Sept 18 2003 Sanjay

After the six-fifty alarm, Monk and Little Bear go out into a light rain. Monk recalls his dream. He was walking down a mall, and he wants to dispose of a razor blade that he is holding. He sees a ragged box, and he flicks the razor into it. He sees the startled reaction of the young lady sitting next to it, an attractive young blonde, and he then sees that the box isn't trash, but an exhibition. She has what looks like little tree condoms inside, trees with condoms on the branches, like Christmas lights, and which are rather colorful in a similar way.

Monk makes his apologies and retrieves his razor. Sounding a little put off and defensive, she asks whether he needs one, with a tone suggesting that he surely has no need for such a luxury. Monk comes back, "What do I get if I put one on?" with a tone and facial expression that turns the question into, "Do I get to fuck you if I get one.?"

She walks off, and Monk sees an old friend from college sitting there. It is Sanjay from India. They were dorm mates. He looks fresh from a makeover. His hair is cut sharp, and he is freshly shaven; his very face seems to glow a golden brown. They enthusiastically greet each other, and Sanjay relates that he just came back from another trip to Europe, where the girls are so much more loving.

Monk treasures the dream. Sanjay had not been on his mind in ages. He loves this gift of dreams, bringing back fond memories of a long buried past.

sept 18, 2003 Holocaust for Palestinian Arabs

David Shipler gives us some haunting imagery of the use of the Holocaust in the Arab-Israeli problem. Shipler asks Abed Samara, a sociology professor, about how his students at an-Najah University on the West Bank react to the story of the Holocaust, and Samar answers:

"They say, 'The Holocaust was a very bad thing for the Palestinians, because the final development of the Holocaust was the creation of Israel in this part of the world against the Palestinians, which means we were the main losers of the Holocaust. Even more than any other people, we are against [the Holocaust] because we are the victims, the final victims, the ultimate ones.' It was the way they reacted."

The haunting imagery comes from Raja Shehadeh's book, "The Third Way," in which he describes "a waking nightmare":

"The soldiers burst into my room and as they surround me their uniforms faded away and turned into striped rags, and their cheeks and their eyes hollowed out and their guns dissolved. They bared their arms and on each one was a concentration camp number. They surrounded me in a tight circle, pointing their tattoed arms at me. As they stood there, all their flesh withered away, and they were just skeletons, interlocked skeletons, gripping each other, encircling me.

" 'Your turn has come,' they whispered.

" 'Why? What have I done?'

" 'You are Samid [the steadfast]. We know all about you, we have been watching you. No one, let that be known, no one will ever get away from us. We are the survivors of our six million brothers.

" 'We are here on earth to avenge our brothers' deaths. This time we shall exterminate every one, before they get a chance to touch us.'

" 'But what have I done?'

" 'What have you done? Don't look so innocent.

" 'You seek our destruction -- as does everyone. You, the Arabs, are the new Nazis. But we shall get you first. Never Again. Never Again. Never Again.'

"As their voices faded out, one reached out and stamped my arm with a number. And then they were gone."

One wanted to post this for its emotional and suggestive flavor, but Shipler also does a good job in distinguishing the actual Holocaust and what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinian Arabs, however aggressive and brutal this may be. Nobody argues reputably that the Jews are trying to carry out an extermination program against the Palestinian Arabs.