Photo Friday (Vol. XX*XV) [sacred & profane edition]

Just two pictures to share with you today... and one of them isn't even mine. 

Howzabout we start with the profane?  We can all use a giggle, right?

Near my office in Beer Sheva there is a billboard that has been cracking me up for the past couple of weeks.  It is an ad for DHL's courier service to Asia. 

The rough translation of the text is, "For your inner peace/peace of mind in the Far East.  DHL" ('hasheket hanafshi shelchah' literally means the the quietness of your soul... but the the true meaning is somewhere between my rough translation and the literal one):

Those wacky Israeli marketing people... what will they think of next?  The Dali Lama hawking investment advice?!

Seriously... you're selling shipping services and you want to make potential customers think of swiftness... timeliness... punctuality.  So you choose as your ad's centerpiece a Tibetan monk - an image that most people associate with slow, deliberate movement and sitting perfectly still for unusually long periods of time! 

Also, how funny is it that a Buddhist monk - someone that is typically associate with simplicity and poverty - has clearly sold advertising space on his robes?  Seriously, this is a slippery slope that could end with a monk's trademark maroon robes festooned beyond recognition with corporate logos and symbols like a NASCAR driver or professional cyclist!

Another thing that tickled my funny bone isn't really visible in the way the picture came out. 

The 'monk'  was clearly some Asian guy they grabbed out of central casting, because he has a really clear 'farmer tan'... odd for someone who is supposed to have spent his every waking moment wearing an off-the-shoulder ensemble!  In person, the billboard clearly shows that his arms and neck are deeply tanned while his torso and shoulder are lily-white. 

I'm thinking that if this guy was really a monk he'd have the 'toga tan' to prove it!

Anyway... now that I've gotten that out of my system... here is the picture I'd like you to keep in your head whenever the media tries to tell you about the irreconcilable rift between the people who oppose disengagement and those who are tasked with carrying it out:

What you see here is a minyan of Jewish men fulfilling their shared obligation for communal prayer.  Though a fence (and orders) divides them... they have other things that unite them. These are the same people that photojournalists showed the world shouting at each other over following orders and following conscience. 

You won't be likely to see this image in the mainstream media.

I have searched everywhere for some attribution for this picture, but can only find two references to the fact that it was taken at Kfar Maimon, 16 miles east of the Gaza border, where anti-disengagement demonstrators and security forces clashed yesterday.

This picture isn't meant to imply that the very worst hasn't been brought out in people on both sides of this painful issue. Rather, it is meant to remind you that the worst often gets reported... while the best (and the mundane) almost never does.

The press would have the Israeli public (and the world) believe that disengagement is a struggle to the death between the secular left and religious right.  That is a horrible and deliberate misrepresentation of the issues, and nothing could be further from the truth.  Yes, it would be much easier to mobilize sympathy and generate loyalty if the lines were so clearly drawn.  But like everything else in Israeli society... this is messy and not nearly so simple to define.

There are plenty of secular Israelis who strongly oppose disengagement, and there are plenty of religious Israelis who support it.  The thing that has tempted many people to deliberately try to make this a religious/secular issue is the fact that almost all of the Jews living in Gaza - the people most directly impacted by the disengagement -  are religious. 

It would seem that for those who see red at the sight of a kippah and beard (or long skirt and tichel), the temptation to simply ignore the sympathies of the rest of the Israeli public proved a bit too strong.  This struggle isn't 'The settlers of Gush Katif vs The nation of Israel'.  It is a national struggling with itself over a very painful internal issue.

Like most people in Israel I hope and pray that whatever comes to pass, does so without violence. 

The anti-disengagement demonstrators and settlers need to remember that the police and soldiers are their brothers, sisters, fathers, cousins and countrymen.  The police and soldiers need to remember that they are the protectors of our democracy... and that the demonstrators and settlers are entitled, in a liberal democracy, to use civil disobedience to express their will. 

The picture of the soldiers and demonstrators praying together gives me hope that when the ugly struggle comes to pass... through their tears and their rage, everyone will remember that they are facing Jews, Israelis, and brothers across the barricades.

Shabbat Shalom!