciting challenges.
In the next twelve months, I will need to complete a Bachelor's thesis, take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) Graduate School Examination, find a full-time career for after I graduate and complete my coursework with outstanding marks so that I can graduate with honors.
The degree to which I succeed in these endeavors will influence my success in applying to graduate school. For that reason, I am ignoring the more typical, mundane resolutions (e.g. learning the drums or getting a car) this New Year's.
By starting off with a full-formed blog post, I hope to establish a pattern of disciplined regularity in my writing that will be essential to achieving the desired outcome in all of the upcoming tasks.
Speaking of my writing, Friday will mark the one-year anniversary of this blog. In that time, I will have made more than 51 posts or approximately one post per week!
That may not be the daily or twice-weekly pace that I had originally hoped for but it is a marked improvement over my progress at the old Livejournal site (60 posts in the course of three-and-a-half years).
On a final note, I chanced across two great articles in the American Conservative (one of the few right-wing publications that offers genuine intellectual output) today. One on the futility of neo-con "you're with us or against us" foreign policy thinking and the other, by Andrew Bacevich on America's alienation from its entangling conflicts, a complement to my piece last January on the fin-de-siecle.
Read up, comment and welcome to 2014, landofrye's second year on blogger!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)