Steel Notes Magazine
January 2017
Grandma had tried to save Nikki ’ s mom , too . But that wasn ’ t going to happen .
Nikki ’ s father was a young Israeli who couldn ’ t get out of Israel fast enough . He was handsome and charming , a hip , charismatic manipulator , who had convinced Nikki ’ s mom to come to New York with him . He was full of great ideas , but once he and Rachel had arrived in the Big Apple , he ’ d fallen in with the Israeli mafia . Why he ’ d ever been on that commune was a mystery . After they got to the city , all he ever tried to do was make money . Quick money . Shady money . Blood money . It had gotten Rachel killed and sent Nikki ’ s father running , forever . She never saw or heard from him again .
Grandma Naomi , who had taken Nikki in to live with her , wasn ’ t religious at all . She never went to synagogue ; she didn ’ t know much about the religion when it came down to the law or ritual . Nikki wasn ’ t sure her grandmother really believed in God . But the old woman was absolutely pro-Israeli .
Nikki thought it was because she was a first-generation American of a certain era . Grandma had that lower eastside , New York City attitude . Work your way out of the tenements , scholarships to Columbia , or street-savvy success of one kind or another . Whether it was valedictorian or Vaudeville , it was struggling to forge an American identity while evading anti-Semitism .
Grandma would lecture Nikki about the Palestinian issue , explaining how the so-called Palestinians never controlled the land they now claim is occupied by Israel . “ They say give the occupied land back to the Palestinians , but they never had the land . It was part of Jordan that Israel took in a war they didn ’ t start . The Jordanians never gave it to the Palestinians .” she ’ d spit out . “ All the years Arabs controlled the region the so-called Palestinians never had or were given land . They were nomads .”
Then she ’ d give Nikki a history lesson , again . “ People think modern Israel was created for the Jews among all these ancient Arab lands . Almost all of the Middle East was part of the Ottoman Empire . After the Turks were defeated the British gave some land to the Arabs and created the countries of Saudi Arabia , Syria , Lebanon , Iraq .
The British carved Jordon out of Palestine in the early 20th century . They brought King Abdullah , a Hashemite and the Sherif of Mecca , over from Saudi Arabia to rule Jordan . Jordan is 80 percent of Palestine ! It has a majority Palestinian population , for god sakes !”
Grandma would be shouting by this point .
When Nikki had gone to Israel , she ’ d been unconcerned about Middle-east politics . She had feelings , her grandmother ’ s lectures hadn ’ t gone totally unheeded , and her own cursory analysis of the situation showed her many areas where the Arabs had a lot to answer for . But Nikki wasn ’ t going to argue the point .
Besides , despite her grandmother ’ s political reasoning , there were a lot of innocent Palestinians who were living as second-class citizens . Whether that was the fault of the Israelis or their own Arab brothers mattered little . Suffering is revolution ’ s womb .
Nikki thought about how analogous the Israeli / Palestinian conflict was to the one between India and Pakistan over Kashmir . The parallels between the two disputes were striking . They are both framed as religious conflicts , as struggles over land , nationality and a people ’ s self-determination .
Anatol knew a lot about the local history . His knowledge was expansive , and his experience gave it weight . He felt for the people , yet , he was often disgusted with them . He was an idealist ; he was a cynic ; he was an enigma .
She was drawn to him from that first look into his eyes , yet as soon as she heard his French accent the thought that he might be anti-Semitic jumped into her head . That was strange , considering the crazy sexual liaisons in her life , all with
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