Feeling Burned

From the (very) recent telephonic archives:

Good Friend (who worked for an Israeli Radical Left Movement): Hi- you'll be going to the Alternative Torchlighting Ceremony tonight, right? Can I get a ride to the Govt compound with you?

PP: Well, you absolutely could have done if I'd been going, but I'm not going this year.

GF: WHAT??? Why not? Are you feeling ok?!

PP: Very funny. No, I'm not going because this year they've apparently invited Tali Fahima to light a torch, among others. I don't get it: She doesn't represent me. And I also remembered that last year I left the same ceremony halfway through because they started yelling nonsense about Marx which, while that was all fun and relevant when I was 17, isn't really going to solve Israel's problems right now, is it? (Sigh) But it's not like I'll be tripping off to wave flags at the mainstream torchlighting ceremonies either, where everything is plastic soundbites: Especially after the enforced gloom of Yom HaZikaron, and last year's war and hostages so fresh in our minds, not to mention everything else which is still happening around us as we speak in the territories. So, er, yeah...that's why I'm not going... Sorry- that was probably a longer answer than you were expecting!

GF: Tali Fahima? Seriously? Hmm. Well, I agree with you. I don't think I want to go either! I mean- why are the organizers and the movements all getting so dafka? (There's no translation for this word, in this context it means "unecessarily over-the-top") You know- maybe we'll have to start up a new more normal movement of our own?!

PP: Yeah. Or maybe not. Maybe we should just go to a Barbeque and eat good food, hang out with friends and just for a few hours, not think about the negative implications of the state of our State?

GF: Riiight... Well, good luck with that: Get back to me on Wednesday and let me know how you did!