Dove's Eye View

Hummous - Chickpea Tahini Dip

When all else fails, take some hummous to some friends. Eat. Appreciate your life.

I usually double this amount, and triple for large parties.

1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas (garbanzos)
2 - 3 tablespoons tahini
2+ lemons, juiced and strained
2 - 3 cloves garlic, pressed or crushed (use fresh - no substitutes!)
Salt
Olive oil
Paprika for garnish
Olive for garnish

Drain the chickpeas, reserving some of the liquid. You may also reserve a few whole chickpeas for garnish. Some like to rinse away the taste of the can with fresh water.

If you are committed to "slow" food, and if the taste of freshly cooked chickpeas is important to you, soak a cup of dry chickpeas overnight, drain, then cover generously with water and simmer until tender. Depending on the age of the legume, this could take two or three hours. Reserve some of the cooking water.

If you want to be extremely meticulous, rub the outer skins off all the chickpeas, using your fingers. This lends an incredibly smooth, creamy texture. Most hummous today is made with the skins still on! I usually skip this step.

Combine chickpeas, garlic, tahini in a food processor and blend; add lemon juice gradually. The mixture should become smooth and spreadable, like a thick cake batter. Proportions of tahini and lemon juice depend upon taste and feel. Add bean liquid if it seems too "dry" and pasty.

Be sure to blend until all chickpeas are utterly pulverized. Salt sparingly if using canned - chickpeas may already be salted.

Turn out into a shallow bowl. Serve at room temperature, sprinkle with paprika, garnish with an olive or a few reserved whole chickpeas, and drizzle with best quality olive oil. Serve pita bread cut into triangles, sliced baguettes, or raw vegetables for dipping.

Mjaddarah - Lentils, Caramelized Onions and Rice

This simple dish of lentils, grain and onions is a down home favorite in the Levant. Muslim, Christian and Jewish families of the Middle East all savor it as a humble pleasure fit for kings. It never occurred to me that a "mess of pottage" would be popular in the West, but after my husband reported that his co-workers were crazy for a local deli's mjaddarah, I decided to start cooking it.

The following sophisticated version made with rice and caramelized onions comes from Claudia Roden's Cairo family. Total strangers have raved over this dish at parties. Since it is served at room temperature but doesn't have any particularly volatile ingredients, it is a great candidate for pot luck, especially vegetarian. Recipe appears in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Serves 4-6

3 large onions, cut in half and sliced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups large brown or green lentils
1 1/4 cups long-grain white rice
Salt and pepper

Fry the onions slowly in a large pan over very low heat in 3-4 tablespoons of the oil - covered to begin with, until they soften, stirring often, and then uncovered-- until they turn a rich golden brown.

Rinse the lentils in cold water and drain. Cook in 5 1/2 cups water for 20 minutes. Add half the fried onions and the rice to the lentils. Season with salt and pepper and stir well. Put the lid on and cook over very low heat for another 20 minutes, or until the rice and lentils are tender, watching and adding water if it becomes too dry. Please note that the amounts of water may vary widely. You must watch it carefully!

At the same time, put the remaining onions in the pan back on the fire, and continue to fry them, stirring often, over medium to high heat, until they are a dark brown -- almost caramelized.
Serve the lentils and rice cold or warm in a wide shallow dish with the onions sprinkled on top and the remaining raw olive oil poured all over.

Yogurt and a salad of greens and cucumbers are favorite accompaniments.

Nonviolence: Intifada of the Fence

Nonviolent resistance to the fence continues in Palestine. Israelis and Palestinians work together using nonviolent techniques. From Ha'aretz: Picking their battles by Aviv Lavie

Quote:

"It's become an almost daily routine. Every morning the residents of villages located on the planned route of the separation fence - from Elkana in Samaria to the outskirts of Jerusalem - wake up to the harsh metallic noise of the bulldozers. In the early morning hours the heavy machinery rumbles into the area, surrounded by security guards and army and Border Police troops. The villagers go out to their land in full force: men and women, young and old alike. They position themselves opposite the soldiers, wave flags, sing and try to get to the giant machines or sit down on the ground in an attempt to block them. And then what? Only God knows.

"Some speak of December 26, 2003 as the turning point. That was the day on which an Israeli demonstrating against the fence, Gil Na'amati, was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers at the village of Maskha, in Samaria. "What happened at Mes'ha, and the noise it created, shook up the Palestinians," says an Israeli who took part in some demonstrations. "They understood that they had to organize for a struggle against the fence and that the struggle could have an impact." Some of the interviewees term this uprising, which involves a civilian population of all ages, the "intifada of the fence," as distinct from the more familiar one of the terrorist organizations, the attacks and the armed fighters. "

Thanks to Aron's Israel Weblog for the link.

Adrienne Rich on Jewish Voice for Peace

I received via e-mail remarks given by the poet Adrienne Rich at a reception for Jewish Voice for Peace. The printed remarks don't seem to be on the website yet, but they came from one of JVP's directors. I'll reprint them below. Adrienne Rich is one of our greatest living American poets.

Words for Jewish Voice for Peace---April 4 2004

I've been asked to say a few words about the importance of Jewish activism against the Occupation. Whether in the U.S., Israel or elsewhere, I think every shred of it matters. It's the embodiment of an ethical Judaism, of "that which is hateful to you, do not to others." It is the rejection of an idolatrous version of Israel and of the soil. It is a recognition that history is not Jewish alone. It is a critical, educative response to what has been claimed as "Israel's right to exist"--at any cost and on any terms, including a blindered self-destructiveness.

This is how I see opposition to the Occupation in philosophical terms. I have to say that when I read in the Jewish Peace News, or in reports from Bat Shalom, or Gush Shalom or elsewhere, of Israeli activists non-violently protesting the Wall alongside Palestinians, or monitoring checkpoints, of Israeli refuseniks, or, going much further back, of Women in Black standing vigil for years, of American Jews demonstrating against the Occupation in city after city, when I watched the video of the Jewish Voice for Peace's recent dignified and well-choreographed demonstration at Caterpillar, I feel emotionally strengthened in hope and resolve. I think this kind of activity---demonstrating, publishing a newsletter, writing, speaking, crossing lines to meet and stand with others in resistance---carries its message further out than we can know, including to other Jews who have been looking away or afraid to speak out. At this time, when so much hope seems to have disappeared down a political suckhole in the demonic collusion of our own rightwing government with that of Israel, we need to remember that.

Tomorrow evening, Jews around the world gather to retell and celebrate the Exodus. At some seder tables, undoubtedly, there will be some allusion to the sufferings inflicted on the Palestinian people, in our name. But I don't think that can suffice. Our hopes and efforts really imply a new Exodus, out from the Occupation mentality, the Mitzrayim, that justifies such cruelty and the doing to others what we ourselves have found so hateful that we have retold its story for thousands of years. I spoke of Jewish activism as --educative-- from the Latin to lead out. I see Jewish activism here and in Israel as leading out from the idea of tikkun olam toward a new evolution of Jewish consciousness, not only against the Occupation but in solidarity with all who are trying to liberate themselves. Let's not deceive ourselves: this is not a simple or straightforward movement. It's a long sojourn in a different kind of desert, a sojourn to be shared with others, and I believe the people of Jewish Voice for Peace are part of its reality.

Adrienne Rich
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Take a moment to tell your friends and family about JVP.

Archbishop of Canterbury on Islam

The ex Archbishop of Canterbury gave a lecture I found of great interest, titled Christianity and Islam: Collision or convergence?

Recently I had a conversation with a dear friend, someone I consider cosmopolitan and open-minded, who felt that Islam must be a religion with innate violent tendencies. Since I've only taken Islam 101, and that at college during the Carter administration (yes!), my response to this friend seemed weak, unscholarly, lacking in erudition.

Lord Carey, ex Archbishop, confronts the Samuel Huntington "Clash of Civilizations" theory head on, asking:

"What are the reasons for Islam’s association with terrorism and death? What challenges does Islam itself face? What is Islam’s challenge to the West in general and Christianity in particular? How may we move from collision to convergence in mutual understanding and respect? "

I wish I'd had this lecture at my fingertips when I talked with my friend...

Of course as I read further, I find that retired Archbishops *will* talk about God. This doesn't help when discussing religion with some of my nearest and dearest. Still, Lord Carey's words reflect my own best aspirations:

"I for one do not accept that the future is one of escalating violence, deepening bitterness and a grudging dialogue between ‘incompatible faiths’ and cultures. ...We must deepen inter-faith co-operation and understanding. ....There is still too little comprehension in political circles of the power of authentic faith and the possibilities of harnessing the religious imagination and energy for peace.

"We must focus on root causes of unrest where religions clash and seek to heal the wounds of the past. We must confront the deep sense of injustice felt by ordinary Muslims in much of the developing world where people see the tyranny of their own leaders, the growing gap between rich and poor and what they see as the massive support of the West to regimes inimical to Islam.

"Israel, as I have already said, is a serious flashpoint of unrest and America has a key role to play in healing the wounds of a land beloved to adherents of three world religions. However, Muslims do not perceive even-handedness in America’s treatment of Palestinians and the Palestinian cause. Of course, Israel has a right to a homeland and above all to peace. There can be no serious argument about that. Christians, of all people, should honour the special religious ties they have with Jewish people. That should not restrain us from recognising that Palestine, no less, demands and deserves a viable State with secure borders and an independent Government. Resolve this urgent issue and a great deal of Muslim bitterness and antagonism towards the West will in time be replaced by understanding. This longest-running conflict in modern times deserves the West’s urgent attention.

"Compassion and understanding are the only tools to handle hatred and violence. It will do us little good if the West simply believes the answer is to put an end to Osama bin Laden. Rather we must put an end to conditions, distortions and misinformation that create Osama bin Laden and his many emulators. It is the battle of ideas we must win, not to show the many bruised and aggrieved Muslims that we are stronger and more powerful than they are. In this task Christian theologians, teachers, priests, pastors and people have a significant role to play. Christianity has much in common with Islam and working from common moral demands, our joint commitment to family life and religious values, our agreement concerning the importance of worshipping God and teaching all people to build their lives on eternal and abiding values should give us confidence to create relationships between us that endure. If we do not, the future will remain hazardous and threatening. As Christopher Coker says in ‘Twilight of the West’ as he contemplates the threat of terrorism in the modern world: ‘What makes Islamic fundamentalism so dangerous ..is the appeal of science and technology in the modern Islamic imagination…there has been no smashing of machines, no repudiation of the Western sciences’. Indeed, 911 has taught us as much.

"Yes, we live in dangerous times. But we live, no less, in times where good will, understanding, frankness based on respect and tolerance may yield offer an exciting future. Let us look forward to the day when we shall not talk about faiths colliding, but Islam and Christianity converging in a common desire to create a world of tolerance and peace and building communities on those shared values that make us human and capable of giving and receiving God’s gift of love."

Thanks to Sojourners Magazinefor the link.

Israel The Alternative

Tony Judt wrote an article in the NY Review of Books: Israel The Alternative back in October 2003 that sets forth much more lucidly than I did why the one-state solution is the only alternative for true peace.

"The true alternative facing the Middle East in coming years will be between an ethnically cleansed Greater Israel and a single, integrated, binational state of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. That is indeed how the hard-liners in Sharon's cabinet see the choice; and that is why they anticipate the removal of the Arabs as the ineluctable condition for the survival of a Jewish state.

"But what if there were no place in the world today for a "Jewish state"? What if the binational solution were not just increasingly likely, but actually a desirable outcome? It is not such a very odd thought. Most of the readers of this essay live in pluralist states which have long since become multiethnic and multicultural. "Christian Europe," pace M. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, is a dead letter; Western civilization today is a patchwork of colors and religions and languages, of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Indians, and many others—as any visitor to London or Paris or Geneva will know.

"Israel itself is a multicultural society in all but name; yet it remains distinctive among democratic states in its resort to ethnoreligious criteria with which to denominate and rank its citizens. It is an oddity among modern nations not—as its more paranoid supporters assert—because it is a Jewish state and no one wants the Jews to have a state; but because it is a Jewish state in which one community—Jews —is set above others, in an age when that sort of state has no place. "

Thanks to Aron of the Israel Peace Weblog for the link.

Avraham Burg: I fear that the Zionist dream is doomed

A Labor Party member in Israel sees two choices: Abandon the greater land of Israel, or abandon democracy.

"Do you want the greater land of Israel? No problem. Abandon democracy. Let's institute an efficient system of racial separation here, with prison camps and detention villages. Do you want a Jewish majority? No problem.
Either put the Arabs on railway cars, buses, camels and donkeys and expel them en masse - or separate ourselves from them absolutely, without tricks and gimmicks. There is no middle path. We must remove all the settlements - all of them - and draw an internationally recognised border between the Jewish national home and the Palestinian national home. The Jewish law of return will apply only within our national home, and their right of return will apply only within the borders of the Palestinian state.
"Do you want democracy? No problem. Either abandon the greater land of Israel, to the last settlement and outpost, or give full citizenship and voting rights to everyone, including Arabs. The result, of course, will be that those who did not want a Palestinian state alongside us will have one in our midst, via the ballot box."

The Dove wants to know - what would be so bad about giving the vote to 3 million Palestinians inside the boundaries of Greater Israel? They live there. Why shouldn't they vote?

Dark Times

Vacation isn't the only reason why the Dove has been silent. It's harder and harder to see peace on the horizon.

Two insights about peace have come to me in the past week.

1) One state for Jews and Palestinians. Others have argued in the last year that the escalation of violence has made the one state solution the only viable solution. Until this week I was not willing to publicly endorse this idea, largely because I don't want to make American Jews I know feel uncomfortable.

Now I think it's the only hope.

The current situation in Israel/Palestine is unsustainable. It will collapse, just as apartheid collapsed in South Africa.

Sharon's actions have taken so much from the Palestinians (in an effort, he says, to punish them for terrorism - but has Israeli "force" ever stopped terrorism?) - that there is no other viable alternative but for the mass of Palestinians to say - okay, you won, we're here, give us the vote.

2) a more spiritual idea: Looking for hope in the material world will never work, because war and conflict are of the ego. The outer world is about separation and control. If I continue to search the internet for signs of hope, I will become overwhelmed by signs of fear, violence and self-seeking. On the level of the spirit, we are all connected, however. This is the only level where hope can really thrive.

But will my scientist, materialist, rationalist friends and family then think that I'm a kook if I focus on these topics? Who knows. Who cares? and who is listening, anyway?

Healing a River in Palestine/Israel

Thanks to Alison for linking me to Coast and Ocean news, a California publication. In The View From Israel, a Californian environmentalist reports on a recent visit to Palestine and Israel.

"In Israel, we saw restoration projects that have brought Israelis and Palestinians together. A particularly exciting example was the Alexander River project....Israelis and Palestinians cooperated to bring the Alexander back to life, building one of the largest settling basins in Israel, as well as the world’s largest cattle manure-to-biogas facility. Cooperation also produced Israel’s first constructed wetland and a gloriously restored riparian corridor. All that was accomplished during the second intifada, and although bullets were flying all around, no one in the project was ever hurt. The secret? Neither the Israeli government nor the Palestinian Authority were involved. The project was people-to-people, with only local officials from the Israeli and Palestinian communities having a hand in it."

Kafta in a Tray with Potatoes

My Lebanese Aunt Amal's kafta with potatoes is a wonderful, homey, easy-to-make alternative to meatloaf. It is not much more work than a simple meatloaf, and since it features potatoes and tomatoes as well as meat, you don't have to make anything else for dinner but a nice green salad.

Serves 6 to 8

2 pounds extra lean ground beef (you may use ground lamb for a truly Middle Eastern flavor)
2 1/2 pounds potatoes (I used 5 russet)
1/2 bunch parsley
one onion
one 28 oz can Italian plum tomatoes
salt, pepper
cinnamon
allspice (optional)

Cut the potatoes into large chunks about 1x2 inches, and steam them until not quite done (you may boil them but I don't like how they crumble apart). It is traditional to peel the potatoes first; however the peels are healthy and it's less work to leave them on. Looks messier.

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit

While potatoes are cooking, chop the onion fine. Chop the parsley as fine as possible. Mix into the
ground beef with your hands, season with salt, pepper, cinnamon and optional allspice. Press into a lightly oiled large baking pan. The meat was about an inch deep.

Bake the meat for a good 15 minutes, until it is half cooked and releases fat and liquid. Remove pan from oven and pour liquid off.

Slice meat into squares or diagonally into diamonds, about two inches across. Layer on cooked potatoes, followed by sliced tomatoes. You may use fresh tomatoes but only if they're in season! Salt and pepper vegetables lightly. You may wish to pour a bit of the juice from the tomatoes over all; or reserve it for basting if necessary later on.

Return the pan to the oven and bake another 45 minutes or until meat is done and tomatoes are "roasty" looking on top.

Aunt Amal says you should always serve pickles with this dish: she used yellow banana peppers she bought in bulk at Sam's, dill pickles, and quartered white onions served raw.

This dish could be easily multiplied for a crowd, and can be served at room temperature.