I originally wrote this on Monday morning, but since I was leaving for two days, I didn't want to send it and then walk out of the potential flurry of discussion. I'm back and ready to field discussion. I want to know what others think. "Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock" Complete story at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1361755,00.html At first glance, this could be an "Onion" headline, but this story is more disturbing [to me], not because of what happened, but because of the reason that "Israel" was shocked. Here is what is disturbing to me: <clip> The violinist, Wissam Tayem, was on his way to a music lesson near Nablus when he said an Israeli officer ordered him to "play something sad" while soldiers made fun of him. After several minutes, he was told he could pass. It may be that the soldiers wanted Mr Tayem to prove he was indeed a musician walking to a lesson because, as a man under 30, he would not normally have been permitted through the checkpoint. But after the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs. The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp. The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem. Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust". <clip> [in my best Lewis Black impersonation flicking my lips to make a bdbdbdbdbdb sound] WHAT? Paul ########## Paul Stone pas@xxxxxxxx Kingsville, ON, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html