When God Gives You Sugar And Lemons ... Make Great-Tasting Lemonade

To say the least, the politics of 2008-2009 have been a little less uplifting than the last year I spent in Israel, 1999-2000. From Lieberman's terrifying ascent (and it's implications both for reconciling the Russian immigrant population with democracy and charting future arguments for Israel's existence if it is a nation that will embrace Haider- and Le Pen-like politics) to the war in Gaza that felt so good when it started but has left the entire nation, it seems, with a depressing walk of shame through a cold rain, to a sense that all hope is lost, the year has been wonderful for T and me personally and pretty terrible on a national scale.

Amid these lemons, two signs of hope from Haaretz.

This evening a Palestinian children's symphony and choir performed for Holocaust survivors in a fascinating double-blind expression of the power of the human spirit. The 13 children, aged 11-18, were from the West Bank and didn't know who their audience was - nor did the audience know the background of the orchestra. (Great article - read it.)

In the Jenin refugee camp - quite likely the place where the aforementioned performers live - the Freedom Theatre saw the opening of a production of Orwell's Animal Farm as a critique of "internal politics and the alliance between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas." One of the goals of the theatre, says its director, is to "challenge" the Palestinian lack of "a culture of free thinking, a culture of criticism." (Also great article - read it too.)

May these stories be oft-repeated.