Last HW of the year

One question due by the final

HW 4/6

This question is posed to a member of the Washington Institute who'll be visiting on April 8th. Your question should couple a detail from the Institute with one from the history we've been studying so far. Below is a description of the Institute from its website:

"Founded in 1985, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy* was established to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East. Under the guidance of a distinguished and bipartisan Board of Advisors, the Institute seeks to bring scholarship to bear on the making of U.S. policy in this vital region of the world. Drawing on the research of its scholars and the experience of policy practitioners, the Institute promotes an American engagement in the Middle East committed to strengthening alliances, nurturing friendships, and promoting security, peace, prosperity, and democracy for the people of the region."

Click here for more.

HW 3/30

This question is one posed to a representative of the ZOA (its mission is below) who's visiting April 1. Your question should combine a detail from the ZOA's mission and a specific piece from the history we've studied so far. Post your questions below by midnight Wednesday, 3/30.

"The ZOA is the only organization that documents and exposes Palestinian Arab violations of the Road Map plan. The ZOA leads the efforts on behalf of American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism. The ZOA's campaigns have repeatedly led to the defeat of hostile critics of Israel who were nominated for important government positions.

The ZOA has played a key role in Congress regarding victims of terrorism, keeping Jerusalem unified under Israeli sovereignty, fighting Hamas and Fatah, and working on the imposition of sanctions on Syria and Saudi Arabia."

For more info, please click here.

3/17 (2)

"Israel is guilty of genocide agsint the Palestinians and Arabs" (The Accusation, 140).

"To be sure, Palestinian civilians have died in the seventy-three-year-long war, but their numbers have been infinitesimal in comparison with the number of Palestinians and Arabs killed by Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran during the same period [...] Moreoever, the Palestinian deaths have resulted primareily from terrorists hiding among their own civilians, as in Lebanon, whereas the Israeli deaths have resulted from innocent civilians being specifically targeted. When Palestinians have been accidently killed in a legitimate effort to prevent terrorism, Israel has expressed genuine regret. The murder of innocent Israelis, on the other hand, has generated celebration among Palestinians" (The Proof, 143).

One question by Thursday night

3/17 (1)

"... a book on the history of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, published in 1925 in Jerusalem, uses the term Urshalmim in the title, and the term al-Quds al-Sharif to describe the place of publication. This vestigial reluctance to use the common Arabic name, with its Islamic overtones, even in works referring to the name somewhere on their title pages, represetns the last flcikering of a rivalry for control of Jerusalem between Islam and Christianity - a rivalry that began in the seventh century with the city's conquest by Muslim armies from Byzantium, was greatly intensified during the Crusades, and abated only in the early twentieth century. More recently, the devotion of some fundamentalist Western Christians to Israel, and their visceral hositility to Islam and the Arabs, shows theat a few embers of this ancient rivalry have not been entirely extinguished" (Palestinian Identity, 16)

One question by Thursday night

Wikipedia

Please post your URL as a comment

Rothko

Mark Rothko's Typtich
Please ask one question for Monday evening:
This tryptich was made to resist narratives and most content-based interpretations, as such it's one of the most difficult things you'll see all year. Below is a manifesto about the point of art in the 20th century written mostly by Rothko. It might assist with your interpretations.

Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko, Statement, 1943*

To the artist the workings of the critical mind is one

of life's mysteries. That is why, we suppose, the art-

ist's complaint that he is misunderstood, especially

by the critic, has become a noisy commonplace. It

is therefore an event when the worm turns and the

critic quietly, yet publicly, confesses his "befuddle-

ment," that he is "nonplused" before our pictures at

the federation show. We salute this honest, we

might say cordial, reaction toward our "obscure"

paintings, for in other critical quarters we seem to

have created a bedlam of hysteria. And we appreci-

ate the gracious opportunity that is being offered us

to present our views.

We do not intend to defend our pictures. They make

their own defense. We consider them clear state-

ments. Your failure to dismiss or disparage them is

prima facie evidence that they carry some commu-

nicative power. We refuse to defend them not be-

cause we cannot. It is an easy matter to explain to

the befuddled that The Rape of Persephone [by Adolph Gottlieb] is a poetic expression

of the essence of the myth; the presentation of the concept of seed and its earth with all

the brutal implications; the impact of elemental truth. Would you have us present this ab-

stract concept, with all its complicated feelings,

by means of a boy and girl lightly tripping?

It is just as easy to explain The Syrian Bull [by

Mark Rothko] as a new interpretation of an ar-

chaic image, involving unprecedented distor-

tions. Since art is timeless, the significant ren-

dition of a symbol, no matter how archaic, has

as full validity today as the archaic symbol had

then. Or is the one 3,000 years old truer? . . .

No possible set of notes can explain our paint-

ings. Their explanation must come out of a

consummated experience between picture and

onlooker. The point at issue, it seems to us, is

not an "explanation" of the paintings, but

whether the intrinsic ideas carried within the

frames of these pictures have significance. We

feel that our pictures demonstrate our aesthetic

beliefs, some of which we, therefore, list:

1.To us art is an adventure into an unknown

world, which can be explored only by those

willing to take the risks.

2. This world of the imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common

sense.

3. It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way—not his

way.

4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large

shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture

plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.

5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one

paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academism. There is no

such thing as good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and

only that subject-matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess

spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.

Consequently, if our work embodies these beliefs it must insult anyone who is spiritually

attuned to interior decoration; pictures for the home; pictures for over the mantel; pic-

tures of the American scene; social pictures; purity in art; prize-winning potboilers; the

National Academy, the Whitney Academy, the Corn Belt Academy; buckeyes; trite tripe,

etc.

HW 2/16

Ask two questions on this video, due Wednesday 2/16.


JEWS LEAVE BRITISH DETENTION CAMP FOR PALESTINE aka JEWISH REFUGEES IN DETENTION CAMP video newsreel film

"Return to Haifa"

Howdy all,

I hope you're enjoying your snow days. If you get around to a little bit of reading/thinking about school. I hope you take a look at some of these links in preparation for the play tomorrow (it still looks like we're going, as of this minute that is...).

The author of the play: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghassan_Kanafani

Start reading "The Case for Israel," Introduction and Chapters 1-3

Kanafani's largest political and literary influence: http://www.iep.utm.edu/sartre-p/

HW 1/6

"Tous les israélites sont solidaires les uns des autres"

This is the French Motto of the Alliance Israélite Universelle , take your time with the translation. Grab a dictionary and do each word alone, before you do the whole sentence (same goes for google translate). Your questions are due by 11:59pm.

HW 1/4

Please ask one interpretive question of this article for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs written by Alec Mishory, PhD. Identify, in your question, what interpretive methods you used to arrive at your question. You may absolutely refer to your Week One notes, but don't be limited by them.

Your question is due 1/4 by 11:59pm.