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Go Home Tel Aviv Journal: The Baby Stopped Crying When the Siren...

TEL AVIV JOURNAL MAY 10, 2011

Tel Aviv Journal: The Baby Stopped Crying When the Siren Sounded

BY MARTIN PERETZ

 ... and the dog ceased his barking. I actually began to weep softly only when the siren stopped. It was 11 a.m., Monday, and for two minutes all Israel—but not, I admit, its Arabs—ceased what they were doing and stood, quietly, introspectively, in camaraderie and in remembrance. This was Yom Hazikaron, the memorial day for the Jewish state and the Jewish nation. Ceremonies were held throughout the country—a tiny country, I do not hesitate to remind you—for whose survival 22,867 soldiers had fallen in battle since 1948. Another 2,500 men and women lost their lives to terror during this period.

I was on Sheinkin Street in Tel Aviv, a young people's street, akin to Bleecker in New York or possibly Dupont Circle in Washington, where hip meets the more conventional, possibly with indifference but altogether without hostility. When the siren began everybody stopped, everything stopped. Cars stopped, and drivers got out to stand at attention, more or less. Motorcyclists and bike riders dismounted. Shoppers came out into the street. One woman was still buttoning up the dress she had just tried on in a fashionable boutique. A couple who were kissing cut their kissing short ... but returned to their embrace when the sonorous silence ended.

A friend told me later that on the highways, too, most motorists stopped the engines of their automobiles and trucks: Idling might upset the eerie calm of the moment.

All Israel was quiet, and most Israelis I believe were contemplating their past. Their present. Their future. Would the strong young man with long hair and a ringlet in his nose—the man who runs the fruit juice stand where Sheinkin meets Lord Melchett—have to go to war again? Will he survive? Or be crippled or maimed?

The shadow is over them, no doubt.

The background of their world is tense. The ultra-orthodox, who cannot enjoy life, aside. And the diminishing number of alienated leftist intellectuals who enjoy their alienation as a well-spring of their superiority ... also aside. Plus one more aside: the right which thinks it has to fulfill both prophecy and geography.

This is a sweet society. Sweet to one another, if they also wish to be sweet to themselves.

They look around at their neighbors across each and every one of their frontiers, and they tremble. Not for themselves so much. But for them, the other.

Martin Peretz is editor-in-chief emeritus of The New Republic.

Follow @tnr on Twitter.

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20 comments

TNR giving a racist pages to waste.... From the Brandeis Community: Dear Marty Peretz '59, Your recent remarks are appalling, and do not reflect the values of the broader Brandeis community. Recently, in your September 4th column, you claimed that Muslims don't value human life, that they are soft on terrorism, and that you wish to strip them of their First Amendment Rights. That was unacceptable, irresponsible, and wrong. Mr. Peretz, your name and likeness is used in our admissions materials, the University lists you among its most prestigious alumni, and not two years ago you accepted a Distinguished Alumni award from us. For better or worse, your actions reflect on us. Brandeis University stands for love, not hate. Brandeis stands for respecting the truth. Brandeis stands for recognizing the humanity in others. We value our Muslim community members here; they are part of our broad family. If nothing else, this University was founded to fight back against discrimination, bigotry, and fear of minorities. Attacking people's First Amendment rights is un-American, un-Brandeisian, and unethical. You're hurting us. You're hurting our Islamic community members, our pride in you, and our good name. We, the united Brandeis community, respectfully and firmly demand you apologize.

- MSA70

May 10, 2011 at 9:16am

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MSA70 the letter is sponsored M.J. Rosenberg an anti Israel bigot. It's hardly a "Brandeis" university letter. It says a lot about the above poster that he commented about this letter on a post dealing with the observance of Yom Hashoah in Israel.

- arnon

May 10, 2011 at 9:39am

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The disingenuous comment by MNA70 is another reason why comments on many articles shouold not be allowed. Let him post his Jew hating views on M.J. Rosenberg or some Islamic website.

- Newly84

May 10, 2011 at 9:42am

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I don't agree that all comments should be banned, because of those of a few Israel haters. Very few people take Rosenberg seriously and fewer still agree with him.

- arnon

May 10, 2011 at 9:45am

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Come on, Arnon. MJ Rosenberg endorsed Helen Thomas MJ Rosenberg. "Why Did Obama Diss Helen Thomas?" He is a repulsive insect.

- Newly84

May 10, 2011 at 9:50am

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Here is a link to the previous post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/why-did-obama-diss-helen_b_165544.html

- Newly84

May 10, 2011 at 9:51am

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Well his endorsment of Helen Thomas tells us that he is not a credible poster on Israel. Actually letting him and his supporter post is the best of exposing his lies. Here is another article about him: "MJ Rosenberg Lies, Deceives" http://www.thejewishnewsplace.com/blogs/bloggers/entry/mj-rosenberg-lies-deceives.html

- arnon

May 10, 2011 at 9:57am

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I am always interested in learning of a cultural and/or political event that unites otherwise diverse people, albeit briefly. I am amazed at the idea that different individuals came collectively to the same moment; is it through education or some thing else? As an aside that may be no aside at all, I don't think of myself as looking forward to the demise of the State of Israel.

- Doug12

May 10, 2011 at 10:56am

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It's not Yom Hashoah that Peretz is commemorating. It's Yom Hazikaron, remembrance day for the fallen soldiers in Israel's wars. MSA70's comment is thoroughly tasteless and irrelevant. Unless he intends to suggest that mourning the loss of the 22,867 young lives and 2,500 victims of Arab terrorism is tantamount to racism.

- noga1

May 10, 2011 at 11:02am

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"As an aside that may be no aside at all, I don't think of myself as looking forward to the demise of the State of Israel." Thanks for such an assurance, doug. Let me reciprocate by saying that I don't think of myself as looking forward to the demise of the United States of America.

- noga1

May 10, 2011 at 11:04am

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It's worth noting that some groups of ultra-Orthodox in Israel don't respect the two minutes of silence for Yom HiZikaron either.

- mgorvine

May 10, 2011 at 11:29am

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It's worth having posters like MSA70 around, if only to remind the rest of us how little empathy there is for Israel in the world, even in its most poignant moments of sorrow and solemnity. One can imagine MSA70 waiting breathlessly at his computer for the next post by Marty so that he can first to smear him. Hopefully there is a place in hell for these bold PC warriors in the front lines of the struggle against racism and Islamophobia...

- willjames77

May 10, 2011 at 12:34pm

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"He is a repulsive insect" Why do these conversations always devolve into animalistic comparisons? Whichever side one comes down on, it's deeply disturbing, I must say.

- bunthorne

May 10, 2011 at 1:18pm

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"Whichever side one comes down on, it's deeply disturbing, I must say." I'm not too enamoured myself with statements like "repulsive insect" to describe people who apologize for the Helen Thomas and others like her, for the simple reason that it doesn't really deliver the quality and depth of that moral repulsiveness. Insects do not have judgments and cannot think.

- noga1

May 10, 2011 at 1:46pm

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Insects are repulsive not because they do "not have judgments" but because some of them carry diseases harmful to people.

- arnon

May 10, 2011 at 6:36pm

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"Amnesty International, MEMO and the Palestinian writer who calls Jews 'kikes'" http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelweiss/100087135/amnesty-international-memo-and-the-palestinian-writer-who-calls-jews-kikes/

- arnon

May 10, 2011 at 6:37pm

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I personally am amused to no end that MSA70 has put money into Marty's pocket by buying a subscription just in order to type something that everyone here will mock. I think Marty missed a good chance here, for the first time in a generation (since Sadat crossed the desert) is there cause for optimism. Gadhafi is soon to join Osama Bin Laden, Assad is now worried about surviving, Achmed and Khameni are feuding. The chances for war are less than anytime in recent memory.

- blackton

May 10, 2011 at 8:01pm

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Beautiful article of Martin Peretz. Full of love. The pinnacle of Jewish love for the jewel that is Israel for us the Jews. Hear it and hear it well no enemy of Israel will harm us either with venomous words or real arms.

- JAIMECHUCH

May 10, 2011 at 9:41pm

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Once again: The point Marty was trying to make, however ineloquently, was that people in the Muslim world care little about their brethren's suffering. For this he has been called many names. I have not heard anyone call him wrong.

- drheingold

May 11, 2011 at 3:18am

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Sincere and touching Marty. In just a few short paragraphs you've given a good sense of the place. Great post.

- IggyPop

May 11, 2011 at 4:35pm

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