laughing and crying

I think I know why Dr. Weil makes you do news fasts. Because reading the newspaper can make me so angry, listening to the news on television as background music makes my stomach muscles go tense.

Yesterday morning I read the papers and someone I had been friendly with in my early years in Israel, when I was more politically "right wing," was interviewed as being part of the group that issued a Pulsa Denura on Arik Sharon last July around the time the disengagement from Gaza happened. This is a kabbalistic death curse, and they claim that because of this curse, Sharon is in the situation he is right at this moment. A friend of that particular guy called my husband that morning. I yelled into the phone how disgusting it was to resort to those tactics. How can a Jew go against another Jew in that manner? Of course, they were pissed at the disengagement. Why resort to this shit? Why not vote him out of office like normal people? Hubby grabbed the phone from me - "the police will be coming for him. I can hear the sirens now."

Then there was the sad response by an 83 year old Holocaust survivor to last week's article about police brutality in Jerusalem - where police tied a Palestinians hands to his mule (his crime? He did not have a permit to be in "West" Jerusalem) and the mule dragged him for hours back to his village, where he died of his wounds. The survivor wrote how he once saw the Germans do this to a 16 year old girl when questioning her about the whereabouts of partisans. They tied her hands to a horse and then made it gallop. The man continued "The basis for a sane and nonviolent life is, among other things, education toward a humane attitude toward every person, because he is a human being, even if he is a member of a nation with whom we are at war"

I cried reading the touching New Year's short story from Sayed Kashua in Haaretz.

I cried when someone at a wedding called me a self-hating Jew because I love the Palestinians as much as the Jews.

But I also laughed when I was at the two weddings on Thursday night. It was Hilltop Youth meeting Palestinians. The parents of both weddings are involved in interfaith and peace work. They are Orthodox Jews. So quite a number of Palestinians that I knew were invited as well. The bands played traditional music. There were dividers on the dance floor so that the sexes could be segregated for dancing. The Arab women felt comfortable dancing that way. I grabbed Ibtisam's hand. She wore traditional Arab garb, being a devout Moslem. Together we walked towards the women's section, where Jewish women were already dancing wildly in a circle. They smiled at her. I swear I could read their thoughts about Ibtisam- "She probably isn't all that bad if she's invited to this wedding." Others joined us. We danced in a circle with the groom's mother. The band played a lively tune. The words were a common, well-known Jewish prayer - Yibane, Yibane, Yibane Beit Hamikdash. Tanslated - May the Temple be rebuilt. All the Palestinian women were dancing like mad in that circle. To that song. Everyone was smiling. Not only was I smiling, I was laughing hysterically. Did they know what they were dancing to?? Obviously not.

I relayed this back to Hubby who wasn't at the weddings.

"I could have very well been in the same situation when I danced with the Palestinians from Nablus during our Interfaith weekends. Who knew what they were singing. For all I know I could have been dancing to "In blood and fire will we redeem the land".

But like my Palestinian sisters - it didn't matter what it was we were dancing to - even if we don't agree to the content of the songs - perhaps even horrified at its content. What mattered was that we were just happy to be dancing together.