Dear Palestinian brothers,Taming Korach response:
It is with a heavy heart I write to you today. Gaza is burning. The border with Israel is under fire. Children on both sides of the fence are terrified, traumatized for life, wounded in body and soul. Life!! Life is lost. Blood flows! Pain and tears and anguish abound.
How familiar it all is, my brothers? How well we know these images, this fear clutching our throats, hope slipping away from our hearts?
A new year has begun. I am sitting here near my computer in the dark night, in my home by the sea. This sea that is ours, our Mediterranean sea, our culture, we the people of wandering, we the homeless, the homesick, we the fighters ,the builders, the survivors, our dreams like waves and tide, pulled by the moon and stars to eternity.
Since that fateful day in 1994 when Rabin was murdered a few feet from me, since that awful moment, I have dedicated much of my public life to singing and speaking for peace.
I have seen the peace process rise and fall and rise like the breast of a woman breathing in the night. I have seen opportunities missed, so many missed, so many chances, so much ignorance and stubbornness and bullheadedness, so much beauty trampled under the heavy boot of pride.
I have sung and I have spoken, I have argued and I have embraced, I have been moved to tears so many times, I have made the most unlikely friends….friends I would give my right arm for, friends I would run across the border under fire to protect.
And today, today I say this; we have one joint enemy, one awful joint enemy and we must all work together to eradicate it! That enemy is fanaticism my friends. That enemy is extremism in all its ugly reincarnations and manifestations.
That enemy is all men who put “god” above life, who claim “god” as their sword and shield, who claim “god” is on THEIR side. Jews, Muslims, Christians, all share this black streak. All have fallen to this destructive, horrible fanaticism at some point in their histories and the results have been devastating.
I have often spoken out against fanaticism in my country, for I find it repulsive and unbearable. In government, in settlements, in synagogues, I am passionately against it. I have risked my career and my wellbeing for this belief.
Now I see the ugly head of fanaticism, I see it large and horrid, I see its black eyes and spine-chilling smile, I see blood on its hands and I know one of its many names :Hamas.
You know this too, my brothers. You know this ugly monster. You know it is raping your women and raping the minds of your children. You know it is educating to hatred and death.
You know it is chauvinistic and violent, greedy and selfish, it feeds on your blood and screams out Allah’s name on vain, it hides like a thief, uses the innocent as human shields, uses your mosques as arsenals, lies and cheats, uses YOU, tortures you, holds you hostage!!
I know this is true my brothers!! I know YOU know the truth!! And I know you cannot say it for fear of life so I will say it for you!! I fear nothing!!
I am privileged to live in a democracy where women are not objects but presidents, where a singer can say and do as she pleases! I know you do not have this privilege (yet…but you will, inshallah, you will…)
I know you are SICK of being held hostage by this demon, this ugly beast, not in Gaza, not in Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, not anywhere!!! You are a people destined to flourish in peace! Your majestic history is overflowing with creativity, literature science and music, endless contributions to humanity, not crippling, torturing fanaticism, yelling Jihad and Shahid!
I see you sometimes, out in the streets, demonstrating with the monsters, yelling ‘death to the Jews, death to Israel!! But I don’t believe you! I know where your heart is! It is just where mine is, with my children, with the earth, with the heavens, with music, with HOPE!! You want nothing of this but you have no choice! I see through your veil of fear my brothers, through your burka! I embrace your hopes for they are mine!
My country has made many many mistakes over the years, I have watched it miss so many opportunities, and as a citizen of this country I am the first to admit it and criticize its foolery. I demonstrate, I vote, I speak out, I sing loud and clear.
But, now, today, I know that deep in your hearts YOU WISH for the demise of this beast called Hamas who has terrorized and murdered you, who has turned Gaza into a trash heap of poverty, disease and misery. Who in the name of “allah” has sacrificed you on the bloody alter of pride and greed.
My brothers, I cry for you. I cry for us too, yes, I cry for my fellow countrymen suffering the bombs in the south and north and everywhere, I cry for the kidnapped soldiers and the murdered ones, for their bereft families, for the innocence lost forever, but I cry especially painfully for you for I know your suffering, I feel you, I feel you!!
I can only wish for you that Israel will do the job we all know needs to be done, and finally RID YOU of this cancer, this virus, this monster called fanaticism, today, called Hamas. And that these killers will find what little compassion may still exist in their hearts and STOP using you and your children as human shields for their cowardice and crimes.
And then… then, maybe, Inshallah, we will again have an opportunity… we will again pick up our broken bodies and souls and walk slowly towards each other, reach out a tired hand, look into eyes filled with tears and with a choked voice say: “Shalom. Salam. Enough. Enough my brother ….
you want some coffee? Here, sit for a while…let’s talk….we know the words, we know the songs, we know the road….
Shalom……
Salam……
With a broken heart still yearning to love,
Your friend,
Noa
I have seen the peace process rise and fall and rise like the breast of a woman breathing in the night
Taming Korach: Oh my! This is like the secular version of Song Of Songs. Are these lyrics from one of her songs?
I have often spoken out against fanaticism in my country,
Taming Korach: This is the Yeminite Jew having been forced to kiss up to secular Ashkenazi culture. This is raped Mizrachi Jew of the secular Zionist era. A mouthpiece for her Torah-hating puppeteers in Tel-Aviv.
I see you sometimes, out in the streets, demonstrating with the monsters, yelling ‘death to the Jews, death to Israel!!
Taming Korach: Is she addressing Richard Silverstein in this sentence?
I would give my right arm for,…
Taming Korach: Unfortunately some Israelis literally have given their limbs.
That enemy is extremism in all its ugly reincarnations and manifestations.
Taming Korach: Very nice-the Rambam says that evil is defined as extremism. Please teach the Arabs this as well.
That enemy is all men who put “god” above life,
Taming Korach: Actually, in Judaism, one is supposed to give one’s life not to transgress the prohibition of murder, inappropriate sexual activity, and idolatry. You are wrong. In Judaism G-d is above all else.
I cry for us too, yes, I cry for my fellow countrymen suffering the bombs in the south and north and everywhere, I cry for the kidnapped soldiers and the murdered ones, for their bereft families, for the innocence lost forever, but I cry especially painfully for you for I know your suffering, I feel you, I feel you!!
Taming Korach: You go, girl! Lil Richard and Barnacle: take notes from a real Jewess.
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Silverstein chimes in:
The level of sheer condescension and cultural superiority represented by this statement is mind-boggling. It shows that even those who speak out of heart-felt passion and concern can sometimes make fools of themselves.
Taming Korach: Sounds like he’s describing himself-the King of Self-Congradulation. How about a check-up from the neck-up before you go after others?
Passion must be informed by judgment and analysis.
Taming Korach: Yeah Rich-how about actually learning your own religion, first? Judgement and analysis from a career fund-raiser-oh yeah!
I would not vote for Hamas if I were a Palestinian.
Taming Korach: I bet Hamas would vote for you, Rich! I bet they love you-their honorary spokesman!
Is this the ultimate chutzpah or what?
Taming Korach: How about going after your “fellow Jews” in wartime? Huh?
Noa and Awad were scheduled to perform together at a Tel Aviv concert to benefit Gaza civilians but Israeli Arab and Jewish intellectuals excoriated Noa for her diatribe and she withdrew from the concert
Taming Korach: Ah-the thought police have spoken. The “intellectuals?” Yeah mean the Ashka-Gestapo?
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Later, Lil Richard points out that Nini published a follow-up:
about a week ago i posted a letter to my palestinian brothers everywhere.Silverstein comments after listing her second letter:
in my original letter, i was very harsh in my words regarding Hamas. I was pointing a finger at them clearly, this came from my gut, from the deepest, most hurting place in my heart. The reason i did that, is that the horrible stories i have heard about Hamas from my Palestinian friends who used to live in Gaza (and escaped, barely, from death by Hamas), plus the videos on youtube of hamas using children as a human shield, or throwing fatach personnel blindfolded and cuffed from the roof of a building, plus endless testimonies from Palestinians…
All of this lead me to a very harsh reaction, praying the Palestinian people would finally be released from the clutches of this horror. I have not changed my mind about atrocities, cruelty and killing, but i know that pointing fingers at names and symbols is not the solution.
…I am willing to change my mind at any moment about anyone who is willing to stand up for co-existence, freedom and mutual respect and recognition. I am willing to apologize to anyone who feels unjustly offended. I can even push aside past atrocities…
…When we in Israel sum up the evidence including the rhetoric, the 8 years of rockets, the Iran and Hezbollah threats we react in proportion to a nightmare, not just to this or that incident. I believe the same thing is true for the subjective feeling of the Palestinians and the whole Muslim world. Therefore it is their responsibility to communicate through dialog their fears to us, Israelis, so that we can take it upon ourselves to melt this iceberg of suspicion just as we want them to reassure us of their peaceful and positive intensions and melt down our fears too.
My opinion is and was always the same: i am against violence in all it forms. I am against fanaticism in all its forms. I am against finger pointing and blaming as there is no end to it and i am totally against a unilateral black and white approach to anything. I think we all have the responsibility to look the truth in the face: we all brought this catastrophe upon ourselves and now it is our responsibility to do what we can to change it! That means…exchanging negative, violent rhetoric…with a rhetoric of peace, acceptance, dialogue and joint recognition (like the Geneva initiative which i totally support). This is our only hope.
The decision i made together with Mira Awad to go to the Eurovision contest with a message of peace is part of this theory: build, give a personal example of dialogue and co-existence, not the opposite
This is better.
Taming Korach: Talk about a condescending ass of a control freak! As if we need your approval, lil rich?
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