By AVRAHAM AVI-HAIThe beach on the coast of Ashkelon.(photo credit: NATIONAL NATURE AND PARKS AUTHORITY)
I cannot bear it anymore.The cacophony in which we live has reached unbearable decibel levels. Kindly tune it down. Simply, give it a rest. Just please stop the noise. Impose a feast of silence on our pummeled ears.Here’s a partial list of human graggers: New cabinet ministers who have not yet warmed their seats and have immediate cures for all ills.Artists who show herd-like attributes impugn others with the same simile.Would be Nobel-literary-prize-winners who speak with deep wisdom, seasoned by never having held any executive position.Television commentators who know everything about everything.Journalists who serve the interests of their masters.Masters whose riches make them more powerful than the common man with whom they are supposed to be equal.Politicians who serve their self-promotion or worse, kowtow to their paymasters.The blatant bias of most Hebrew newspapers.A police chief who conveniently uncovers crime rings and senior officers’ wrongdoing just before his term ends.The profound statements by an ex-TV-star political leader, who having solved all the problems in our economy, now broadcasts solutions for all our other ailments.Knee-jerk liberals and closed-minded conservatives who recognize every error the government makes, but themselves are never wrong.Arab politicians who do not lead their followers to organize and plan and pay for the betterment of their towns and villages.Anti-Beduin forces which push our natural allies into the camp of the aggrieved.Beduin leaders who do nothing in terms of town planning and self-help for their communities.A US president who has nothing better to do than to “elevate” the prime minister to his own unique level by debating with and attacking him.A US president aided by a cycling bumbler, who has failed in every aspect of foreign policy, but who speechifies endlessly.A prime minister who spits in the eye of the president of the United States, and sends an ambassador there who is an operative of an American political party – oh, yes – and speechifies endlessly.The bludgeoning anti-Israel Iranian idiocy and the burgeoning nuclear lies of reactionary Shi’ism.The chest-beating murderous behavior of Sunni terrorists of all ilks, tribes and fancy names.The (mainly Christian) pundits who pity the poor Islamic masses and define peaceful Islam for the Muslims.The self-congratulatory back-patting of the holier-than-thou BDSers who see only one problem in the world. Say it, hypocrites: “Darfur and Syria are not crimes against humanity. Only Israel is!” The Palestinian Authority heads running around the world barking at Israel, while the Palestinians beyond the Green Line prosper, and those who work for Jews fear to say they would prefer to stay in Israel, with its social and health benefits and reasonably honest courts.The sickening sight of one former judge convicted and one ex-district attorney investigated for serious offenses against the law.Chief rabbis and many of their ilk without any humanistic education who blather and bash their betters.The in-your-face “liberalism” of the “State of Tel Aviv” which is totalitarian ideologically, branding other points of view as anti-democratic.The in-your-face righteousness of the “right-wing” demi-fascists, often financed by state budgets for Judea and Samaria, who wish to conquer the State of Tel Aviv, and foist their norms on the entire nation.The Third Templers who wish to restore the stink of burning animals and the dishonesty of the priestly class (as shown throughout history) to a beautiful and already overburdened Jerusalem.The anti-Semitism of the Left and the Jew-hatred of the Right in a Europe changing before our eyes.The deafening silence of ex-Betarim at the betrayal of Jabotinsky’s values by fellow ex-Betar members who have been in prison or awaiting appeals.The disgusting pursuit of wealth by ex-Labor Party leaders and their shameless ostentation, similarly uncriticized by their political heirs.The pandering to a possibly pandering MK by a self-admitted panderer.The complicity of the Christian Churches in the de-Christianizing of the Middle East until it was too late, and the readiness of mainline US Churches and blathering Scottish ministers to flog Israel and ignore the needs of their own flocks.And I have not even mentioned the ignorant overseas anchors on television, radio and Internet, who go on and on and on.And on! Non-stop.Enough!!!! If my editor wants he could leave a few lines blank for you to add what I have left out. But he might have a terribly large white space print-less. So never mind, Mr. Editor.All this takes me to the English medieval song, which in modern spelling is “Summer is a-coming in/ Loud sing cuckoo!” The cuckoos have been singing loudly – ceaselessly – and now that summer is two days away, I plan to turn off the noise.But, reader, I learned something from all of this. They are all so busy blabbing and blathering, that they cannot hear. Yea, indeed: “Ears have they, but they hear not!” So I will screen it all out. They won’t shut up so I’ll just shut it out.This summer I will listen to classical music, opera and Yiddish songs. Study more Bible and Jewish history, read some Hebrew and English novels, and watch my second and third generation of Israelis continue to work to make this a better Israel. A few are in the army, most are out, and all contributing to the positive work of our reborn people. Together, we will watch over, protect and guide the fourth generation of my family growing up in this Land, who in their turn will carry on what we began.On Thursday I told the Keren Hayesod-UIA conference which honored Young Leadership recipients of an award for their outstanding work that we have all the blemishes of all other nations. Our task is to improve ourselves and our people. Individually before collectively. Humanity too will be the richer for it.Meanwhile let’s just tune it out and have a very good summer.Avraham Avi-hai, a Jerusalemite for more than six decades, was an assistant to early prime ministers, and a founding dean of the Rothberg International School at the Hebrew University. Dr. Avi-hai is an author and columnist who served two terms as world chairman of Keren Hayesod-UIA. To add to his list above write him at 2avrahams@ gmail.com.
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