Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002
A timely and powerful letter to the world by an Israeli Open letter to the world by Ariel Ben Attar, an Israeli.
Dear World, I understand that you are upset by us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry (Outraged?). Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset by us. Today, it is the "brutal repression of the Palestinians"; yesterday it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War and the Sinai campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily. Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we- the Jewish people - upset you. We upset a German people who elected Hitler and upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians and Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset. We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us. For centuries, we upset a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through inquisitions, and we upset the arch-enemy of the church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.
And it is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish state. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you and disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you and thus love you - and have you love us? And so we decided to come home - to the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset.
> Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please. Having left you and your pogroms and inquisitions and crusades and holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state, we continue to upset you. You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The "radical" Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset. Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920 and 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered tens of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron in 1929. Dear world, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots between 1936-39? Was it because Arabs were upset over 1967? And when you, world, proposed a UN Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a "Palestinian State" alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried "no" and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that "upset" caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of "upset" then?
The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who - when they had all the territories they now demand be given to them for their state - attempted to drive the Jewish state into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "itbach-al-yahud" (Massacre the Jew!) that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today, but we should not "repress" them.
Dear world, you stood by during the holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres. You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. A nd since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians dream daily of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well - think of how many times in the past you bothered us. In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.
Ariel Ben Attar, Israel
November 2001, Israel kills Palestinians, Palestinians kill Israelis, without end, the Israeli regime still thinks that strength shall solve every thing but it won't, Israel must know that a people who is fighting for independence won't stop, the Palestinians must have their country, it'll be for the benefit of both sides, the sooner the better.
October 2001, New York, nothing works here, America is in total panic, nine !!! cases of anthrax were diagnosed in the whole US, a nation of about 300 millions people, nobody goes to the post office, nobody fly, people are buying antibiotics on the black market, what are they going to do when a real disaster shall happen ?
1 August 2001, this was sent to me by Kim, a friend an a Boeing 777 captain.
If a picture is worth ten thousand words(Confucius), Then one twenty-five-hundredth of a picture should be worth four words. And if Helen of Troy had the face that launced a thousand ships, and a picture is worth ten thousand words, Doesn't that mean one picture of Helen's face should be worse ten million ships ? And, if the night has a thousand eyes, and getting there is half the fun, that means to have fun getting there at night would require five hundred eyes. And if getting there is half the fun, and half the loaf is better than none, would getting halfway there with a whole loaf be more or less fun ?. And if half a loaf is better than none, the night has a thousand eyes , a picture is worth ten thousand words, getting there is half the fun, and Helen of Troy had a face that launced a thousand ships, then : In a picture taken at night from a ship that is halfway there, how much fun would Helen be having if she were holding a full loaf ? And could you see it in her eyes ? OK, now suppose Helen ofTroy lived in a halfway house...............
Coffee for instance: Coming to the US, listening to the radio and the tv, one hears all the time adds about coffee, how good it is to the last drop, someone from around the Mediterranean or from South America cant drink this coffee, it's a muddy brown drink, no taste no color and no smell. Some 10 years ago a lot of espresso bars opened for the taste of coffee you couldn't find here, the Americans are starting to recognize it, Starbuck's coffee bars popped out on every corner, Starbuck is an American or Canadian firm, this is the best coffee for the American people but the worst of the good coffees, Americans don't have time, they are always running so they take the coffee out with paper cups to drink in the office, the people who work at this establishment has a list of 5 or 6 kind of coffees, one chooses and get what he asked for, you cannot change, you cannot add, it will take time and they'll learn what coffee is all about.
This was sent to me by Ronnie Setter an Artist and a friend.
THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS MEXICAN 1. His first name was Jesus 2. He was bilingual 3. He was always being harassed by the authorities. THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS BLACK 1. He called everybody "brother" 2. He liked Gospel 3. He couldn't get a fair trial THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS JEWISH 1. He went into His Father's business 2. He lived at home until he was 33 3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin, and his Mother was sure he was God. THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS ITALIAN 1. He talked with his hands 2. He had wine with every meal 3. He used olive oil THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS A CALIFORNIAN 1. He never cut his hair 2. He walked around barefoot 3. He started a new religion THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS IRISH 1. He never got married 2. He was always telling stories 3. He loved green pastures AND NOW - Get ready for the Most Compelling Evidence (Are you ready for this? - Are Ya sure?) THREE PROOFS THAT JESUS WAS A WOMAN 1. He had to feed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was no food. 2. He kept trying to get the message across to a bunch of men who JUST DIDN'T GET IT. 3. Even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was more work for him to do.
This was sent by Kim a 747/400 captain and a friend:
The Beer Prayer Our lager, Which art in barrels, Hallowed be thy drink, Thy will be drunk, (I will be drunk), At home as I am in the tavern. Give us this day our foamy head, And forgive us our spillages, As we forgive those who spill against us, and lead us not to incarceration, But deliver us from hangovers, For thine is the beer, The bitter and the lager, Forever and ever, Barmen.
This was sent by Kim, a 747 400 captain:
"It is not necessarily impossible for human beings to fly, but it so happens that God didn't give them the knowledge of how to do it. It follows therefore, that anyone who claims he can fly must have sought the aid of the devil. To attempt to fly is therefore sinful."
-- Roger Bacon, a 13th-century philosopher
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