camera comedy troupe

CAMERA Comedy Troupe

Four of us went to see the "Jimmie Tingle for President" performance

last Saturday night. I have attended a number of shows at his

Somerville theater over the last five years and, if I did not always

laugh at his political humor throughout each one, I always felt good

about supporting Jimmie Tingle. At his core he is simply a good,

decent person. (I had the opportunity to have lunch with him once when

he provided the local Tikkun group with the space for a speaking

engagement for Michael Lerner.) But it was a bittersweet evening.

Jimmie is shutting the doors next week. I will miss the theater but

expect that I will be seeing him perform in other venues in the near

future.

I wondered who would take his place and provide us with the highly

sophisticated comedy that I had come to expect. This morning's Boston

Globe provided the answer - welcome to the CAMERA Comedy Troupe.

I used to get angry reading CAMERA stuff.

Now, I just love what they do. I can't quite figure out if they are

more like Stephen Colbert or Laugh-In.

What is sad is that I think they probably want to support the

Government of Israel. What is sad is they probably think what they say

is profound and serious. What is not sad is that come off as a

caricature of a ridiculously foolish propaganda machine.

In an op-ed by someone described as its "Christian media analyst" the

writer from CAMERA in "Hate at the altar" paints a vivid picture with

nooses hanging from trees just prior to a lynching of an

"African-Americans" to the Old South Church and Sabeel. What a cool

backdrop for the presentation!

The star of this version of the "Perils of Palestine", the man with

the black cloak and the wide mustache, is Dr. Naim Ateek, founder of

Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center "an international peace

movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land, who

seek a just peace based on two states--Palestine and Israel--as

defined by international law and existing United Nations resolutions."

(NOTE you might want to have a little background of Dr. Ateek that the

CAMERA Comedy Troupe failed to provide. Naim Ateek had just turned

eleven when his town of Beisan (Beth Shean) twenty miles south of the

Sea of Galilee was occupied by Israeli soldiers on May 12, 1948 during

the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The Ateek family, with Naim, were

Christians in a predominantly Muslim community. For two weeks they

lived under occupation when finally the military commander informed

his father that unless the family left straightaway, they would be

killed. All the Christians were relocated to Nazareth and the Muslims

were deported to Jordan. This traumatic and sudden dislocation was the

Ateek family's personal version of the event the Arabs call, the

"Nakba" (the catastrophe). When the Ateek's were finally permitted to

travel to Beisan a decade later, they discovered their former home was

now occupied by a Jewish family. Shortly after, Ateek's father

suffered a paralyzing stroke. Naim earned his BA degree from

Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas in 1963, and his Master of

Divinity degree in 1966 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific

(CDSP), Berkeley, California. He then returned to Galilee where he

started his ministry after being ordained priest in the Episcopal

Church. In 1974, Naim was married to Maha Fuad Aranki of Birzeit, West

Bank (Palestine) In the early 1980's he returned to the United States

where he completed his doctoral studies at San Francisco Theological

Seminary. Dr. Ateek has also received honorary Doctors of Divinity

from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, California

and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the

distinguished alumni award from San Francisco Theological Seminary.

This year, Dr. Ateek received the Sayre award from the Episcopal Peace

Fellowship USA. After 30 years of parish ministry, Naim took an early

retirement and dedicated his time to the ministry of Sabeel, the

Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center that he helped to found at the

beginning of the 1990's. As the president and director of Sabeel, he

expanded Sabeel's ministry both inside the country as well as abroad.

In addition to the work of justice and peace, it includes the

ecumenical ministry within the Christian community and the inter-faith

work between Christians and Muslims.)

So here we have the portrayal of this person who has devoted the last

nearly twenty years to working with Sabeel for peace in

Israel/Palestine - listen as we hear his words of the man in the

mustache as he strokes it with the evil grin - "The Government of

Israel is like Herod."

And don't we know what Herod did? He ordered that all infants be

murdered in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus "according to the

Christian gospel".

And don't we know what that means that Dr. Ateek means

drum roll please ..............

He is saying that Israel (and, in case you don't get the message, that

includes any of you who are reading the Boston Globe this morning who

are of the Jewish persuasion) attempted to murder the infant Jesus.

(Stagehand enters left and posts sign for the audience -

hhhhhiiiiiissssssss!!)

So that's what Dr. Ateek was trying to say wasn't he?

That's all there was to Herod, wasn't it?

Not really.

He accomplished a lot like the expansion of the Second Temple in

Jerusalem, the development of water supplies for Jerusalem, building

fortresses such as Masada and Herodium, and founding new cities such

as Caesarea Maritima.

But he could have been criticized for burning alive Judas and Matthias

and their students. He did murder one of his ten wives. He did execute

two of his sons, Aristobulus and Antipater, causing the emperor

Augustus to joke that it was preferable to be Herod's pig (hus) than

his son (huios). He may have ordered the violent destruction by fire

of the monastery at Qumran, the home of the Essenes, suffered a

violent and deliberate destruction by fire in 8 BCE. He may have

ordered the murder of all children under the age of 2 in Bethlehem.

And, by the way, wasn't Herod Jewish? He was an Idumaean. When Idumea

was conquered in 140BC all Idumaeans were required to obey Jewish law

or leave and most converted to Judaism. King Herod identified himself

as a Jew and was considered as such by some but not by others.

Could it be that Dr. Ateek was trying to say that the Government of

Israel - in its brutal treatment of Palestinian men, women and

children by demolishing their homes, by overreacting to unjustified

acts of violence by killing innocents, by caused substantial economic

harm by preventing the harvesting of olives, by neglecting their

unemployment and their poverty, by allowing the death of soon-to-be

born babies because of delays at checkpoints - was acting in a way

that was similar to the cruelty of Herod?

The irony is that on other pages of the Boston Globe this morning are

two stories: the first about intruders (thought to be Jewish

extremists) who broke into a Jerusalem church and set the building on

fire - one that was rebuilt 25 years ago after being burned down by

ultra-Orthodox extremists; the other about a plan (not public yet)

whereby the Government of Israel will shut off the electricity to Gaza

after every rocket attack. (This reminds me of the comments of one of

the women of the Jerusalem Women Speak panel. Her cousin was paralyzed

after being hit by an Israeli missile and is being kept alive in Gaza

by medical equipment which is electrically operated.).

Since I am getting tired laughing, I will leave to another time more

credit to this comedy team for the other two jokes: how "the Israel

government crucifixion system is operating" and "Palestine has become

the place of the skull." means that he is accusing Israel of "the

crucifixion of Jesus the prophet"; and how "Ateek compared the Israeli

occupation to the stone blocking Christ's tomb" means that he blames

Israel "for blocking the resurrection of Christ the Savior"

But seriously, folks, this is so far beyond intellectual dishonesty as

to be farcical.

Isn't this a stereotypical example of a smear campaign?. Isn't the

writer throwing a huge glob of mud on the wall connecting non-existent

dots to accuse Dr. Ateek of saying that the Jews killed Christ?

But now, here comes the writer with his best and most hilarious skit,

you know the one where he says

"Taken to its logical end, language like this suggests that the only

solution to Palestinian suffering is Israel's elimination, which

Sabeel called for in a 2004 document that stated the organization's

"vision for the future" is "one-state for two nations and three

religions."

Oh, so that's what it means to call for the one state solution does it

- the elimination of Israel?

That is certainly the final straw - he is suggesting a one state

solution.

But if you are going to attack someone just because they are trying to

bring about a one state solution, wouldn't that mean that I would not

be able to attend any program where a speaker is an official of the

Government of Israel. Isn't it the Government of Israel that over the

last 40 years: has promoted and supported the creation and expansion

of the settlements, has created now over 500 checkpoints closures and

barriers, taken control over 42% of the land in the West Bank for

military and other purposes, spent billions of dollars building a

Jewish only road system leading to "facts on the ground" that no

longer make the establishment of a viable contiguous Palestinian state

an option?

And would I be able to attend any program where a speaker is an

official of the Government of the United States. Didn't President Bush

in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on April 14, 2004,

recognize the permanence of major Israeli settlements in the occupied

territories, stressing the irreversibility of "new realities on the

ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers?"

And, of course, we must not forget to ban attending any program where

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is speaking since today's Boston

Globe this morning reports that she said yesterday that a "two-state

solution" in the Middle East is in jeopardy and that "our concern is

growing that without serous political prospect for the Palestinians

that gives to moderate leaders a horizon that they can show to their

people that indeed there is a two-state solution that is possible, we

will lose the window for a two-state solution".

How dare she even imply that there might be an alternative to the

two-state solution? I wonder what that might be?

Stay tuned - soon appearing in a theater near you - CAMERA Comedy

Troupe

You really have to try to laugh!!!