This year in Egypt

Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 22:21

Last night marked the beginning of Passover, the holiday where Jews around the world celebrate the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt. I am, of course, in Egypt.

I’m not really celebrating this year. In fact, I’m not celebrating at all. Last night I tried to go to a seder at one of the few remaining synagogues in Cairo, but I wasn’t allowed to enter. (I suspect that at least part of the reason I was turned away was because I told security outside that I’m a journalist. I won’t prove them right by writing on the Internet about the seder or the synagogue.)

I understand that security is an important issue for the small (and shrinking) Jewish community here. It was just a few weeks ago that some crazy threw a homemade bomb at the main synagogue downtown. But I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to celebrate one of my favorite holidays—particularly one in which observers open their doors to symbolize inviting guests to the table.

Then again, I’m not sure I how I could celebrate Passover in Egypt. An important part of the seder service is, basically, celebrating the Jewish victory over the Egyptians. At its most grisly, this involves commemorating the ten plagues that God cast upon the Egyptians, culminating in the death of the first-born. The killing of civilians is something I always object to.

Of course we’re dealing with Biblical times here, when things were bloody and there was a lot of smiting going on. But there’s still something uncomfortable about glorifying the punishment that befell the Egyptian masses, especially when you’re in Egypt, surrounded by the Egyptian masses. Yeah, my boss can be a slave driver, but does that mean I want his first born dead? (As an interesting and relevant side note: “Pharoah” is the word sometimes employed by hardline Islamists to describe the Mubarak regime and other ‘secular’ dictatorships in the Middle East.)

And then there is Israel, which has been an ever-present issue in my mind for every Passover in the last few years. Passover is not just about the escape from Egypt, it is about its end point: the promised land of Israel. This doesn’t mean that observing seder is an endorsement of Zionism, but it gives context to notions of Jewish “homeland” in Palestine. The seder ends with the phrase “Next year in Jerusalem.” It’s a concept I’ve always found problematic but fascinating (hence the name of this blog).

Jerusalem is the holy city for Jews. Does this justify house demolitions and land confiscation, arbitrary arrests and restrictions on movement? Of course not. But it helps, again, to give a context to the Israeli attachment to the city, an attachment so strong that the Israelis will take their policies to the heights of belligerence. This year, we’re having this discussion even more than usual. For a more a more religious and sentimental take on the situation than I usually have, check out Bradley Burston (a Zionist, but a bleeding heart) on how to think about Jerusalem at your seder this year.

Despite its problematic contemporary subtexts, I love the holiday. I appreciate its message about freedom and oppression and liberation. These are the values I find most important in my religion. And it’s a good opportunity to be with family and friends, drink wine, eat brisket and the gefilte fish (like a fish hotdog), and discuss the finer points of oppression. I’ll miss that this year.

I also like to keep kosher for Passover, something I have done with mostly success for the past ten years. I’m going to try to do it this year, though it will be especially difficult in a country that is one of the world’s largest per capita consumers of bread. (Macaroni sandwiches, while not exactly common, are more readily available in Cairo than they are anywhere back home.) Not to mention the difficulty of getting a decent macaroon anywhere in this city.

But so it goes. I am a stranger in the land of Egypt and I guess I’ll have to adjust to the peculiarity of my situation. Next year in.

An unfortunate meme

Here’s a pretty ugly video that’s been circulating on many of the blogs that I read.  It shows a bunch of drunk, stupid American Jews in Israel incoherently trashing President Obama and his Muslim sympathies.

For someone like Phil Weiss or As’ad Abu Khalil this, can be pointed to and treated like a serious example of Zionist racism or Jewish chauvinism or whatever.  But let’s be honest here. Drunk assholes are drunk assholes and you can find them anywhere in the world saying equally stupid things. I remember seeing a lot of these types when I was in Jerusalem, nineteen year olds stumbling down Ben Yehuda Street trying to pick fights and hitting on other people’s girlfriends.  They are not worth making a point out of.

Two Liebermans are even worse than one

I just learned via Mondoweiss that Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman was in Jerusalem yesterday meeting with Avigdor Lieberman of the rightist Yisrael Beiteinu party.  Jerusalem Post and Haaretz both have the story.

Yisrael Beiteinu set up the meeting to promote the idea of making Avigdor Lieberman the Foreign Minister in the next government.  Joe doesn’t exactly endorse the idea, but doesn’t seem opposed:

“Though we’re not related by blood, we are privileged to hold positions in two great nations,” the senator said after the meeting. “I wanted to meet Lieberman, because he will play an important role in the next government, so it’s important that we in the US get to know him well.”

I find it outrageous that a United States senator is legitimating Yisrael Beiteinu, which is well known as a far right party.  Of course Washington will have to have cordial relations with whatever government is formed in Jerusalem, but Senator Lieberman should at least wait until we know who comprises that government.  Because this yesterday’s photo op at the King David is essentially campaiging for Lieberman to get the job as Foreign Minister.

But the worst part of the whole article comes in this quote from Yisrael Beiteinu spokesman (and former ambassador to the US) Danny Ayalon:

“I told him that we are the most Americanophile party,” Ayalon said. “We support drafting a constitution, an American system of government, and instituting a pledge of allegiance like America has.”

Yeah.  Sure.  Because when Lieberman says that he wants to make Arab citizens of Israel take a loyalty oath, he’s just talking about standing up at the beginning of homeroom class.  Asshole.

Please excuse our closed because for renovations…

I will be taking a hiatus from this blog, in case you couldn’t tell.  For a while I will be blogging  Near a Volcano. Helen and I will be writing and posting photographs while we are in Jerusalem.  Please join us there.

Also, check out Across the Great Divide by Ben Terris.  He is traveling around the US, working at small newspapers and talking to young people about the 2008 election.  Read this blog! You won’t regret it.

A sad day

Today a gunman killed eight people at a yeshiva in West Jerusalem.  It’s the first act of terrorism in Jerusalem in a while.  I am sorry for the victims, of course.  But moreover I am sorry for what this could bring in the future.  As I read the New York Times’ report this evening, all I can garner from it is the inevitable feeling that violence begets violence.

The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, said: “This is a sad evening for Jerusalem. We had about gotten used to quiet and calm.”

The scene outside the yeshiva was furious and passionate, with at least 50 ambulances and as many police cars on the streets outside, and angry yeshiva students and local residents lined up behind police tapes, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Olmert — you are to blame,” and “Who gave them weapons?”

Rabbi David Shalem, 43, the director of the Institute of Talmud Studies inside the yeshiva, where he has spent the last 22 years, tried to wipe his tears away. “Tomorrow instead of religious lectures there will be funerals,” he said, then shouted: “Let the government go to hell! Write that down. Let the government go to hell!”

Asked what the government should do, Rabbi Nachum Levy, 60, said, “I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand.” Where? “Everywhere, in Gaza and the north and inside,” he said, “and not dismantle settlements.”

Death to the Arabs? I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand?  Not dismantle settlements?  Please stop!  When I read these words all I can imagine is next step, the next movement in this tragic dialectical relationship.   It doesn’t help that Hamas had this to say:

In Gaza, the radical Islamic movement Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack but praised it. In a text message, Hamas said: “We bless the operation. It will not be the last.”

I hope that they are wrong.  I like to think of myself as a hardened realist, but today’s killings have sent me into an emotional tailspin.

Don’t you hate seeing pictures like these?