It's In

My letter on "Jerusalem of Gold":-

Emptiness waiting to be filled

Sir, - Carol Novis wrote of "Jerusalem of Gold" that "critics have noted that the marketplace and Temple Mount were far from empty, as Shemer suggested; we just didn't see the Arabs who filled the place" ("Songs of our times," May 13).

But the point Naomi Shemer was making was that those places were indeed empty - not of Arabs, but of Jews. Despite UN assurances and other international guarantees, the Arabs who were in the city's eastern neighborhoods until 1967 refused Jews our right of access to the Western Wall, destroyed our synagogues and desecrated our cemeteries on the Mt. of Olives.

Today the Old City marketplace is not bustling with Jews either, but that is because of Arab terror stabbings and Israel's security failures. And the Temple Mount does not yet have a shofar blowing or Jews praying on it because Israel actually discriminates against Jews.

Given this situation, "Jerusalem of Gold" will remain our substitute anthem and our most popular song because our national aspirations remain partly unfulfilled.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shilo

An Empty Feeling

Songs of our times
Carol Novis

"...Last week, a quarter of a million Israelis watched a television show on Channel 1 which featured the best Israeli songs since 1948, chosen by vote. No pub songs were in evidence. Instead, the top three choices - Naomi Shemer's "Jerusalem of Gold," Shmuel Hasfari's "Children of Winter '73" and Haim Guri's "Song of Friendship" - reflected nothing more strongly than the ambivalence many Israelis feel about the state of their country, 60 years on. The songs bear a burden of more than the sum of their lyrics and melodies; they encapsulate concerns about what is, what was and what will become of Israel in the years ahead.

On the face of it, "Jerusalem of Gold," which was also chosen as the "Song of the Jubilee" on Israel's 50th Independence Day, was not a surprising choice. At the 1967 Israel Song Festival shortly before the Six Day War, the sweet, pure voice of young soldier Shuly Natan captured the gestalt of its time and the song become a classic. Over the years there have even been suggestions that "Jerusalem of Gold," with its biblical and nationalistic references such as the sounding of the ram's horn on the Temple Mount, replace "Hatikvah" as Israel's national anthem.

But what seemed simple then has come to seem much more complex since. Critics have noted that the marketplace and Temple Mount were far from empty as Shemer suggested; we just didn't see the Arabs who filled the place. And today, many of the song's references come across as ironic. The road to Jericho from Jerusalem may be open, but many Israelis prefer to avoid it. Not too many Jews have in fact returned to the Temple Mount or to the markets of East Jerusalem, which is divided by an invisible line from the rest of the city. What was seen then as unification is referred to by some today as occupation.

SO WHY was "Jerusalem of Gold" voted the best Israeli song ever? Perhaps because the choice reflects a wistful longing for a simpler time, when Israel could win a great victory and the support of most of the world by virtue of its superior determination and moral right.

I wrote:

Carol Novis writes of Naomi Shemer's "Jerusalem of Gold" that "critics have noted that the marketplace and Temple Mount were far from empty as Shemer suggested; we just didn't see the Arabs who filled the place" ("Songs of our times", May 13).

But the point Shemer was making was that those places were indeed empty - but of Jews and foremost of Jews. Despite UN assurances and other international guarantees, the Arabs who were in the city's eastern neighborhoods until 1967 refused we Jews our rights of access to the Western Wall, destroyed our synagogues and desecrated our cemeteries on Mt. of Olives. Yes, today, the Old City marketplace is not bustling with Jews but that is because of Arab terror stabbings and Israel's security failures. And, yes, the Temple Mount does not yet have a shofar blowing or Jews praying on it but that is because Israel discriminates against Jews.

Given this situation, "Jerusalem of Gold" will remain our substitute anthem and our most popular song because our national aspirations, still partially empty, need to be fulfilled.

Pound for Pound, Barnea's the Crypto-Fascist

The following lines are from an op-ed written by Nahum Barnea in Yedioth Ahronot entitled מיטב השיר - כזבו on June 28, 2004.

It is a reaction to the passing of Naomi Shemer.

ארץ-ישראל היתה בשבילה ארץ חד-לאומית, נטולת עימותים, נטולת מיעוטים. עסקה חד-צדדית, ליהודים בלבד. אפילו המלחמות, שאליהן יצאנו חמושים בשיריה, היו חד-צדדיות. לא אויב עמד מולנו, אלא ארץ בתולה מחכה לכיבוש. בשלב מסוים בחייה היא אימצה השקפות קיצוניות. הן הלכו הרבה מעבר לוויכוח על השטחים. "הערבים" אמרה, "אוהבים את הרצח שלהם חם, לח, ומהביל. אם יהיה להם אי-פעם החופש להגשים את עצמם, אנחנו נתגעגע לגזים הטובים והסטריליים של הגרמנים". הדמוקרטיה היתה בעיניה "פיקציה". ישראל, אמרה, "היא לא מדינה דמוקרטית. היא מדינה יהודית", ועוד ועוד.

ההתבטאויות האלה היו חשובות רק משום שנעמי שמר הייתה אייקון תרבותי, אדם שנוהים אחר כל מילה שלו. היא לא היתה המשוררת הראשונה שנסחפה לקצה ההזוי של הימין. זה קרה, בנסיבות חמורות לאין שיעור, לעזרא פאונד, מגדולי המשוררים האמריקנים. פאונד הפך לאוהד נלהב של הפאשיזם ותועמלן אנטישמי. היום, שנים לאחר מותו, האמריקנים מעריצים את שירתו ולא שוכחים לו את חטאיו.

My translation:

Eretz-Yisrael for her was uni-national, lacking in conflict, lacking in minorities. One-way only. Only for Jews. Even the wars to which we went out to, armed with her songs, were one-sided. There was no enemy facing us but only a virgin land waiting to be conquered. At one point in her life, she adopted extreme viewpoints. They went beyond the argument over the 'territories'. "The Arabs," she said, "like their murder hot, wet and steaming. If they ever achieve the freedom to fulfill themselves, we'll long for the sterile good gases of the Germans. 'Democracy' in her eyes was a fiction. Israel, she said, "is not a democtratic state but a Jewish one." Etc., etc., etc.

These expression sare important only because Shemer was a cultural icon, a person whom people follow hanging on their every word. She wasn't the first poet to become swept up at the end of the fantasy right-wing. This happened, in much worse circumstances, to Ezra Pound, one of America's greatest poets. Pound became an enthusiastic admirer of fascism and an anti-semetic propagandist. Today, Americans recall hi spoetry but don't forgive him his sins".

Three years previously, he penned these words:-

"נדמה שכל אדם שאיננו נגוע בגזענות קשה יעשה מעשה אזרחי טוב, אם כאשר יראה את נעמי שמר פוסעת במדרכה ממול, יעבור למדרכה השניה." - כך כתב נחום ברנע במאמרו תחת הכותרת "הערבים, הנאצים ונעמי שמר" [ידיעות אחרונות, ו' בחשון תשס"ב, 23.10.01].

Again, my translation:

It would appear that any person untainted by harsh racism would commit a act of good citizenry if, when he spies Naomi Shemer, that he cross over to the opposite sidewalk". ["Arabs, Nazis and Naomi Shemer", Yedioth Ahronot, October 23, 2001]

All this just to inform you that Nahum Barnea is the recipient of this year's Israel Prize for Media.

Luckily for Naomi Shemer, she already had been awarded the Israel Prize for Composition and is no longer among the living to see her enemy be granted the prize she won, the hard way - not like Barnea who earned his by virtue of the branja, the guild/old boys club, with radical left-winger Motti Kirschenbaum and also Ilana Dayan as members of the nominations committee with Yuli Tamir as Minister of Education.