Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land -- Part 3 -- CONTINUED

This is the 2nd part of a two-part photo-essay.

For the 1st part, please scroll downwards to the next entry
or else click here:

http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2009/03/peace-propaganda-promised-land-part-3_10.html

The Dead

(Monochrome photos from the Warsaw Ghetto, ca. 1942-43;
color from Gaza, December 2008-January 2009)

Jewish Cemetary, northwest corner of the ghetto

Victim of Israeli assault, aged 14

Bombing victim. Not decapitated but crushed to death.

The body of Dena Balosha, dead at age 4, is held by her father

Father and son.

Nice Jewish Girls

2 captured resistance fighters

Warsaw

Teacher & pupil study Palestine in a clandestine school
in the Warsaw Ghetto. Note required star on her dress,
identifying her as a Jew.

"The Little Insurgent" (not " ... Terrorist"). This monument in
Warsaw indicates--correctly--that children too fought in the
Ghetto uprising. Hamas, don't try erecting monuments like
this at home!

Jewish assassin Niuta Teitelbaum killed a number of
SS officers in Poland

Women from Warsaw Ghetto about to be shipped eastwards in
boxcars--likely to Treblinka.

Israeli woman in shock following rocket attack.

Striking Polish 2-zloty (about 50 cents) coin commemorates the
65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The resistance
fighter shown may be a composite of the two captured fighters
shown at the top of this section. The decision to represent a
woman here is interesting. In the high-relief sculpture of Warsaw's
large public monument to the Uprising, male figures predominate.

The Three Ministers of the Gaza Apocalypse at the time of the attack
(l to r): Livni (Foreign), Olmert (Prime), and Barak (Defense). Even
the name chosen for the Gaza adventure suggested that Israel
anticipated some serious mayhem: Operation Cast Lead. For
reasons still unclear to me--possibly Semitism--Olmert rejected the
Official Campaign Motto I proposed: "We'll take the lead: You take the
lead!" Of course the first rhymes with "bleed," the second with"dead."
Something about the pun not working in Arabic.

NJGs from Cincinnati transcribing names from the walls of a
Holocaust memorial just north of the Warsaw Ghetto. The
monument marks the Umschlagsplatz, a loading/unloading
area for railroad freight--including thousands of ghetto
residents shipped in box cars to concentration camps to the
east. The monument itself was designed to suggest a boxcar
with doors opened slightly.

Nice Christian Girls

Beit Jala (Bethlehem District), 1940. Note the couple's multi-ethnic,
multicultural--and likely multiconfessional-- circle of family and friends.

Christian babies are best, of course. But if one can't be obtained in time
for the ritual murder (Ritualmord), what's a rabbi to do? Not to worry.
In a pinch, a beautiful, blonde-haired, Aryan, Christian maiden will work
just fine. It's all explained clearly here in the pages of the German Nazi
paper, Der Stuermer. The paper's motto appears at the bottom:
"The Jews are Our Misfortune." Dream job #5: fact-checker for Der
Stuermer (#6: Maytag repairman).

Postscript, 3-15-09: I've just taken a long look at the headline.
Insofar as I can decipher the script and translate the language, I think
the full headline reads, "Ritual Murder! The murder of 10-year-
old Gertrud Lenhoff in Quierschied, Saarland." What a shame
poor Gertrud didn't live to reach puberty. At age 16, she probably would
have been--as the Germans say--"quite a looker"! I believe the final
pair of words is a caption, "Jew Murderer." Added for the benefit of
readers who had trouble understanding the picture. I would have
gone a step further: "Jew Murderer (top, holding knife)."

Somewhere in the Third Reich: Christmas party at the Mercedes plant.

Rudy Giuliani, self-proclaimed Hero of 9-11, Presidential aspirant, and
erstwhile mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the
world. (80 years ago, Warsaw was #2, if memory serves.) A rabid
supporter of the most warmongering and expansionist strains of Likudite
Zionism imaginable. To answer your questions: I do believe the photograph
is real, not Photoshopped. And yes, a little black dress and a simple gold
necklace with pendant cross would be in much better taste. Or pendant
Star of David, depending on the neighborhood in which you're campaigning.

Palestinian parishioner of the Holy Family Church in Ramallah
West Bank. Yes, you can be a Palestinian, an Arab, and a Christian
all at once. Happens all the time. (The photo of another NCG
appears in the first section, "The Dead." Note the cross
on her coffin.)

Bethlehem: praying at the grotto believed by the faithful to be the exact
birthplace of Jesus Christ. I am told that Moslems--following the example
of the Prophet Mohammed himself--venerate Jesus, even applying the
term Christ to him (roughly: messenger of God or divinely-inspired prophet;
literally, "the annointed one")--though stopping short of belief in
Jesus' Divinity. So much for the great Clash of Civilizations. I always
suspected the Clash was basically about oil--and not the kind
you get annointed with.

Jerusalem: nuns and others pray for Gaza

Recess time at a Catholic school in Gaza City. I guess
that doesn't make these two kids Nice Christian Girls.
Maybe they're nice Moslem girls. Or one of each.
The girls' attention seems to be on other matters.

Curator's note: Yes, I did assemble a parallel section on "Nice Moslem Girls." For practical reasons, much had to be cut out of this exhibition. Sequel if popular demand warrants.

Destruction

Nalewki Street, 1936

Can't you just hear Goebbels saying, "Then the Jews moved in,
and now look at it!" Nalewki Street, 1943.

Charity medical clinic, sponsored by Caritas, in Gaza City. Bombing
"enemy" civilian hospitals seems to be a popular tactic these days.
U.S. forces did this with great success shortly beforehand, in Baghdad
and Fallujah. Of course, "success" assumes that your goal is causing
needless death and suffering to noncombatants and making the "enemy"
people hate your country for the next generation or two. How much
would all your Lockheed stock be worth if everybody loved us?
Right: about as much as your 401(K).

Gaza office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. That's
right, he's Fatah, not Hamas. Put into office by the U.S. and buddies
right after the Palestinians, by a large margin, voted to elect the guys
from the opposite party, Hamas. Then, in what the U.S. calls a "coup,"
Hamas gained control of the government of a small part of Palestine,
Gaza. Still with us? . . . OK, then why did the government of Israel
destroy the offices of the guy they wanted to be President of the P.A.
and installed as the President of the P.A. (with a little help from their
friends)? Beats me too, but they did the same to his predecessor,
Arafat--repeatedly!

Ruins of a police station--which the U.S. news media prefer to call a
"Hamas police compound"--in Gaza. The local police--sorry: "The
Hamas police"--seem to have been one of the prime targets of the
assault, including even Hamas Traffic Cops. The blog entry for
January 2 contains 2 photos of more-than-a-dozen dead policemen.
As I understand it, Israeli forces launched a rocket attack upon the
site where police academy graduation ceremonies were in progress.

Former housewife surveys her former house--Jamalya, Gaza Strip

Site of the Warsaw Ghetto, seen from outside, probably 1943


In 1945, Germany ordered that the ruins of Warsaw Ghetto be razed
and the rubble carted off. "Conspiracy theorists" will doubtless say,
"Of course! That's what governments always do, particularly when
they've committed mass murder. Granted, there's a difference in
scale, . . . but look how quickly they destroyed all the physical
evidence at Waco, at Oklahoma City, at the World Trade Center. . . ."
"Now, you look," I reply wisely. "Who wants to leave evidence lying
around where people can trip on it and maybe sue the city for
negligence? That's why America needs meaningful tort reform. . . ."


Silent newsreel caption? "There is no longer a Jewish residential
district in Warsaw!" Now cut to the clip of Stroop saluting and
then shaking the proffered hand of the Fuehrer. . . . Next a few
seconds' aerial view of Warsaw . . . .



Coda

Erez, Israel, 2008: Activists from several countries attempt
to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza via the Erez crossing.
Israeli authorities allowed neither them nor the supplies to
cross the border. The black flag of Anarchism (right) outside
barricaded Gaza brought me to the song, below. It helps
if your mind can still hear Grace Slick's strong, beautiful
voice. Photo by moomin13, on Flickr.com.

We should be together
Come on all you people standing around
Our life's too fine to let it die and
We should be together . . .

We are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything they say we are, we are
And we are very
Proud of ourselves

Up against the wall
Up against the wall, motherf***er
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls

We should be together
We should be together my friends
We can be together
We will be

We must begin here and now
A new continent of love and fire . . .
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Won't you try . . . .

-- Jefferson Airplane