Def Poetry - Kevin Coval - Family Feud

[generationsackcloth]

"New York is Afghanistan!" ~ Kevin Coval

[heeheeheeheeheehee]

Has this brother done any other poems, because this was brilliant!

[AimeeViolette]

I never really understood "pushing Israel into the sea." If you look at a map you can clearly see it's Palestine that's been driven into the sea.

[AimeeViolette]

@AimeeViolette *being*

[roltthehunter]

This is beautiful. i am an Atheist myself, i am very moved by this poem.

[straightshooterable]

Thank you Kevin.

Re your reference to Israel's bogus claim that it faced being pushed into the "sea" in June 1967:

Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Minister without portfolio in Eshkol's cabinet, while addressing Israel's National Defence College on 8 August 1982: "In June, 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him." (NYT,

21 August 1982)

[snatch147at85]

@straightshooterable Nasser made a mistake. He claimed he was confident he can fight a war against Israel. Does this mean he wanted to? No. Does this imply he wanted to? Yes. Do implications and actions usually differ? Yes. These political games were just games. He blocked the port of Eilat and actually said it was an "act of war." These games are games for the public to witness. In reality, what was this war fought over by both sides? Water.

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

REALITY RE THE 1967 WAR

PART 1

At 7:45 AM on 5 June 1967, Israel attacked Egypt and thereby Jordan and Syria who each shared a mutual defense pact with Egypt. The attack took place just hours before Egypt's VP was to fly to Washington for a prearranged June 7th meeting with the Johnson administration to defuse the crisis between Egypt and Israel based on an agreement worked out in Cairo between Nasser and Johnson's envoy, Robert Anderson. (Cont'd)

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

1967 WAR PART 2

In a cable sent to Pres. Johnson on May 30, Israel’s PM Eshkol acceded to Johnson's request and promised not to attack Egypt until June 11 in order to give diplomacy a chance to succeed. However, on June 4, when it heard about the June 7th meeting and the distinct possibility that it would rule out war, Israel’s cabinet order its armed forces to attack Egypt the next day. In short, the war was another massive land grab by Israel.

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

1967 PART 3

PM Eshkol: "The Egyptian layout in the Sinai and the general military buildup there testified to a military defensive Egyptian set-up, south of Israel."

Meir Amit, then chief of Israel's Mossad: "Egypt was not ready for a war and Nasser did not want a war."

On June 4, the NYT reported that Major General Indar Jit Rikhye, Commander of UNEF in the M.E., "who toured the Egyptian front, confirms that Egyptian troops were not poised for an offensive."

[snatch147at85]

@straightshooterable How could the egyptians be ever poised for an offensive? They never had a true professional army. If they waged war with Syria today.....it would still be a defensive war. I could guarantee you that if Egypt never closed the port of Eilat, it would have been much more difficult to attack Egypt. Note they took Egyptian land and gave it back. If you wage war first, you take what you win. They knew Israel would attack first and they were waiting for it after closing eilat.

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

Nonsense.

Part 1.

On May 22nd, in response to Israel`s repeated threats to invade Syria with whom Egypt shared a mutual defence pact, President Nasser announced that shipments of strategic goods by Israeli and non-Israeli flagged ships to Israel’s port of Eilat/Elath would be blockaded and denied passage through the Straits of Tiran. This was perfectly within Egypt's legal rights, i.e,. Egypt's territorial waters.

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

2

Also, as per the Statistical Abstract of Israel (1967), "the relative importance of Eilat to the total number of ships arriving at the four other principal Israeli ports (Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Ashdod) was 2.20%, 2.46%, 2.75%, and 2.91% for the years 1966, 1965, 1964, and 1963 respectively. The percentage of tonnage registered at Eilat to the tonnage registered at the other four ports was 1.90%, 2.48%, 1.71% and 1.55% for the same years respectively."

[straightshooterable]

@snatch147at85

No. 3

Also, as the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) Commander, Major General Idar Jit Rikhye, revealed, Nasser was not enforcing the blockade: "[The Egyptian] navy had searched a couple of ships after the establishment of the blockade and thereafter relaxed its implementation."

You really must do some elementary research using accredited, documented impartial sources. If you do, you will discover you have no case whatsoever, that you are un/misinformed.

Enough said.

[snatch147at85]

@straightshooterable You are absolutely correct that Israel wanted to invade Syria. Why? Great question. Syria was throwing rocket shells near the Golan (not the Syrians, but proxy groups) during 1965 and increasingly during 1966. Wait.......what year comes after 1966? 1967. Wait what year was the war fought? 1967. Wait.....this can't be a coincidence. Relative importance of Eilat?

[snatch147at85]

@snatch147at85 What does relative important, in terms of tonnage, have to do with finding reasons for a preemptive strike?

[snatch147at85]

@snatch147at85 They should have been smarter. That means NO blockade of Eilat and No proxy groups in the Golan. It was inevitable for israel to attack because of the shortage of water. But if they did the above 2 things I mentioned, Israel would have had a MUCH tougher time fighting the war because of political pressure. Sometimes, the smart way is the way to go. You think Israel didn't provoke them? Of course, but you have to be smarter.

[snatch147at85]

@snatch147at85 It's similar to the situation in 48. In the south, they were kicking out arabs form the villages during the war specifically as revenge for the tensions in the mid to late 30's and early 40's. Again, if there was never tension in the mid to late 1940's,the situation in Israel would be vastly different. You would already have a two state solution from the start. Israel being one and parts of the west bank and north being provinces in Syria.

[Chelsea432234]

share

I defend her right

To exist

[Chelsea432234]

But I am staying, here listening to my father speak the John Wayne brutality of White colonialism Here, in front of my aunts television set, glued to learn her stories before her heart sleeps silent Here in the smoke clouds of ignorance, in the dialectic divide between kin Here between the shores of death trying to speak with my family My mother is in Arizona My mother is in Afghanistan My mother is in Iraq My mother is in Palestine I love my mother Though at times we don’t find language to

[Chelsea432234]

3/4 My grandfather, dead 3 years returns between nihilism and clarity says Ike and MacArthur are patriots why don’t you leave this country if you won’t lay truth down for it

Arab mother lover

You Pacifist

You, you Goddamn Humitarian

30 years earlier my uncle Stephen took manuscripts to Manhattan to move office mail and furniture rather than continue scraping his knuckles against his father’s nearsightedness

My family says I remind them of him, every time I open my mouth and dream

[Chelsea432234]

2/4 Sea and you were too young to remember

And you only point out the negative

And you don’t see progress this country has made

My mother’s voice rises like defence shields when I ask if she wants my daughter to be murdered by bombs built in the bombardment of self-delusion

Aren’t the bodies and memories buried beneath rubble and more declarations innocent?

New York is Afghanistan

I tell her in language I haven’t found yet

[Chelsea432234]

1/4 “Family Feud” My mother asked if I've done anything patriotic These last days of white men pointing crooked fingers back at their own conscience a flag, a ribbon, blood. nothing have I done different except watch tv my father screams fist through my face when I mention this new war aids right wing rhetoric and maybe the government is involved in ways known secret books from now 6 day war in 1967 he mentions later Arab world poised to push Israel into the dead

[ciphagreen]

can someone tell me what this poem is about I didn't get it. Is he jewish or muslim ?

[ButterInChicago]

@ciphagreen Kevin is Jewish.

[LucidRealityBand]

@ciphagreen hes Jewish

[straightshooterable]

@ciphagreen

He's both. And Christian, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, etc., as well

[PaqueretteDizzyDaisy]

I would love to READ the text; I mean, I know what he's talking about, but I (as no native speaker) can't understand everything he says. That's a pity...

[Chelsea432234]

@PaqueretteDizzyDaisy I just posted the text, its actually 5 parts but yeah its above in the comments. hope it helps!

[PaqueretteDizzyDaisy]

@Chelsea432234 Thank you so much! Yes, it helped a lot. :)

[ytubefkr]

Shut up

[GenesisRockwell]

This guy taught my high school poetry slam team and gave us a few pointers before. GO AMUNDSEN VIKINGS! hahaha xD

[tarrahbest]

i loved this......... i felt the soul and compassion

[IndieSex]

@devore504 Caring about things like this is what allows me to say, with confidence, that I have a life.

[jumanabeth]

I was gonna ask the same as the person under me

[IndieSex]

I note that he didn't list Israel among those residencies of his "mother" at the end there. Does that mean he doesn't care to defend Israel's right to exist?

[devore504]

@IndieSex u really need a life

[minacare]

@IndieSex ISRAEL RIGHTS!? are you fucking serious? If anyone has rights it's the Israeli people so stfu with that. Palestinians on the other hand don't have rights in that country so yes there's a reason why he did not defend their rights, what's is there to defend?

[tlydon2]

dope as fuck



[XxDollarBill]

solid.... SOLID...

[juanmora19910209]

I ♥ this. I needed to hear it.