As chaos engulfs Gaza, we hear Daniel Barenboim's wish: "We hope 2009 will be a year of peace in the world, and of human justice in the Middle East"

by Ken

When Howie called awhile ago I was working on tomorrow's classical music piece, which is about Johann Strauss and his famous musical family, taking off from Thursday's Vienna New Year's Concert, the first conducted by the distinguished music director of the Berlin State Opera (and former music director of the Chicago Symphony), Daniel Barenboim.

I had already sent Howie the planned opening video clip, of Barenboim leading the Vienna Philharmonic -- and the Musikverein audience, of course -- in the invariable final encore, Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March, which he loved, and I had already mentioned the maestro's much-quoted New Year's wish: "We hope 2009 will be a year of peace, and of human justice in the Middle East." I mentioned that the conductor had been quoted earlier in the week, from Vienna, referring to the "terrible events" in Gaza and expressing the vehement belief that the situation can't be resolved militarily. He was quoted as saying, "There are still ... far too many people who are still convinced that they can resolve this conflict militarily. That can't be done. That absolutely can't be done."

I avoided writing about the nightmare in Gaza while Howie was away, because I just didn't want to deal with the automatic defensive response you get from the people who will defend the Israeli government no matter how outrageously it behaves. In this case they refuse to acknowledge, let alone grasp the significance of, the Israeli blockade that was steadily and deliberately starving Gaza.

Barenboim himself is a subject of controversy in Israel, where he grew up. He has been outspoken in his commitment to justice for all parties in the MIddle East, and with the late Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an Israeli and Arab youth orchestra. Last year he created a sensation when he accepted a Palestinian passport.

Howie, realizing that I tend to be incommunicado on Saturday, asked if I knew that the long-hypothesized Israeli ground offensive in Gaza had finally begun today. I didn't, but I wasn't surprised. It's been talked about all week. We can assume that the Israeli government has been given an "all clear" by the Bush regime. No doubt the strategic thinking includes a calculation of how "successful" our famous "surge" was in Iraq, though all knowledgeable observers agree that actual military force had little to do with whatever stability has been achieved there. (Just how much stability has been achieved we probably won't know until we leave.)

Meanwhile, it's a measure of how badly out of control the situation has become that Barenboim's New Year's wish for "human justice in the Middle East," which surely should arouse a minimum of controversy, is automatically assumed to be "anti-Israel."

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