George Dance wrote:
Israel
Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself
Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation
chosen to be a nation – none of these lands is yours, all of you are
thieves of holiness, all of you are at war with Mercy. Who will say
it? Will America say, We have stolen it, or France step down? Will
Russia confess, or Poland say, We have sinned? All bloated on their
scraps of destiny, all swaggering in the immunity of superstition.
[...]
Therefore the lands belong to none of you, the borders do not hold,
the Law will never serve the lawless. To every people the land is
given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the
constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation’s sweet
dreams of itself. The Covenant is broken, the condition is
dishonoured, have you not noticed that the land has been taken away?
[...]
You decompose behind your flimsy armour, your stench alarms you, your
panic strikes at love. The land is not yours, the land has been taken
back, your shrines fall through empty air, your tablets are quickly
revised, and you bow down in hell beside your hired torturers, and
still you count your battalions and crank out your marching songs.
Your righteous enemy is listening.
[...]
Because you are swollen with your so little time. Because you do not
wrestle with your angel. Because you dare to live without G-d. Because
your cowardice has led you to believe that the victor does not limp.
—
Leonard Cohen
from Book of Mercy (1984), sct. 27.
http://www.mcclelland.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771021824
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Mercy-Leonard-Cohen/dp/0771021828
(Note for Karla Rogers: the above is by Leonard Cohen.)
