IMAGINE THIS, JOHN LENNON
by Asher Keren
It is now over a quarter of a century since you were gunned down, but hardly a day goes by that I do not hear one of your songs of genius on the radio. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear what has become perhaps your most famous ballad, Imagine. And despite my deep admiration for your works, your creativity and sensitivity, your courage and your sincerity, I cannot abide to hear Imagine ever again.
Imagine now, Mr. Lennon, and the myriad of your followers and the false peace culture that you helped to create, driving in a car that you know will explode any second. Imagine yourself a twenty year old young woman sitting next to a Palestinian terrorist carrying a bag full of explosives. Better yet, imagine yourself a sixteen year old lad just saying goodbye for the last time to your mother on your cellular seconds before that same terrorist decides to push the murderous button. Imagine, if you can from your place in heaven which you imagined didn?t exist, the fear and trembling of the children of the couple blown to bits and pieces, together with the two others, when news of the explosion gets out and rumor rules the early night, along with blood and body parts strewn across the entrance to Kedumim. Imagine how the families of the murdered are praying for their loved ones that there is a heaven.
Would it not have been more productive, more helpful, Mr. Lennon, to try to understand the warped, deranged and sickened mind of a twenty four year old man (if he can be called a man) deciding to end his life by killing and defiling as much as he possibly can. No doubt this Palestinian, as almost every other person in our world, has heard your song Imagine much more than just once and you know what, it just didn?t matter to him. Not because HE didn?t get it, but because YOU didn?t get it. Your dream of peace has no doubt touched the hearts and souls and minds of countless millions across the globe over the years. But that did not stop 9/11, it didn?t stop the bombings in London and Madrid, Indonesia and Pakistan. Imagine didn?t stop the war in Kosovo or in Chechnya, nor did it stop Iraq from invading Kuwait nor America from invading Iraq. The Iranians seem to pay no heed to your message as they continue developing the bomb, and the thousands in Africa suffering slavery, poverty and degradation can hardly thank you for changing their lives.
You see, Mr. Lennon, dreams have value, but they must be fought for in the gutter of life for them to be achieved. You and the others that sang of peace did not know that gutter and you were not part of the effort to make dreams real and practical. Neither are the vacuous dreamers of the New Israel Fund or Meretz or Peace Now or any of the others that imagine a life without anything of value, like religion or possessions or yes, even countries. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream, Mr. Lennon, no less worthy than yours, and his followers got bloodied up in pursuing it and even achieving it to a great, albeit not final, degree. Theodore Herzl had a dream and it took an army to see it come to life, with guns, tanks and war planes. That is just how it works. It is terribly sad, Mr. Lennon, but it is true.
We Israelis have our pseudo-Lennons singing songs of peace that imagine an end to all hostilities and we Jews have our share of false poets, philanthropists and politicians that would rather talk of peace and paint pictures of doves and donate great amounts of money to establish joint Palestinian - Jewish summer camps and schools and get Nobel Peace Prizes along with terrorists as if this entire world and even its evil did not exist. The problem is, can you imagine it, that EVIL DOES EXIST! And it is not going to go away by strumming a guitar or by appeasing murderers with deranged values and bloodthirsty cultures. The Palestinian people still kill their own daughters for looking the wrong way at a man and they still abuse their children in the most dehumanizing of ways, as any sociologist that has studied their culture will tell you. Can you really imagine that they will one day act with grace towards the Jews?
Imagine the horror engulfing now the village of Kedumim, as the townspeople bury their mutilated dead. Perhaps instead of imagining making peace with terrorists, it is time to avenge our blood. I imagine that if we did so we would at least get a refrain from the violence. I know this because I know the Arabs. I do not know peace. Do you?
by Asher Keren
It is now over a quarter of a century since you were gunned down, but hardly a day goes by that I do not hear one of your songs of genius on the radio. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear what has become perhaps your most famous ballad, Imagine. And despite my deep admiration for your works, your creativity and sensitivity, your courage and your sincerity, I cannot abide to hear Imagine ever again.
Imagine now, Mr. Lennon, and the myriad of your followers and the false peace culture that you helped to create, driving in a car that you know will explode any second. Imagine yourself a twenty year old young woman sitting next to a Palestinian terrorist carrying a bag full of explosives. Better yet, imagine yourself a sixteen year old lad just saying goodbye for the last time to your mother on your cellular seconds before that same terrorist decides to push the murderous button. Imagine, if you can from your place in heaven which you imagined didn?t exist, the fear and trembling of the children of the couple blown to bits and pieces, together with the two others, when news of the explosion gets out and rumor rules the early night, along with blood and body parts strewn across the entrance to Kedumim. Imagine how the families of the murdered are praying for their loved ones that there is a heaven.
Would it not have been more productive, more helpful, Mr. Lennon, to try to understand the warped, deranged and sickened mind of a twenty four year old man (if he can be called a man) deciding to end his life by killing and defiling as much as he possibly can. No doubt this Palestinian, as almost every other person in our world, has heard your song Imagine much more than just once and you know what, it just didn?t matter to him. Not because HE didn?t get it, but because YOU didn?t get it. Your dream of peace has no doubt touched the hearts and souls and minds of countless millions across the globe over the years. But that did not stop 9/11, it didn?t stop the bombings in London and Madrid, Indonesia and Pakistan. Imagine didn?t stop the war in Kosovo or in Chechnya, nor did it stop Iraq from invading Kuwait nor America from invading Iraq. The Iranians seem to pay no heed to your message as they continue developing the bomb, and the thousands in Africa suffering slavery, poverty and degradation can hardly thank you for changing their lives.
You see, Mr. Lennon, dreams have value, but they must be fought for in the gutter of life for them to be achieved. You and the others that sang of peace did not know that gutter and you were not part of the effort to make dreams real and practical. Neither are the vacuous dreamers of the New Israel Fund or Meretz or Peace Now or any of the others that imagine a life without anything of value, like religion or possessions or yes, even countries. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream, Mr. Lennon, no less worthy than yours, and his followers got bloodied up in pursuing it and even achieving it to a great, albeit not final, degree. Theodore Herzl had a dream and it took an army to see it come to life, with guns, tanks and war planes. That is just how it works. It is terribly sad, Mr. Lennon, but it is true.
We Israelis have our pseudo-Lennons singing songs of peace that imagine an end to all hostilities and we Jews have our share of false poets, philanthropists and politicians that would rather talk of peace and paint pictures of doves and donate great amounts of money to establish joint Palestinian - Jewish summer camps and schools and get Nobel Peace Prizes along with terrorists as if this entire world and even its evil did not exist. The problem is, can you imagine it, that EVIL DOES EXIST! And it is not going to go away by strumming a guitar or by appeasing murderers with deranged values and bloodthirsty cultures. The Palestinian people still kill their own daughters for looking the wrong way at a man and they still abuse their children in the most dehumanizing of ways, as any sociologist that has studied their culture will tell you. Can you really imagine that they will one day act with grace towards the Jews?
Imagine the horror engulfing now the village of Kedumim, as the townspeople bury their mutilated dead. Perhaps instead of imagining making peace with terrorists, it is time to avenge our blood. I imagine that if we did so we would at least get a refrain from the violence. I know this because I know the Arabs. I do not know peace. Do you?
