[HANASHIR:11286] Re: Arab Peace Songs

[Shirona <shirona...>]

Rosalie and all,

I'm amazed at how much energy some of us are willing to spend in trying to 
"make everything OK"...  The apparent lack of Arabic peace songs is just the 
tip of the iceberg.  Of course if you look hard enough you'll find a song here, 
a book there.  But that is not the point!  

If we refuse to learn the lessons of history - then we're pretty stupid, I hate 
to put it that way.  Go back 60, 70 years.  Germany was one of the most 
"enlightened" nations in the world.  You could find truckloads of songs, books, 
essays - you name it, in favor of peace, love and the brotherhood of mankind.  
No one in the western, "enlightened" world could believe that a bunch of thugs 
such as the Nazis could seize power... need I say more?   If all of us were 
having this conversation back then, ( face to face... not virtually) then 
people like myself or Sholom would be ridiculed as "alarmists"... or condemned 
for not "building bridges".  The tragedy of European Jewry was that millions 
refused to believe that harm would come their way.  Those who had the wisdom 
and foresight left in time...and the rest is history.  Sorry, I didn't mean 
that as a pun.

Back then the Nazis were a very loud, hateful minority... and they won!  They 
got to carry out their plan, while the world was wringing it's hands in 
disbelief. Or maybe not. Who knows how many "enlightened" people were secretly 
pleased that Jews were being murdered.

So who can guarantee us now - that this would not happen again?

It's time to wake up and smell the Kah'wa.  That's coffee in Arabic. Hundreds 
of millions of people out there hate us and want to kill us.  It's as simple as 
that.  So maybe we should stop making excuses for them, or investing precious 
energy in trying to prove to our fearful selves that deep down we're all the 
same - because maybe we're not. And we should stop dismissing the power of the 
"vocal minority", the fundamental Islamic extremists... see above.

Shirona
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Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
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Listen to my music at www.mp3.com/shirona
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rosalie Boxt 
  To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 10:53 AM
  Subject: [HANASHIR:11279] Arab Peace Songs


  I finally felt I had to weigh in on the discussion of Arab peace songs.  I 
agree with both Judah and Shirona.  While we have to be aware and cannot ignore 
the anti-semitism that is rampant in the Arab world (as well as Europe and 
parts of this country) we also cannot unequivically say that we are aware of 
the entirety of a situation.  

  I can't help but think about the one-sided media portrayal in Arab nations, 
and the lack of free and democratic press there.  We may be unaware of Arab 
songs yearning for peace for the same reason -- they are kept underground, or 
we simply are not aware of them.  But just as we all would encourage (and do 
vocally) each other and people of the world to become educated and look more 
deeply into an issue to find "truth" (what ever that is) or minimally more 
information than is presented on the surface, we might be surprised about what 
we discover if we do the same about the Arab community.  This is not to deny 
Shirona's and Sholom's point -- they are accurate.  But one accuracy does not 
deny another reality -- we must search for information that is not easily 
available in order to keep ourselves truly democratic and peace seeking.

  This is the only issue I've responded to in the past few weeks, on any list 
discussing Israel, probably because it is less emotional and more easy to 
"bear" and discuss than much else for me.

  Praying for peace,
  Rosalie
  ----------------------------------------------------
  Rosalie Boxt, Cantor
  Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD
  301-942-2000
  cantorboxt (at) erols(dot)com