Sunday, July 02, 2006

Between a (Qassam) rock(et) and a (political) hard place, part 2

Reshuffling my CDs, I put my "Best of Moshav Band, " to which I hadn't listened for a good while, into my CD player while I was writing checks before Shabbat. And this is what I heard. It's as if they read my mind, and heard me arguing with myself.

On the one hand . . .

STOP (by Yehudah Solomon, Duvid Swirsky, Meir Solomon)

"Well have you heard the news today
about the boy who was killed?
He was caught in the crossfire
I heard them say that it won't pass quietly
but today, they were back on the streets with guns in their hands

chorus:
Will it never stop, will it never stop,
will it ever end
Will it never stop, will it never stop,
will it ever end

And did you see the mother's eyes
with the tears coming down for the baby in the ground
Nine A.M. on CNN
and tomorrow on the streets again

chorus:
Will it never stop, will it never stop,
will it ever end
Will it never stop, will it never stop,
will it ever end

bridge:
Lay down your arms
You can lay them down,
you can lay them down

Lay down your arms


So can you see the blood in my eyes
Or do we all look the same when we all look the other way
Tell me how, will it ever end
Blood on the streets again

chorus:
Will it never stop, will it ever stop,
will it ever end
Will it ever stop, will it ever stop, will it ever end

Will it ever stop"




On the other hand . . .

HEART IS OPEN (by Yehudah Solomon, Duvid Swirsky, Meir Solomon)

"Break me down to the end
Push me past the border
And who is there to blame
In the end it's all the same
We will return
It's a game
We know the rules and break them
Time and time again
You pretend to be my friend
But you're just pretending

chorus:
But I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of
And I know in time
I'll get what's mine
If my heart is open

Shining like the stars
These scars
Spread across the night sky
For everyone to see
But it's only you and me
And we have not changed
We're the same
Still fighting windmills
And the wind is blowing hard
And it's tearing us apart
And it leaves us hanging

chorus:
But I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of
And I know in time
I'll get what's mine
If my heart is open

bridge:
Hope my heart is open
And my mind is free at last
And I come to you
With grace, face to face
And we've seen enough to finally understand

That a change will come
From somewhere deep within us
And a lion will roar
And it won't matter anymore
As we go walking through the door
When our hearts are open

chorus:
But I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of
And I know in time
I'll get what's mine
If my heart is open"





" . . . I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of"

Ever since Gaza and the West Bank came into Israeli hands, I've prayed for the day when Israel could trade a piece of land for a land at peace. I've always believed in a two-state solution. Yet now, after trading a piece of land, Israel is at war again. I'm 57 years old. Is there even the remotest possibility that there will be peace between the State of Israel and its neighbors in my lifetime?

"I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of"

The words of screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, placed in the mouth of the sadly-short-lived Babylon 5 sequel Crusade's Galen the Technomage, come back to me at times like this:

"There's always hope. It's the only thing they haven't figured out how to kill yet."


" . . . I keep holding on to
These dreams I can't let go of"
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