January 13, 2014

In honour of Sharon - My Way - time to face the final version

My Way has had several versions performed.  Of course it was sung by its author, Paul AnkaFrank Sinatra made it famous.  Elvis gave it a whirl at Vegas.  And I remember Sid Vicious getting a hat tip from the New Musical Express for treating the song with the contempt it deserved for being such self-indulgent tosh.  The homophobia of that last example seemed to slip below the NME's radar back then.

Anyway, years ago, back in the day when Ariel Sharon slipped into a coma and the end seemed near, Deborah Maccoby, of Jews for Justice for Palestinians notoriety, wrote this version of My Way:

MY WAY: ARIEL SHARON

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I wrecked the hope for peace - I did it all in such a sly way,
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

Regrets -  I wish I'd killed old Arafat back in the '80s;
I wish that Israel filled right from the Nile to the Euphrates -
But I built settlements and an apartheid settler highway,
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

Yes the were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew.
And yet, from Gaza, I'd no doubt
That I would get the settlers out!
I built a Wall- and best of all, I did it my way!

I knew I would go far in my career as a mass killer.
I started with Qibya, went on to Sabra and Shatila.
But I've made them believe I'm in the middle of the highway!
Likud I left for good - I did it my way!

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has not
To dare to murder and to lie
And not to care how many die;
The record stands, I took their lands
And did it my way!
 Hmm, I wonder if the cantor might sing it at the funeral.

Whatever happens, those of us who expected a whitewash got precisely what we expected and Deborah's lyric should be a corrective to that which is why it was appropriate for some bright spark to splice her lyric to a cartoon by Latuff showing the trail of blood in the wake of Sharon's every move being cleansed by the whitewash of the mainstream media.  See earlier post.

No comments:

Post a Comment