Green Lines (Don't Cross Them) Word from: David

This afternoon the poetry forum was hacked into by 'Schipotez, Indonesian community hackers, who want freedome (sic) 4 Palestine and Iraq.' What a bunch of Gado-Gado eating, Gamelan playing jerks! What would President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono think of such antics? Well, now that I have proven my geography nerdiness once again, turn your attention to Kfar Maimon, a farming village in the Western Negev where tens of thousands of opponents of disengagment gathered to try and march to the Gush Katif areas of the Gaza Strip. Footage of their protest was filled with darbouka drumming, random guys with guitars, plenty of Braslav and Chabad style dancing, but they had no seminal song.

Clearly, these orange-garbed masses still haven't found their anthem, a quest well described in this Ha'Aretz article. All major crises in Israeli history call for their own folk song. Some suceed (think 'Yerushalayim Shel Zahav', 'Shir L'Shalom' or 'Hevron, Hevron') some lose their political meaning (like David Broza's 'Yihye Tov') and some miss the mark (like Yehoram Gaon's 'Eretz Zvi' commemorating the rescue of hostages in Uganda.) This is not surprising, if one realizes the dearth of lyricism, within 'dati leumi' music. Kaveret's 'Yo Ya' is now more than thirty years old, but has remained a staple at events due to it's clever use of Rabbinic quotes and lack of alternatives. In the rare event that a song is a not religous text set to music, it tends to be a parody of a secular song. Occasionally it's clever-like taking the angst out of Aviv Gefen's phrase 'we are a screwed up [mezunyan] generation' and changing it to 'we are an excellent [metzuyan] generation.' Generally, such parodies are trite and tiresome.

Still looking to show that you're more Zionist than Ariel Sharon, as you drive to Dougie's in Teaneck? Buy a 'Lovin' Gush Katif' album featuring the likes of Blue Fringe. Hebrew-speakers can listen to a song by aging rocker Ariel Zilber, seen in this article, and available to listeners here. Call me biased because I disagree with Zilber's political opinions, but 'Yehudi Lo Megaresh Yehudi' (A Jew Doesn't Expel A Jew) has disengaged from the witty lyrics that made the man one of Israel's first bona fide rock stars. Etti Levi, an underrated Mizrahi singer and Zehava Ben look-alike released a melancholy pro-settlement song called 'Argazim' (Crates). Perhaps the biggest surprise of 05' is that the T.A.C.T family, which includes rappers like Subliminal, has remained nationalist, while moving away from the right. Their last album had 'Viens Ici' a song decrying French racism, but also included 'Peace In The Middle East, performed for Shimon Peres on Israeli television. The collection of rappers and singers also released a remake of an seventies Israeli army song called 'Prahim B'Kane' (Flowers in the Cannon) which had previously been covered by EthniX-track 14, if you're listening.

Orange you glad I made a reference to Grandmaster Flash in the title?