Letters to the Editor of Southern Cross Review

Letters to the Editor

RE: Southern Cross Review Nr. 77

Thank you, Frank, for another strutting edition - temptation indeed from Matisse's wondrous lesson and meditation on light and form - all the way through to your two select poets. I do miss the enhancing 'y' in Blake's original 'Tyger', but two (to me new) poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay makes good compensation.

Jo Selsjord

RE: Worlds Collide in a Luxury Suite by Rebecca Solnit

Excellent excellent article! Please let the writer know I enjoyed it a lot.

From an African woman in Europe :)

RE: The Great Israeli Security Scam by Ira Chernus

Dear sir,

I must confess I am most shocked! One thing is to read a biased political view far-removed from the facts or reality of the middle-east; but to read it on a site that harbours Steiner-articles and anthroposophical discussion, which I see as being most enthusiastic in achieving truth, this is disappointing!!!

I live in Tivon, in northern Israel, and I am a student of anthroposophy for thirty years. Summer six years ago we experienced a war. For a month, there were missiles fired from Lebanon on all northern cities, with civilians killed and wounded in their homes, or on their way to work, and so forth. Because it was school holiday, many took their children and ran away to central and southern areas. My daughter and friends still suffer from the memories of sirens going up and down, that used to warn us to go into shelters. Missiles have been also fired on Shderot in the south for eight years, until "operation cast lead", two and a half years ago, has minimized this threat.

So when it is said in the article:

    “U.S. opinion-shapers have obeyed the Three Commandments scrupulously for decades. As a result, they’ve created an indelible image of Israel as a deeply insecure nation. That image is a major, if often overlooked, factor that has shaped and continues to shape Washington’s policies in the Middle East and especially the longstanding American tilt toward Israel.”

    I can only answer: Thank God this is so! One should ask from what do those "three commandments" stem from? And my answer is "from the facts of reality" as I described part of them.

    "Along with its other sources of power and influence, the right-wing Israel lobby needs a large majority of the U.S. public to believe in the myth of Israel’s insecurity as the God’s honest truth."

    "Myth Number 1: Israel’s existence is threatened by the ever-present possibility of military attack. Myth Number 2: The personal safety of every Jewish Israeli is threatened daily by the possibility of violent attack."



    Indeed a Myth, similar to Gilgamesh, or to the WWII myth. This myth is a story derived from people's experience of the facts of their life.

    Has the eminent professor that wrote the article ever experienced being under a missile attack? Or for months later needing to calm your child from the fear it will happen again? How do you give yourself permission to say these are not threats? How can you say the fear is not real? And why does the manager of the site give stage to an intention to spread views far removed from any feelings of empathy or loving understanding to the subjects involved? I feel the article is soaked with antipathy and criticism, and these only against one of the parties involved - the Israelis.

    Consequently, these ideas evoke in the reader an antipathy to Israel, as if she is to blame that there is no peace. While the opposite is true: Its Arab neighbors have declared it has no right to exist, do not show any interest in solving the problems by negotiation! When Egypt and Jordan were ready for peace- they received it!

    If tomorrow Israel will not have any weapons, there will be lots of bloodshed everywhere - Palestinians killing Israelis. If on the other hand it will be the opposite - Palestinians without any weapons - no killings will happen. This is because the weapons are needed for Israel only for self-defense in the broadest sense.

Moshe Bar-Ness

Tivon, Israel



RE: The History and Actuality of Imperialism - Hebrew

Hello,

Hereby is the link to the translation to Hebrew of the of the first lecture in the series “The History and Actuality of Imperialism”, in the internet site of our friend Daniel Zehavi: www.daniel-zehavi.co.il

In the new Hebrew Rudolf Steiner Lectures Archive in the site of Daniel:

www.daniel-zehavi.co.il/lectures/nf_lectures_knisa.asp

Thank you very much for letting the people in Israel to get acquainted with the lectures in Hebrew.

Benzion Porat

Ofaqim, Israel

RE: Only the Dead Know Brooklyn

Hi,

I followed the link to your page from the article, "Should Long Island Secede, With Brooklyn As The Capital?" in the Sheepshead Bites blog (

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2011/07/should-long-island-secede-with-brooklyn-as-the-capital/.

I thought it would be fun to let you know that when I started reading aloud from "Only The Dead Know Brooklyn" to my Bronx-bred, Brooklyn-dwelling friend, she didn't "get" it. She couldn't tell that it's phonetically written because my normal accent almost perfectly matches the style. And THAT's what was funny about it. The only thing I don't say like that is"toid" and "hoid" but I know elderly people that still do.

Sharon Cohen,

Lifelong resident of Brooklyn

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