{"id":19388,"date":"2010-08-19T04:43:19","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T18:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=19388"},"modified":"2010-08-20T04:11:39","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T18:11:39","slug":"the-best-of-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=19388","title":{"rendered":"…the best of times…"},"content":{"rendered":"

They held up a stone.
\nI said, \u201cStone,\u201d
\nSmiling they said, \u201cStone.\u201d<\/p>\n

They showed me a tree.
\nI said, \u201cTree.\u201d
\nSmiling they said, \u201cTree.\u201d<\/p>\n

They shed a man\u2019s blood.
\nI said, \u201cBlood.\u201d
\nSmiling, they said, \u201cPaint.\u201d<\/p>\n

They shed a man\u2019s blood.
\nI said, \u201cBlood.\u201d
\nSmiling, they said, \u201cPaint.\u201d<\/p>\n

~ Dannie Abse (adapted from the Hebrew of Amir Gilboa), 1982<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\u05d4\u05e0\u05d5\u05e8\u05de\u05d4 \u05e9\u05d3\u05d5\u05d1\u05e8 \u05e6\u05d4”\u05dc \u05d0\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d1\u05e0\u05d9\u05d4\u05d5 \u05de\u05db\u05d7\u05d9\u05e9<\/a> [“The Norm that IDF Spokesperson Avi Benayahu Wants to Deny”?] via<\/em> Move Over Eden Abergil. New Facebook \u201cSouvenir Pictures\u201d of Bound Palestinian Civilians<\/a>, The Magnes Zionist, August 17, 2010 — “When the IDF veterans group “Breaking the Silence” had its first photo exhibition in 2004, pictures like that were included. Once again, the IDF put a show of being shocked; once again nobody really cared.” — via<\/em> Young IDF soldier simply does what comes naturally<\/a>, Antony Loewenstein, August 18, 2010…<\/p>\n

There is \u201cgreat rejoicing at the nation\u2019s capital\u201d. So says the morning\u2019s paper.<\/p>\n

The enemy\u2019s fleet has been annihilated.<\/p>\n

Mothers are delighted because other mothers have lost sons just like their own;<\/p>\n

Wives and daughters smile at the thought of new-made widows and orphans;<\/p>\n

Strong men are full of glee because other strong men are either slain or doomed to rot alive in torments;<\/p>\n

Small boys are delirious with pride and joy as they fancy themselves thrusting swords into soft flesh, and burning and laying waste such homes as they themselves inhabit;<\/p>\n

Another capital is cast down with mourning and humiliation just in proportion as ours is raised up, and that is the very spice of our triumph\u2026<\/p>\n

This is life\u2013this is patriotism\u2013this is rapture!<\/p>\n

But we\u2013what are we, men or devils? and our Christian capital\u2013what is it but an outpost of Hell?<\/p>\n

~ Ernest Crosby, ‘War and Hell’, 1898 (at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War)<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They held up a stone. I said, \u201cStone,\u201d Smiling they said, \u201cStone.\u201d They showed me a tree. I said, \u201cTree.\u201d Smiling they said, \u201cTree.\u201d They shed a man\u2019s blood. I said, \u201cBlood.\u201d Smiling, they said, \u201cPaint.\u201d They shed a man\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,16,9,893,15],"tags":[972,180,978,980,979],"class_list":["post-19388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death","category-media","category-state","category-thats-capitalism","category-war-on-terror","tag-eden-abergil","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-the-norm-that-idf-spokesperson-avi-benayahu-wants-to-deny","tag-979"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-52I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19388"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19466,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19388\/revisions\/19466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}