Poetry
Poetry
not by accident
he promised peace and brought war
he spoke peace and enlarged the settlements
he confiscated the others’ birthright
he demolished their history
he paralyzed their economy
he uprooted their olive tree souls
he divided their lands with our roads
he continually harassed their civilians
he caused our rage to infect their hearts
he violated signed agreements
he negotiated peace by dictating capitulation
he was not satisfied with only most of their land
he pretended a little annexation was not much control
he tried to coerce their acceptance of isolated cantons
he feigned agreement to divide the most precious city
he denied their right to their most sacred site
he boasted of not returning one inch of territory
he pushed the button for the explosion
he sent cold-blooded snipers to shoot their children
he besieged their villages to force their surrender
he bombed their homes and neighborhoods
he sanctioned death squads to escalate the violence
he offered no empathy with the other side
he treated them as the enemy
he humiliated their leader while negotiating with him
he never uttered even one positive word about him
he persuaded us to hate them and their leaders
he caused his own people to despair of peace
he showed complete indifference to our social issues
he did next to nothing to remedy our social ills
he treated our own them with contempt
he did not appoint one of our own them as minister
he was silent when we killed thirteen of our own them
he did not send the commanding officer to hell
he convinced us to elect a war criminal
a lyrical adaptation by vincent white
of the lament by uri avnery about the betrayal
of the israeli peace movement by ehud barak
