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January 02, 2005
December 13th, 2004
The CBC Radio news had finished. Sandy switched the stereo system to tape so he could sing Christmas songs, along with Karen Carpenter. Raggmopp padded into the kitchen to comment.
“Hey master! I was listening to that news”.
“Yes, there was a big explosion in the Gaza Strip. The first one since Arafat died. Remember him, dog?” said Sandy smugly.
“It was in ALL the papers. The terrorists have already held a news conference. The Fatah Hawks”.
“They sound like an OHL team that still could not beat the London Knights! By the way, do Old English Sheepdogs know where ‘Fatah’ comes from?”
“You mean where, besides the slums of east of Israel, I take it?”
“Yes of course, you mutt. It’s from the first one or two initials of Harakat Tahrir Filistin, ha ta f, only you spell it backwards,” boasted Sandy. He’d have to remember to tell that to John Paul and the Captain’s assistant, Joannie. It was the sort of weird trivia he was able to recall. Couldn’t recognize any of his ex-wives though.
“You mean like Winfrey’s HARPO Productions is Oprah spelled backwards?”
“Ah, yes. That’s it exactly.” Doing well, he thought, Sandy added, “Besides, Fatah Hawks sounds like a baseball team”. It is usually good to end a conversation with humour.
The dog shattered his illusion of intellectual superiority however. “Arafat and his close friends started calling themselves Fatah around the time you were attending kindergarten at Queen Elizabeth School. With his brilliant organization, it remains the largest of the Palestinian factions. The strong arm of the party, the militia, was the Fatah HAWKS.” Raggmopp rested his mouth and walked over to his water.
“Was…”, the only retort Sandy could give.
“Yes. They were disbanded in 1995 and replaced as a militia by the Tanzim. That means organisation; in Arabic.”
“In Arabic?”
I’ve got him now, said thought the dog. “The Hawks had a reputation for total loyalty to Arafat. They had a major role in Palestine’s first intifada.”
Sandy just looked at Raggmopp.
“1987. Looks like Abu Majad is trying to get his name out in the public. He claims Arafat was poisoned.”
“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” suggested Sandy, in a successful attempt to change the topic.”
“Yes, speaking of which. How about some yummy, dry IAMS down here? I’m starving.”
‘Whew. I barely got out of that one’, though Sandy.
“Although, the Fatah Hawks do have a good reputation for providing meals. They kidnapped the Newsweek bureau chief and his photographer Joshua Hammer on May 29th 2004. When he got back to Jerusalem, Knight said, “They actually fed us one of the best meals I’ve eaten in Gaza.”
“Have you been surfing the web again?”
“Hey, have I told you what great opposable thumbs you have? How’s breaky comin’?”
Posted by Gary MacDonell at 03:16 PM | Comments (2647)