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The poem below came my way this morning. In these States, we often hear that the questioning and opposition to Israeli policies by Israelis is much more vigorous than most of what we experience in this country where much of the the opposition and discussion gets vanquished by x, y and z forces. But without rehearsing the reasons for all that, here is as the note with the poem goes on to say: Recent poem by Aharon Shabtai, an Israeli poet. A few years back New Directions published translations of earlier poems in a collection called J'ACCUSE. ________________________________________________ FAILURE 1 I pray for the failure of this stinking war spread your wings and come, merciful failure come (16 July 2006) 2 Planes rattle toward Lebanon diving toward Ba'albak to destroy a bottle factory 3 I pray that the plane with a bomb in its belly will be beaten by the building's ceiling 4 In the name of the beautiful books I've read- in the name of the kisses I've kissed- may the army be vanquished 5 The Gauleiter of Lebanon has already promised to establish military rule 6 When the tanks reach the Litani grenades will be thrown at them from the Ebro's banks 7 In this war I'm for the villages for the mosques 8 In this war I'm for the Shi'ite family for Tyre 9 for the mother the grandfather for the eight kids in the minivan for the white silk kerchief 10 Ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff barks Olmert 11 Ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff barks Ramon (the minister of justice) 12 The odor of failure wafts from the mouth the stink of war from the tongue 13 Israelis strong the sign shouts from the newspaper building spurring the diners on toward Chimichanga.* ____________ * A fancy Mexican restaurant in Tel Aviv