Circa 1983

These five watercolour drawings were made, if I remember correctly, thirty years ago, during the spring of 1983.  They contain references to the rise of Fascism in Germany and elsewhere in the nineteen thirties, and to the contemporary fascistic policies of the government of Israel.  Inspired in part by Shaw's Major Barbara, I considered emigrating to Israel, to live in this place whose history is central to our understanding of human culture, but whose military was then engaged in the worst possible atrocities imaginable, and for which our western journalists were constantly making excuses, to proselytize amongst those who benefitted the most from this unjust economic dictatorship.  Of course I came to realize that it was not really so much national governments whom these paid killers served as it was a system of transnational corporations, cartels, and banking empires whose bidding they did.  Things have not changed for the better in the interim (though that wise writer, Raoul Vaneigem, insists that we are on the verge of some sort of remarkable transformation that he would very much like to live long enough in order to glimpse its beginning,) so I believe these pieces remain pertinent; but honestly, why should I go to Jerusalem, when the crimes and injustices that transpire here are every bit as bad?  Are not the most despicable criminals in the world shielded by the laws of the United States?