The following three poems written by Yohanan Ramati are from his book of poems, Fata Morgana (1995). Yohanan Ramati, managing editor of the Israel Economist from 1954 to 1976, was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1921 and moved to Israel in 1949. One of his three children, Eliora Carmon, was killed when the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires was blown up by terrorists in 1992.

OH LET US HATE OURSELVES! Oh let us hate ourselves for we are foul And sometimes punish our enemies! Lofty ideals must light our prurient path, Ideals of unrequited ecstasies. Let us release convicted murderers. Whose Moslem motives we must understand, But unforgiving scream at patriots When they demand protection or revenge. May dripping droplets of hypocrisy Create a steamy mist concealing truth, For underneath our intellectuals Flourish like maggots in a rotten fruit. Let angry art and literature proclaim Iniquities of chauvinistic knaves Who care for country more than for the foe And face foreign pressures unafraid! For we're the chosen people--and as such Like others to behave we have no right, So let us pander to the lurid lust Propelling us to noble suicide!

THE LIBERAL ISRAELI ABROAD Upon a certain lovely day I felt the urge to fly away. Leaving my home and family To give a brilliant homily About my country's dubious stands To learned men in foreign lands. They heard me and politely said: Your country's acts are slightly mad And its survival is in doubt Unless it learns never to shout. When others sell the Arabs tanks Jews should be ready with their thanks. There were a few who turned to me With tears of heartfelt sympathy, Protesting friendship long and true If Israel declines to do The obvious--and instead will choose To put its head into a noose. I understood their feelings well, For I had come under their spell And my self-criticizing soul Admitted that the only role All honest liberals must seek Is how to make their country weak.

ELEGY FOR FRIGHTENED HYPOCRITES

You died Of fear induced by pretense Blowing up in your faces. You saw The seas of hatred swelling And begged help from the haters Who despise your weakness. Foolish enough to dream The strong would succour the helpless, You attended foreign masters, Backs bent by cowardice, Mouths murmuring lies, While the cant of double standards Blinkered your eyes. The Holocaust Did not make you see the light.

You trusted Europe and died, So you had to trust the Moslem. * * * There was strength in Israel. You hobbled it by your fear. There was faith in Israel. You smothered it with your doubts. There was pride in Israel. You banished it by betrayal. Driving us into oblivion, You covered us with contempt Before we died with you...

Outpost               - 4 -               March 1996