Hatikvah<\/em><\/a>), and its prominence makes me think that I should have recognized the pre-performance Palestinian music, too.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I certainly recognized the image on the scrim that was hanging in place of a theater curtain: \u00a0It was a beautifully rendered painting of the Dome of the Rock.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oslo<\/em> tells the often tense and sometimes quite funny story of the secret backchannel Israel-Palestinian negotations that eventually led to the so-called Oslo Peace Accords and to the iconic 13 September 1993 image of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn with President Bill Clinton (who had had very little if anything to do with the secret peace talks, which had quite deliberately sought to evade the eyes of the Americans) standing behind them. \u00a0In 1994,\u00a0Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and the then Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres (who had been a pivotal player even before Rabin had been told about the secret talks) received the\u00a0Nobel Peace Prize for their roles in the development and signing of the Peace Accords.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a riveting story. \u00a0But it also contains a few good jokes. \u00a0Here\u2019s how I remember two of them:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
One day, the KGB, the CIA, and Israel\u2019s Mossad go out into a forest for some rabbit hunting. \u00a0First, the KGB heads in, but they can find nothing. \u00a0Then in goes the CIA. \u00a0They burn down and destroy most of the forest, but they too find nothing. \u00a0Finally, Mossad goes into the remainder of the forest. \u00a0There\u2019s a huge amoung of noise, and eventually they emerge firmly holding a bloody grizzly bear. \u00a0\u201cAlright! Alright! \u00a0Enough!\u201d says the grizzly bear. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m a rabbit!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Chinese sage and a rabbi are having a rather unpleasant conversation.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cI can\u2019t stand you people,\u201d says the rabbi, \u201cafter your attack on Pearl Harbor.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cYou people?\u201d responds the Chinese sage. \u00a0\u201cWe didn\u2019t attack Pearl Harbor. \u00a0We\u2019re Chinese<\/em>. \u00a0It was the Japanese<\/em> who attacked Pearl Harbor.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cMeh,\u201d replies the rabbi. \u00a0\u201cChinese. \u00a0Japanese. \u00a0What\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWell,\u201d retorts the Chinese sage, \u201cI can\u2019t stand you<\/em> people.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWhy not?\u201d the rabbi asks.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cBecause you sank the Titanic<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWhat?\u201d exclaims the rabbi. \u00a0\u201cJews<\/em> didn\u2019t sink the Titanic<\/em>. \u00a0An iceberg<\/em> did that.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cOh yeah?\u201d the Chinese sage counters. \u00a0\u201cIceberg. \u00a0Goldberg. \u00a0Rosenberg. \u00a0Steinberg. \u00a0What\u2019s the difference?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Park City, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 On Saturday night, my wife and I took in a fine Pioneer Theatre Company performance of the multiple-award-winning play Oslo, by J. T. Rogers, on the campus of the University of Utah. \u00a0 We both loved it. \u00a0It\u2019s a very good play. \u00a0It\u2019s a play of serious ideas. \u00a0In an odd way, therefore, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>