A Tale of Love and Darkness Page #3

He fired two bullets

through the closed window

into the garden.

By chance, he hit a pigeon

which was found wounded

in the garden the next day.

Then he fired one shot

at a bottle on the table...

Two more at the chandelier...

And then...

Once, I found a note

in a crack in a desk drawer.

It was written

in a woman's handwriting.

"To my precious

little wolf cub.

"In all my life I've

never met a better, more

generous man than you.

I am not worthy to kiss

the soles of your shoes."

There were two

spelling mistakes.

It was signed with an n,

and she sketched lips below it.

Nobody knows anything

about anyone...

Not even

the person you marry,

and not even

about ourselves.

We know nothing.

But if we sometimes imagine

that we do know something,

that's even worse.

It's better to live

without knowing

than to live in error.

November 29, 1947

tonight...

At lake success, near New York,

the general assembly of

the un will vote on what?

Adopting the unscop proposal.

And what's the proposal?

To create two states

out of the British mandate:

One Jewish, and one arab.

Who opposes it?

The Muslim bloc and britain.

And why?

They want an arab state

under British protection.

Like Egypt,

transjordan and Iraq.

Well done!

You know, the name

lake success...

Is the opposite

of the sea of tears,

with symbolized the fate of

our people for the poet bialik.

It's interesting.

Interesting.

Norway -- yes.

Pakistan --

no.

Panama --

yes.

Paraguay --

yes.

Could you please

help me?

Philippines --

yes.

Poland --

yes.

Saudi Arabia --

no.

Siam-- absent.

Sweden --

yes.

Syria --

no.

Turkey --

no.

Ukraine --

yes.

South Africa --

yes.

Soviet union --

yes.

United Kingdom --

abstained.

United States --

yes.

Uruguay --

yes.

Venezuela --

yes.

Yemen --

no.

Yugoslavia --

abstained.

The resolution

of the ad hoc committee

for palestine

was adopted by 33 votes--

13 against, 10 abstained.

The Jewish nation lives!

The Jewish nation lives!

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Everything

is about to change.

I told you it would.

We brought peace unto you!

You can't imagine what

the gentile boys did to me

in my school in vilna.

Then, when my father,

your grandfather, came

to the school to complain,

they attacked him too.

They threw him

to the ground,

and removed his pants

in the middle of the yard.

All the children laughed.

And the teachers watched

and were silent.

Some of them also laughed.

Bullies may well

bully you someday

in the street

or at school.

They may do it just because

you're a bit like me.

But from now on,

now that we have

our own state,

you will never be bullied

just because you are a Jew.

Never again.

A few hours later,

at seven in the morning,

while we were all asleep,

shots were fired on

Jewish vehicles in Jerusalem,

which turned into riots

across the country.

My code name

is garibaldi.

I'll be instructing

you how to help

in our patriotic

wartime efforts.

You will help...

You will search all

the storage yards and sheds

for empty bags

to fill with sand,

and empty bottles

to make "cocktails"

that will be very tasty

for the enemy.

You also will

gather edible Greens

from empty fields,

to help relieve

the hunger in Jerusalem.

And we'll also serve

as look-outs...

To observe any movements

by the brits.

Now go!

How beautiful.

Wash them off

and I'll cook them

right now.

You must be hungry

after all your food foraging.

Put some water in this.

Fanitchka?

I joined the national guard.

Don't you have anything

to say about that?

What do you want me to say?

Congratulations.

You're very brave.

The war infiltrated our home.

Life became

rations, sandbags,

mourning.

In the lives of individuals,

and in the lives of nations,

the worst conflicts erupt

between two persecuted people.

Only in the imagination

do the persecuted

unite in solidarity

to fight together against

their ruthless oppressor.

In reality,

two children of

the same abusive father

will not necessarily

become allies.

Often, each sees

in his brother

their father's

threatening ways.

Europe abused the arabs,

humiliating them

with colonialism...

And the same Europe persecuted

and annihilated the Jews.

But the arabs see us

as an arrogant new branch

of European colonialism

and exploitation,

and we do not see arabs

as brothers in adversity,

but rather, as anti-semites,

Nazis in disguise.

...after 30 years

of the British mandate...

The new state was born

with David Ben-gurion's

declaration in Tel Aviv

just hours earlier.

For weeks, our

basement apartment was turned

into a kind of bomb shelter

for the residents

of the apartments above us.

You're pulling. It hurts!

What is this?

Crumbs everywhere!

You can't make

such a mess here!

A hundred Jews were burned alive

yesterday near sheikh Jarrah.

They were in a convoy

going up to the hospital

and university.

A hundred people!

Doctors, nurses, students.

-Why didn't we save them?

-The British wouldn't let us.

Who can even stomach

this chicken,

when horrors like that

happen right in front of us?

The children haven't

eaten meat in two months.

Here you go, ma'am.

Who's next?

When her friend died,

when real tragedy

landed outside the pages

of my mother's novels,

the suffering

wasn't romantic at all.

There's an armistice

agreement with Egypt.

Next will be transjordan,

and then Syria and Lebanon.

When the British left,

the green line was drawn

around Israel.

Our neighbors moved back

to their own homes,

euphoric and optimistic,

and left us along

to ourselves.

The improbable creation

of the new state of Israel

extinguished thousands

of years of Jewish longing

for a homeland of its own.

Maybe my mother felt the loss

of this passion, this dream,

because suddenly she stopped

telling her stories.

What do my eyes see?

A boy, about three, standing

in the middle of the street,

and a military vehicle

rushing toward him.

I mustered all my strength.

I yelled to him.

"Boy! Boy!"

It seemed

my shout reached him,

because he quickly

jumped aside.

Who knows? Maybe

his mother left him alone,

or maybe she's poor

and can't support him--

and can't stand

to see him starve,

or maybe he's an orphan.

Yes, there are children

like that in our world too.

Give me your sandwich!

Give me your sandwich!

Our blood will not

be spilled in vain!

Abandoned property

I'll be back

in fifteen minutes.

Can I go with you?

I need to be

alone for a bit.

You can be alone too.

I'll be back soon.

Maybe you can

finally tell me.

What is it about you that

makes me love you so much?

More than anything...

More than anything,

i love your innocence.

I've never encountered

anything like it.

Even after you live out

your entire life,

and have all kinds

of experiences,

your innocence

will never abandon you.

I think you'll grow up

to be a man...

Who is open and enthusiastic

like your father,

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