September 2, 2017 A FEW days ago I found myself in Caesarea, sitting in a restaurant and looking out over the sea. The sunbeams were dancing on the little waves, the mysterious ruins of the ancient town arrayed behind me . It was hot, but not too hot, and I was thinking about the crusaders. Caesarea was built by King Herod some 2000 years ago and named after his … Read more Uri Avnery: Crusaders & Zionists
It seems useful at this point in time to remind ourselves of some of Hannah Arendt thinking — thinking that here turns around the American revolution, its political system & constitution.
November 5, 2016 The Lesser Evil WHO WILL win the elections in the US in three days? I know for sure. No need to ask the public opinion polls, the modern equivalent of the Roman interpreters of animal entrails and the more modern readers of coffee grounds. The polls are no more exact. The winner will be the PLE – the Party of Lesser Evil. Or, in … Read more Uri Avnery on The Need to Vote, or, The Lesser Evil
The Malady of Islam by Abdelwahab Meddeb translated from the French by Pierre Joris and Charlotte Mandell (7th installment) P A R T II A Genealogy of Fundamentalism 14 In a text published a few months before her death, Simone Weil warned with great lucidity that “an Americanization of Europe would certainly prepare an Americanization of the whole earth.” [1] She also foresaw the role America would play in the advent … Read more Abdelwahab Meddeb: The Malady of Islam (7)
The Malady of Islam by Abdelwahab Meddeb translated from the French by Pierre Joris and Charlotte Mandell (5th installment) P A R T II A Genealogy of Fundamentalism 9 To throw light on the genesis of Saudi Arabia and the formation of its ideology, it is necessary to go far back in the course of history. Before returning to the eighteenth century, one has to go as far back as … Read more Abdelwahab Meddeb: The Malady of Islam (5)
27.12.14 My Glorious Brothers WHEN I was 15 years old and a member of the Irgun underground (by today’s criteria, an honest-to-goodness terrorist organization), we sang “(In the past) we had the heroes / Bar Kochba and the Maccabees / Now we have the new ones / The national youth…” The melody was a German military marching song. Why did we look for heroes in the remote past? We … Read more Uri Avnery on the Maccabees & more
THE HOLOCAUST EXPERIENCE IN THE POETRY OF PAUL CELAN A conversation with Pierre Joris, moderated by Al Filreis KELLY WRITERS HOUSE Wexler Family Program 6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe hosted by: Al Filreis I’ll be in conversation with Al Filreis concerning what I consider the very often oversimplified views of the experience of Khurbn — to use Jerome Rothenberg’s “dark word” which I prefer to either “holocaust” or “Shoa” … Read more Talking of Celan in Philadelphia Tomorrow
Last night we went with old friend Jean Cormier (author of several books & videos on the Che, among many other writings) to Ivry (one of the last communist held suburbs of Paris) to catch a play in remembrance of 11 September 1973, the day the democratically elected government of Chili was overthrown by a CIA initiated coup, in which President Salvador Allende died & General Pinochet came to … Read more The Other 9/11 — Forty Years Already!
The Guardian obit is here. I’ll reread some pages from The Age of Extremes in his honor today. Via Spartacus Educational, here is a short bio of the great historian: Eric Hobsbawm, the son of a Jewish tradesman, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on 9th June, 1917. After the First World War ended his parents moved to Austria. By the time he was thirteen, both his parents had died. He went to live with his aunt … Read more Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012)
via signandsight: 27/02/2012 No one is indestructible Just as we are unable to coherently piece together parts of our own lives, it is impossible to neatly assemble the pieces of this formidable novel – three books, thirty-nine chapters, 1724 pages with sudden breaks and links – which initially seems to be an irresponsible scattering of people and motifs. Because the many stories really do run parallel to each other, … Read more Joachim Sartorius on Peter Nadas