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<font size=4><b>Palestinians in America: An Intelligent Socialist's Guide
to Tony Kushner, with a Key to the UN Declaration of Human
Rights<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>
<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/day230511.html" eudora="autourl">
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/day230511.html<br><br>
</a></font>by Susie Day <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>(Scene: an elevator, downstage right. Stuck inside are ROY COHN
and ETHEL ROSENBERG, characters in Tony Kushner's landmark play,
</i>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Angels-America-Part-One-Millennium/dp/1559360615/">
Angels in America</a>. McCarthyite lawyer, ROY prosecuted Julius
and Ethel Rosenberg, who were accused of spying for the USSR and executed
in 1953. ETHEL now paces impatiently,</i> pushing elevator
buttons. Above the stage, captions from recent </i>New York Times
headlines wink on and off didactically:</i>) <br><br>
</dl>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/nyregion/cuny-blocks-honor-for-tony-kushner.html">
"CUNY Blocks Honor for Tony Kushner,"</a>
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E1DF1039F934A35756C0A9679D8B63">
"Kushner, a Probing Dramatist of Intellectual Scope and
Empathy,"</a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/nyregion/in-reversal-cuny-votes-to-honor-tony-kushner.html">
"In Reversal, City University Trustees Approve Honorary Degree for
Tony Kushner"</a><br><br>
ETHEL:</b> So Tony, you want to tell us why you're writing this corny
elevator skit? You thought maybe, "Ethel Rosenberg and Roy
Cohn, trapped -- how amusing"? This is a fakakta idea, Tony.
<br><br>
(Lights, upstage left, where Tony Kushner is at his desk, his back to
us.</i>)<br><br>
ROY: </b>Let the boy alone, Ethel. Don't you see he's got
conflicts? You go back and help Julius assemble tractors in the
dustbin of history.<br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Conflicts, Tony? You want I should advise you on the
conflicts you probably got about that fancy new degree they're giving you
at the City University of New York? The one you almost didn't get
because Mr.
<a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/06/new-york-times-piles-on-kushners-critic/">
Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld</a> of the board pointed out you criticized
Israel? (Tony crumples a page, tosses it over his
shoulder.</i>)<br><br>
ROY:</b> Shut up, Ethel. It's good</i> to stop Tony from dumping on
Israel, so he can keep getting awards. That's great for me -- I'm a
bigger guy in Hell since they showed
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYzWJzO3vI">reruns of that
</a>Angels </i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYzWJzO3vI">play
of his on HBO</a>.<br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Such nice goyishe actors they got to play us, Roy. But
we must ask: Why</i> did Tony criticize Israel? Tony is a good
boy. Tony does not exploit the masses. He criticized because
he saw the Palestinians denied their rights and in pain. So Tony
gets another degree, but inside he knows there are dialectically
historical conditions that must be analyzed. <br><br>
ROY:</b> Thank you, Ethel, for validating my work in sending you to the
electric chair. You were much less repulsive when you stole secrets
of the A-bomb. Tony, I'm guessing you put me here to talk
sense. So don't listen to this pinko puke. You got a good
life -- awards, honorary degrees. The people love Tony Kushner,
"dramatist of empathy"! <br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Which is why Tony, as a feeling person, said that what was
done to the Palestinian people when Israel was created was "ethnic
cleansing." This is where Tony's analysis must continue --
<br><br>
ROY:</b> Tony made a little mistake about the Palestinians. There
weren't</i> any. He assumed the native riffraff around in 1948 had
feelings. Typical liberal moral-equivalence fallacy. <br><br>
ETHEL:</b> But this Mr. Wiesenfeld says Tony's an
"extremist." He says his mother would have called Tony a
"Nazi collaborator." (Tony snaps a pencil in two.)
</i>This is enough to alienate Tony from his means of production,
Roy. (Tony puts his head in his hands.</i>)<br><br>
ROY:</b> (Pointing to Tony</i>) Now, look what you did. Christ,
Ethel, NEVER remind Tony about those guys who call you a Nazi if you
disagree with them. They can be scary.<br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Yeah. Like you were, when you called people reds in the
1950s.<br><br>
ROY:</b> Tony, if you're going to force me to deal with this Bolshevik
broad, I demand you write me with a cigar and some booze.
(Pause. ROY reaches into his coat pocket and fishes out a lit cigar
and a glass of bourbon.) </i>Thanks.<br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Speaking of ethnic cleansing, Tony, did you read in the papers
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/17/a_new_non_violent_resistance_movement">
what happened when those Palestinian protestors tried to remember the
founding of Israel</a>? How many Palestinians you think could be
writing award-winning plays if they weren't being shot by the IDF?
<br><br>
ROY:</b> Tony, relax</i>. It's all good. Remember how your
liberal supporters came through for you? Then you tell your
detractors
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/54643560/Letter-to-CUNY-Trustees-05-04-11">
you always believed in Israel's right to exist</a> --
Fantastic!</i> And, in case anyone notices you're on the board of
<a href="http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/">Jewish Voice for Peace</a>, you
say
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/10/exclusive_playwright_tony_kushner_speaks_out">
you're against the boycott</a> -- Nice save!</i> It's like a
built-in loyalty oath: "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a critic
of Israel." <br><br>
ETHEL:</b> So Palestinians are supposed to stop suffering until Tony
Kushner gets his honorary degree? All through this media mishegas,
nobody talks about Palestinians --<br><br>
ROY:</b> Wrong!
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/nyregion/opponent-of-honor-for-tony-kushner-criticizes-palestinians.html">
Wiesenfeld tells Jim Dwyer of the
</a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/nyregion/opponent-of-honor-for-tony-kushner-criticizes-palestinians.html">
New York Times</a></i> that Palestinians "worship death for their
children" and "are not human." So the liberals, in
order to get the award back for Tony, have to act like Palestine doesn't
exist -- which ain't hard, 'cause it don't. After all, the whole
point of the campaign, is to defend Tony, not to help Palestinians,
right? <br><br>
ETHEL</b>: You're a sick man, Roy. <br><br>
ROY:</b> No sicker than anybody else about this thing, Ethel. So
Wiesenfeld gets props from the conservatives; Tony gets props from the
liberals, and Israel gets props from everybody. It's a win-win-win
situation!<br><br>
ETHEL:</b> Not for the Palestinians. Tony, you write about
them! Put, for instance, a Palestinian in this script. You
call yourself a socialist? You stand up, Mr. Socialist
Writer!<br><br>
ROY:</b> World's a stage, Ethel. People love to play
"commie," put on the t-shirts. Don't mean anybody's a
goddamn radical</i> about anything. It's all show biz.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>(Tony stands up, kicks over a wastebasket. Ethel crosses to ROY
and pours the bourbon over his head. ROY chokes Ethel.
Suddenly, the stage shakes, and an ANGEL, played by KARL MARX, crashes
through the backdrop and hovers over the stage. He speaks with the
voice of a bored elevator operator.</i>)<br><br>
</dl>ANGEL MARX:</b> Much as we'd all like this play to end happily, its
material conditions do not permit divine intervention. So everybody
out! Third floor: consumer goods, fetishized commodities, lingerie,
light bulbs, bulldozers, hummus, hammers, sickles, yarmulkes, kafiyahs,
flotillas, manifestoes, sheepskin. . .<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>(Actors playing ROY AND ETHEL shrug, step out of the elevator, and
head back to the dressing room. Tony sighs, turns off his computer,
and wanders off. Lights out.</i>)<br><br>
</dl><hr>
Susie Day is Assistant Editor of
<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/">Monthly Review</a></i>. <br><br>
<br><br>
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