The Candles of Life

Benjamin Shiff's painting Life on the cover of The Cycle of Life

A primary tenet of my perspective on the journey through life, as I describe in my book The Cycle of Life, pertains to the confluence of fate and destiny, and how conscious choice and the unexpected turns of the tide flow together. How do predetermined fate and individual destiny cohabit in one’s life, how does fate determine one’s prospects, and in what ways can the individual determine the course of his or her possibilities? Everything is foreseen, and everything is laid bare, yet everything is in accordance with the will of man, says the Talmud. Likewise, as Jung observed, something that remains unconscious in the individual psyche, may become manifest as external fate. Sometimes, what has powerfully constellated in one’s psyche, yet remains below the level of consciousness, may materialize in physical reality.

Little did I anticipate that this would become apparent in my search for a cover image, the face of the book. I traveled along rivers of time and traversed cultural continents, ending up, so it seemed, with a coverless book in my hands. Then, in a sudden bliss, I remembered a painter whose name was at the tip of my tongue. As I extracted his name, Benjamin Shiff, from the layers of my memory, I was reminded of the balance between lyric harmony and pensive concern, which characterized the dream-like painting I recalled.

As I traced the pictures on Shiff’s canvas, my eyes fell upon his painting Life (1990). Undoubtedly, I had found the grail. I understood that the frustrations of my journey had not been in vain, but were, perhaps, the psyche’s signs along the road to the picture of life’s transition. The candles’ soft light of life is poised against the painful inevitability of burning out. Yet, as long as they burn, there are shades and colors; there are the distinct faces of transient existence, and there are those of obscurity, hidden in distant nature; there is a lyrical melancholy, as well as a tense harmony. The pain of death and extinction reflects the subtle strength and beauty of life. Only an unlit candle will never burn out. A fully lived life extracts the awareness of its finality. Freud claimed, succinctly, that the ultimate aim of life is death. Mortality as the ultimate boundary of physical existence, serves as the container of human life.

In the paintings of Benjamin Shiff, the contrasts are subtle, and the opposites often blend into a tense yet congruent whole. Contrasting elements of identity, of earthly and heavenly, matter and spirit, float into each other, combining into one whole; together, yet distinct, united, yet separate - is this perhaps the human condition, as rendered in Shiff's exceptional self-portrait, 'my condition as a human'?

Sometimes the pain is hidden behind a crucified smile. What is crucial emerges from within outward appearance; conflict and struggle blend into harmony and tranquility. In one of his paintings, crucified love hovers over the wide-open mouth of anguish. Elsewhere, the light of innocence and naïve faith is contrasted with the complexity and fragmentation of knowledge.








In the aesthetics of Shiff’s paintings, light and hope merge with pensive sadness. The ordinary becomes thoughtful reflection, in which dream-like interiority finds tangible expression. There is always something hidden,secretive and elusive – a riddle, like a dream we do not understand, which calls us back, to search, to reflect and look ever deeper.

I came across Benjamin Shiff’s painting Life in May 2011, only to learn that he died in March. As it turned out, not only did we live but half an hour apart, but his daughter, Orit Yaar, is also a Jungian analyst. I knew Orit, but had no idea that she was Benjamin Shiff's daughter. With the sadness of having lost the possibility of meeting Benjamin Shiff, the “sad optimist,” in life, I hope that his painting Life, which provides The Cycle of Life with its face, will serve as a candle honoring and reflecting upon his life and work.

I wish to thank Shosh Shiff, who granted permission to feature this profound painting on the cover of The Cycle of Life.

The Cycle of Life will be released Sept. 1, 2011. It can be preordered at Amazon, or directly from Fisher King Press.

The Banality of Obliteration – or, Coffee at Chlodna Street

I recently received a letter from an American acquaintance, perhaps I even dare say, a friend. He is a very good person, having devoted his life to care for the sick and poor, alleviating the suffering of many. Most of us would pride ourselves for a humanistic outlook on life such as his.

My friend inquires about the Middle East, and wonders, for instance, “what would happen if the United States took an isolationist's stance in the world?” And, interspersed among his questions, he asks me, “what do you think would happen in the Middle East if Israel was suddenly not there at all? Would the world be more or less stable? Would the Arab countries be able to unify and work together despite years of tribal, religious and political strife?”

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the road to paradise on earth is paved with much evil.

I am convinced that the most wonderful condition of peace, safety and tranquility would ensue, just as stated in the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas) Charter:

“The elimination of Zionism in Palestine,” i.e., the destruction of Israel, which is the declared aim (article 15), “will provide the Holy Land with an atmosphere of safety and tranquility, which in turn will safeguard the country’s religious sanctuaries and guarantee freedom of worship and of visit to all, without discrimination of race, color, language, or religion. Accordingly, the people of Palestine look to all spiritual forces in the world for support” (article 16).

In the official Palestinian Authority daily, Judaism is described as a “distorted, corrupted, falsified religion,” “the Jews’ evil nature is drawn from Adam’s first son,” the State of Israel is a “malignant cancerous growth,” consequently, “the conflict between us [i.e., the Arabs] and the Jews is not a conflict between land and borders, but rather a conflict about faith and existence” (from Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 13 and June 3, 2011).

It seems that too many “spiritual forces in the world” are now willing to support the ethnic cleansing of the Jews. The ease, with which the elimination of Israel is discussed, so that possibly the world would become more stable, and so that peace and tranquility shall prevail, should ring the bells of alarm.

This is my intention with the novella Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return. I don’t predict Israel’s destruction, but I want to call the attention to these very trends, which do endanger our existence, perhaps no less than Ahmadinejad does. As long as “the spiritual forces in the world” welcome Ahmadinejad, who calls for wiping Israel off the map, at the United Nations, and don’t demand that the Palestinian Authority withdraw those articles in the PLO Charter that call for Israel’s destruction (and which appear on their page at the United Nations’ website), they collaborate in the possible ethnic cleansing of the Jews.

There are quasi-fascist elements in the present Israeli government, increasingly gaining influence, trying to enforce laws that endanger democracy. Netanyahu has chosen his government and coalition (he had different choices), and therefore carries responsibility. This endangers Israel from within, no less than all those who too easily play with Israel’s existence (besides this government’s lack of initiative toward peace and negotiations). There are intolerable fascist calls that can be heard from some of Israel’s extreme right-wing corners for transfer of the Arabs, i.e., ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. It would, likewise, be horrendous toying with the fantasy of the elimination of Jordan, or Finland, or any other nation, country or people.

But it is, as well, horrendous to believe the world would be better without the Jewish State of Israel, and play with that fantasy.

And it so happened that I received this letter, in which I am invited to contemplate Israel’s (i.e., my own) elimination, on my last day in Warsaw. I had just finished a seminar with a wonderful group of Polish Jungian therapists, which for me was a very special and meaningful experience. I had spent many hours of that last day wandering the extinct ghetto. I traced the process of its existence, from establishment till extermination. I superimposed the well-known pictures from the ghetto, and the process of events from inception, when people were shoveled in behind the walls, to Umschlagplatz, when the Jews were shoveled out for transportation, onto the streets of today. It meant reaching out toward the nearly unbearable, for instance tracing the location of the woman lying in the street, starved to death, in front of the entrance to 10 Walicow Street, photographed from within the doorway.

And that bridge, yes, the bridge that connects the two parts of the ghetto, across Chlodna Street, where life was as normal as it could be in Nazi-occupied Poland. I sat down to have coffee in the only remaining building at the crossroads, looking at the people who had crossed that bridge which is no more, and nor are they. There, I read Naomi Lowinsky’s outstanding book Adagio & Lamentation, in which she, with so much wisdom and thoughtful feeling, extracts the memories that too easily may be buried under the dust of denial.

The maps of 1940-3 and the present merge. The slow movement of a quickly passing day dissolve and blend with those fateful and horrendous hours and years. Hitler had done his best, not the least in Warsaw and in Poland, but did not succeed well enough (though he came pretty close), so we are still here to make much trouble for the world (by our mere existence), which otherwise might be such a wonderfully stable and peaceful world – just like having coffee at Chlodna Street, without a trace of the bridge.

Jerusalem: Human Ground, Archetypal Spirit

Photographs by Yoram Bouzaglou

Excerpts from Jerusalem: Human Ground, Archetypal Spirit, a chapter by Erel Shalit in Tom Singer's (Ed.) Psyche and the City: A Soul's Guide to the Modern Metropolis (pp. 279-298):

Unlike Rome, not all roads lead to Jerusalem, and those that do may all too easily lead the visitor astray in a labyrinth of divinity and madness. In the course of history, when Rome became the center of power, sanctity and glory, Jerusalem sank into spiritual ruin and peripheral oblivion. Thus, even those modern roads that bring you smoothly to the city may force the pilgrim to pass “through thorny hedges…” of his or her mind.
...

“Crouched among its hills,” Jerusalem is immersed with mythological, religious, and symbolic significance. Yet, scarce in natural resources, the surrounding land is cultivated rather than fertile by nature, and the so-called Jerusalem stone, the pale limestone that characterizes many of the city houses, nearly cracks and shatters by carrying the burden of Heavenly Jerusalem. In its often shabby garb, terrestrial Jerusalem seems to want to shake off its Celestial Glory, releasing itself from the task of being “the gateway to heaven.” At other times, when the light from above is reflected in her harsh stones, Jerusalem seems to embrace the presence of the Shekhinah, the earthly dwelling of the divine. Especially at dawn and at dusk, the reflection of the light may bring that which is below and that which is above, earth and heaven, reality and imagination into play with each other–marble-like clouds weighing heavily above, and stones that radiate light.
...

Poets have wandered the streets of Jerusalem, sung her praise and given her names. They have felt both the beating of her heart and the bleeding of her soul ... Drunk on her spirit, the poet’s soul has been filled both with blissful light and the dark pain of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem stone is the only stone that can feel pain. It has a network of nerves.” Thus, the poets have called her names such as early evening purple and awesome beauty, a wall of dreams and well of salvation, the sealed book and a bird of stone, holy fire, city and mother (metro-polis), den of jackals and cup of ruins.
...

The author Nikolai Gogol, having burned the two first versions of Dead Souls, believed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would redeem his soul and relieve him from depression and writer’s block. He was shocked by the noise and confusion in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, discouraged by the scenery and the environs. “Not only were my prayers unable to rise up to heaven, I could not even tear them loose from my breast,” he wrote in despair to Tolstoy.

When Herman Melville visited Jerusalem a decade later in 1857, his harsh impression was of “stones to right and stones to left...stony tombs; stony hills & stony hearts.” He noticed dryly that there was “Too little to see and too much dust.”
...

Within the constricted geographical area of Jerusalem we have three mighty images of ascent, transition and transformation, wherein the footprints on the stony ground, the petroglyphs, are transformed into sacred imprints, the hieroglyphs of spirit and creed. The archetypal weight of three theistic Gods may be too much for an area the size of less than one square kilometer, one third of a square mile; again and again Heavenly Harmony turns into Earthly Strife.

Forthcoming September 21, 2011
The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey

What’s Hyding in the Mirror?

Raising his voice from the grave, just like his dead fellow citizens of Spoon River, Ernest Hyde declares,

My mind was a mirror:
It saw what it saw, it knew what it knew.
In youth my mind was just a mirror
In a rapidly flying car,
Which catches and loses bits of the landscape.
Then in time
Great scratches were made on the mirror,
Letting the outside world come in,
And letting my inner self look out.
For this is the birth of the soul in sorrow,
A birth with gains and losses.
The mind sees the world as a thing apart,
And the soul makes the world at one with itself.
A mirror scratched reflects no image--
And this is the silence of wisdom.

The mirror, scratched in the course of one’s life, no longer reflects the images of the outside world, but reflects the silence of wisdom (and, as we are told, Wisdom is the child of Depth and Silence, born out of the Depth of Silence).

Sartre’s one-act play No Exit (‘Huis Clos’) presents a different image – the absence of the mirror. The hell that Sartre portrays in his play has no exit, and it entails the punishment of eternity (depression, for instance, is hell, because when in depression, the person ‘knows’ there is neither an exit, a way out, nor an end). Furthermore, there are no windows or mirrors in the room.

A mirror-less existence is hellish. We know how essential it is for the infant to be mirrored. The libido that streams inwardly, to ourselves, is the healthy narcissistic energy that we need to feel a sense of value, and it requires being mirrored. Not being seen, or carrying another’s distorted projections (which likewise means not being seen), is a self-alienating experience.

There are no mirrors in hell. Hell is a non-reflective and unreflected, non-mirroring and non-mirrored existence. Likewise, in fundamentalism there is no mirror. There is only a projection to be destroyed, but no image in the mirror. There are pre-conceived projections, but no reflective imagination.

Looking into the mirror, however scratched, requires one to acknowledge the image of one’s own complexity as being simply human, rather than splitting off one’s shortcomings from the image in the mirror.

The scratched image in the silent mirror of wisdom reflects the complexity of being human. It means not taking in the images which - considerably more so today than a century ago when Ernest Hyde shared his earnest reflections from the grave - bombard us from the outside. And it means not to be deluded by the false appearance of the image of ourselves, in the smooth and flawless mirror, from which self-reflection is absent.

United Nations Recognition of Palestine

Letter to Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General, United Nations, May 11, 2011

Dear Mr. Ban Ki-Moon,

In September this year, the United Nations General Assembly is likely to recognize the State of Palestine.

As an Israeli, I would like my country to be the first to welcome the Arab State of Palestine among the nations, living peacefully alongside the Jewish State of Israel.

While in his 2009 talk at Bar-Ilan University, PM Netanyahu recognized the principle of two states for two peoples, Jewish Israel and Arab Palestine, his speech was not supplemented by measures on the ground, that would give credibility to his words.

Reluctantly, the present Israeli government accepted a ten month settlement freeze as an incentive to renew stalled negotiations. Unfortunately, this did not bring the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and/or the Palestinian Authority to the negotiating table.

Also, the similar good will gesture asked of the Arab side, that Saudi Arabia allow civilian Israeli air traffic to make use of its air space, was quickly dismissed and dropped.

I would like my government to take further confidence-building steps. This is, in fact, the position held by most Israelis; according to a recent poll, in desire of peace and neighborly relations, a majority favors diplomatic initiative, far-reaching Israeli concessions and recognition of a Palestinian state.

I would like my government to implement a full withdrawal of all settlements beyond the security fence, which, besides reducing the many deadly terror attacks, serves as a temporary border, based on the 1949 cease-fire lines.

Israel’s Security Barrier, compared to the Green Line (Shaul Arieli; http://www.shaluarieli.com/, by permission)

This would give credibility to Israel’s decision to withdraw from Arab territories.

But I would like to see some additional gestures as well. I would like incitement against Israel, in schools, media and mosques be restrained. Incitement, and repeated claims that there is no connection between Jews, Judaism and the Land of Israel, is not conducive to peace-making. The cartoons, for instance, appearing repeatedly in Palestinian and Arab media, are, to say the least, appalling.

Incitement contradicts, as well, the accords between Israel and the PLO, which is chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, who also serves as President of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

In fact, unilateral declaration of statehood also contradicts those agreements. My criticism of my government’s dangerous passivity, is paralleled by skepticism as regards the PA’s reluctance to negotiate.

President Sadat, who was the instrumental leader in achieving a breakthrough in Israeli-Arab relations, claimed that seventy percent of the conflict is psychological.

Israelis and Palestinians construct their identity according to history and its interpretation, based on fear, war and persecution, threats of exile and annihilation, with roots in the past – both a century of Holocaust and violence, and a distant past, rooted in the archetypal images of the Bible and the Koran. Mutual projections impair the reconciliation that can take place in face-to-face negotiations.

But just like we, respectively, are called upon to scrutinize our psychological shortcomings and distorted projections, I would call upon you, as the United Nations’ Secretary General, to lead your organization to do likewise. Goldstone’s retraction of his own copy-and-paste produced report, and the fact that Syria is (was?) expected to replace Libya on the UN Human Rights Council, make the farce that has been going on for years, during which the main pre-occupation of the Council has been the demonization of Israel, apparent.

Yet, my main request of you, at this moment in time, concerns the following: Before the United Nations recognize the Arab State of Palestine which, as I have said, I am in favor of, the declared aims of that state cannot be the destruction of another member-state of the United Nations (or any state, for that matter). At the UN website (http://www.un.int/), the page of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations (http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/palestine) informs us about the Palestine National Charter (http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/palestine/pid/12361), which states that their aim is “the elimination of Zionism in Palestine” (meaning the destruction of Israel), by means of “armed struggle” (i.e., war and terror). Furthermore, Article 19 says that, “The partition of Palestine in 1947, and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal,” and in article 20, “Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history.”

I thus urge you, in the name of honesty and decency, history and Israel's right to exist, to review the Palestine Charter, demand it be revised to include recognition of Israel rather than the call for its destruction. Otherwise, you, the United Nations, and all nations voting in favor, sign the death-sentence of Israel, making you responsible of ethnic cleansing of the Jews in Israel.

Sincerely,

Dr. Erel Shalit

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return is on sale now for $14.95, and Enemy, Cripple, Beggar is on sale now for $19.95 or $30.00 for the pair when ordered directly from the Fisher King Press. You can also order The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitcal Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel directly from Fisher King Press. Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799

Download the

• Fisher King Press Newsletter




• Fisher King Press Catalog of Publications




• Fisher King Press Price List and Order Form

What will happen on Nakba-day?

As reported in the media, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz visited the Central Command, inspecting the preparations being made for possible riots on “Nakba-day”, May 15, when the Palestinians commemorate the Nakba (“catastrophe”), of the partition of the land and the founding of Israel.

As reported for instance on Ynet, “The situation in the West Bank may escalate to uncontrolled violence as result of, for instance, marches towards that border that will be aired on TV and inflame emotions; mass demonstrations in Egypt under the banner of the “Third Intifada committee”; mass marches in Gaza; violence among Arab-Israelis; and a flare-up in the Middle East’s most problematic theater: Friday prayers at Temple Mount.”

Furthermore, “Israel’s political leadership instructed the IDF not to take risks and assume major precautions. Indeed, the army already reinforced its troops in the West Bank and prepared reserve forces as well.”

The Chief of Staff said he hopes the Nakba Day events will be held non-violently, but that the army must be prepared for every possible circumstance.

According to rumors, General Gantz had secretly summoned Professor Eliezer (Eli) Shimeoni, to receive a private summary of possible scenarios. So characteristic of Israeli sloppiness, the door had been left open, and one of the soldiers on guard recorded the parts of the conversation on his iPhone:

Elie Shimeoni (ES): “What do you want of me?”

Benny Gantz (BG): “Stop pretending, you know very well.”

ES: “Honestly, no idea…” (unclear, probably biting on an apple).

BG: “Do I really need to quote…”

He started to read, “…The Islamic movement called upon all adult Arab men to join the big march to Jerusalem and gather on the Temple Mount, at the compound in front of the Al Aqsa Mosque. The call spread across the country. Young and old, from the Galilee in the north, the Negev in the south, and from the Triangle of Arab towns in the center of the country, turned up in unprecedented numbers. The call spread across the West Bank as well, and people just started marching...” (p. 73)

“Palestinians from the West Bank managed to break through the security fence. Widespread laughter swept across the long chain of people holding arms as they, within a matter of minutes, tore down “the wall,” the security fence, making mockery of our typical Israeli patchwork…” (p. 74)

Do I need to quote more from Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, or do you understand?" Gantz asked impatiently.

Shimeoni stopped in the middle of a bite on the apple, “I am surprised at you,” was all he could say before he started coughing.

“That is a novel, has nothing to do with reality, it’s pure fiction. I did give the author permission to quote me, but I only told stories.”

BG: “This is not fiction, this is reality. This is post-modern reality,” said the intellectual Chief of Staff. “This is not reality before you make a film of what has taken place, it is imagination creating reality.”

ES: “You blame me?”

BG: “You misunderstand me. I am not going to censor imagination. I want to learn from it. I want to know what the possibilities are. We must learn not only from past mistakes, we need to draw conclusions from the future before it happens. Is that not what you write about, when you write about those manuscripts of Kafka and the theft of the Queen’s Clock from the Museum of Islamic Art?”

ES: “I didn’t write the book.”

BG: “We know who the true author of the events is.”

ES: “I don’t.”

BG: “You’ll find out if you read the book till the end. It only takes an hour or two to read, and you know it doesn’t end the way you thought.”

“Close that door,” one could suddenly hear the General shout.

Thus, the recording of the conversation was interrupted, as friends and foes prepared for another act in the drama of Isaac and Ishmael.

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return and The Hero & His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel

Read Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return is on sale now for $14.95, and Enemy, Cripple, Beggar is on sale now for $19.95 or $30.00 for the pair when ordered directly from the Fisher King Press. You can also order The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitcal Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel directly from Fisher King Press. Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799

Download the

• Fisher King Press Newsletter



• Fisher King Press Catalog of Publications



• Fisher King Press Price List and Order Form

Between Slavery and Freedom

The images are by the incredible Arthur Szyk

The Jewish spring holiday of Pesach, or Passover, begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, the first month in the Hebrew calendar’s festival year, on the night of the full moon after the vernal equinox. This year, the eve of Pesach is celebrated on April 18.

The essence of Pesach is the release from the bonds of slavery, and the transition into freedom. During the last few months, we have witnessed how the young in several Arab countries across the Middle East have raised to their feet, paying a heavy toll in imprisonment, torture and with their lives, in a courageous yearn for freedom from the tyranny of dictators.

On the individual level, each one of us has to figure out what his or her personal sense of freedom entails, and which internal bonds and behaviors, prejudices and inadequacies enslave us.

I believe the road to freedom in the Arab world is a long and winding one. It seems unlikely the fires will stop burning any time soon, and the outcome seems unpredictable, and different in different places. Will the freedom seeking forces gain the upper hand, or will the people’s will be hijacked by tyrants, armies and fundamentalists?

Muammar el-Quadaffi wrote The Green Book: The Solution to the Problem of Democracy, in which he claims that “Women, like men, are human beings,” reaffirming this “incontestable truth.” This is quite an achievement for someone who otherwise, in his rather successful book, rejects democracy and free press.

I wonder, how come that the London School of Economics so easily accepted to sell its integrity for half a million dollars from Quadaffi (is that what enabled his son Seif al-Islam to come away with a plagiarized or ghost-written doctoral dissertation at LSE)?

And I would like to ask the UN Human Rights Council, and its member states, to look in the mirror; as late as January this year, it produced a draft report of praise to the Libyan leader and his promotion of human rights (some of the countries, under similarly enlightened leadership, that showered the Libyan leader with their praise, were Syria, North Korea and Iran).

In contrast, half of the council’s resolutions over the years have been condemnations of Israel.

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Goldstone report was a patchwork of copy and paste of distorted information. Mary Robinson, hardly a close friend of Israel’s, refused the mission that Richard Goldstone shamefully accepted, claiming the resolution adopted by the Council was one-sided and guided by politics rather than human rights. While Goldstone has retracted the report, he still blames Israel for not having cooperated. Well, if Robinson was reluctant to cooperate, perhaps Israel was right, since the mandate was, one-sidedly, to prove Israel’s guilt, making the so called fact-finding mission into a scam from the very outset.

I believe that honesty and self-reflection are aspects of freedom, while hypocrisy and trickery are part of one’s slavery. There seems to be a large grey field between democracy and hypocrisy.

As regards us here in Israel, the prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories binds us into slavery. While there are many aspects and, for instance, security concerns, there is an urgent need to find creative solutions of termination of occupation of Palestinian land, as well as the stamina to reign in the violence and criminal behavior by certain settler groups.

Freedom, democracy and independence are threatened by occupation. Rabin, Peres, Barak and Olmert knew it, offering the Palestinians far-reaching peace-agreements, and Sharon understood it, withdrawing from Gaza, evacuating all Israeli settlers there.

The Palestinians need, as well, to understand that their freedom is achieved not merely by statehood. As long as they aim at the destruction of Israel, as comes through for instance in their media and statements in Arabic, they will remain slaves to distorted values.

The idea, as expressed in their charter, that freedom will prevail when the Jews have left the Eastern Mediterranean, otherwise called ethnic cleansing, holds them prisoners to their own self-destruction.

I wish all a Happy Passover, Chag Sameach, a celebration of freedom,

Erel Shalit

Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return is on sale now for $14.95, and Enemy, Cripple, Beggar is on sale now for $19.95 or $30.00 for the pair when ordered directly from the Fisher King Press. You can also order The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitcal Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel directly from Fisher King Press. Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799

• Fisher King Press Newsletter
• Fisher King Press Catalog of Publications
• Fisher King Press Price List and Order Form