Pundits, politicians, everyday folks and intellectuals debating the Middle East situation might find a succinct life lesson and political insight in the most mundane of resources: a pair of dictionaries. I was recently shocked to discover the political insight there. It was very instructive.
Glancing over the shoulder of a Nefesh B'Nefesh oleh (a participant in the 2002 history-making immigration effort to Israel by North American Jews) who'd received a complimentary dictionary from one of Israel's banks as a Public Relations gesture, I recently noted that new citizens of Israel are looking up how to say some compelling, if awfully strange, stuff for newcomers beginning their Israeli lives. My eyes widened when I saw "terrorist" (pages 115 and 239), and they glared upon seeing "to explode" (page 91), "to degenerate" (also page 91), "was rescued/survived" (page 135), "vomited" (page 47), "to speak to the wall" (page 82), "to smuggle", which just happens to be located next to "to cross the border illegally (page 83), as well as "victim" (page 182). Ultimately, I closed my eyes to regain my composure and perspective. These vocabulary terms are among other handy words such as "Holy Ark" (page 172), "ancient/antiquity" (page 157), "dream" (page 63) and the various colors and ordinal numbers that new immigrants need to know in order to function optimally in Israel's daily life. I was curious to know how they compare to the words that new American citizens learn in the course of assuming their place in US society.
An American friend who teaches English as a Second Language in New Jersey dutifully informed me that the political words and phrases in the dictionary she uses for teaching new Americans preparing for their citizenship tests are of a different mix than those in the text provided by the discreetly unnamed Israeli bank. Here is what the Citizenship: Passing the Test text teaches its readers: "Bill of Rights," "citizen," "Civil War," "Civil Rights Movement," "Congress," "Declaration of Independence," "Democratic Party," "three branches of government," "Republican Party," "President," "Vice President," "Senators," "House of Representatives," "Revolutionary War." The contrast of the vocabulary of the sanity-challenged destruction of innocents versus the consensus of cooperative and peace-minded individuals duly registered in my brain. New Israelis must learn the language of destruction at the hands of those who claim to love Israel's property lines in order to survive in their new but ancient home. Not withstanding the dreadful TIPS acronym, fledgling Americans must learn the language of cooperation, democracy and tolerance in theirs. And isn?t that a political eye-opener, students of comedy, sociology, political science, water-cooler conversationalists and the humanities? I remember when Hebrew-English dictionaries spilled over with inanities like "Parliamentary Government," "democracy," "inclusion," "truth," "pioneer," and that ultimate word for nerds "agronomy."
When Israel's people can return to reading dictionaries that need not include the vocabulary of aggression brought on by an Outsider's Culture of Simultaneous Aggression/Victimization, then all of us will be reading about a Middle East that is blessed with sanity and a cessation of specious claims to a land that has only been cherished and religiously described by Jews.
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Ms. Yocheved Golani, a columnist and freelance writer, is the author of Legacy. For more Golani please see www.Ygolani.com.
Copyright, 2002.
Glancing over the shoulder of a Nefesh B'Nefesh oleh (a participant in the 2002 history-making immigration effort to Israel by North American Jews) who'd received a complimentary dictionary from one of Israel's banks as a Public Relations gesture, I recently noted that new citizens of Israel are looking up how to say some compelling, if awfully strange, stuff for newcomers beginning their Israeli lives. My eyes widened when I saw "terrorist" (pages 115 and 239), and they glared upon seeing "to explode" (page 91), "to degenerate" (also page 91), "was rescued/survived" (page 135), "vomited" (page 47), "to speak to the wall" (page 82), "to smuggle", which just happens to be located next to "to cross the border illegally (page 83), as well as "victim" (page 182). Ultimately, I closed my eyes to regain my composure and perspective. These vocabulary terms are among other handy words such as "Holy Ark" (page 172), "ancient/antiquity" (page 157), "dream" (page 63) and the various colors and ordinal numbers that new immigrants need to know in order to function optimally in Israel's daily life. I was curious to know how they compare to the words that new American citizens learn in the course of assuming their place in US society.
An American friend who teaches English as a Second Language in New Jersey dutifully informed me that the political words and phrases in the dictionary she uses for teaching new Americans preparing for their citizenship tests are of a different mix than those in the text provided by the discreetly unnamed Israeli bank. Here is what the Citizenship: Passing the Test text teaches its readers: "Bill of Rights," "citizen," "Civil War," "Civil Rights Movement," "Congress," "Declaration of Independence," "Democratic Party," "three branches of government," "Republican Party," "President," "Vice President," "Senators," "House of Representatives," "Revolutionary War." The contrast of the vocabulary of the sanity-challenged destruction of innocents versus the consensus of cooperative and peace-minded individuals duly registered in my brain. New Israelis must learn the language of destruction at the hands of those who claim to love Israel's property lines in order to survive in their new but ancient home. Not withstanding the dreadful TIPS acronym, fledgling Americans must learn the language of cooperation, democracy and tolerance in theirs. And isn?t that a political eye-opener, students of comedy, sociology, political science, water-cooler conversationalists and the humanities? I remember when Hebrew-English dictionaries spilled over with inanities like "Parliamentary Government," "democracy," "inclusion," "truth," "pioneer," and that ultimate word for nerds "agronomy."
When Israel's people can return to reading dictionaries that need not include the vocabulary of aggression brought on by an Outsider's Culture of Simultaneous Aggression/Victimization, then all of us will be reading about a Middle East that is blessed with sanity and a cessation of specious claims to a land that has only been cherished and religiously described by Jews.
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Ms. Yocheved Golani, a columnist and freelance writer, is the author of Legacy. For more Golani please see www.Ygolani.com.
Copyright, 2002.