Catching up on my reading and music during the festivities celebrating Hanukah, Christmas, New Year, and Chinese Lunar Year of the Rabbit, reading the various commentaries about Israel’s new Netanyahu government, criticism of Israeli government officials visiting the Temple Mount, the holiest of Jewish sites, only third holiest to Muslims because of a dream Mohammed allegedly had. Not because he or any other significant Muslim prophet, or leader, had ever visited the site, or had any significant physical presence there; and about the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis in 2022 – as China’s Year of the Rabbit hopped in, I came across the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s Neighborhood Bully, sent to me by a good friend.
Dylan’s 1983 album Infidels, was released a year after the First Lebanon War and two years after an airstrike in which Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor outside Baghdad. But its themes have clear parallels with the recent conflict between Israel, Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah – and Iran!
Being a political rocker, friends are always sending me rock tunes they enjoy as friendly reminders of politically relevant lyrics, which is what happened when I was reintroduced to Neighborhood Bully. Also, a reminder of what makes Dylan the Great American poet and song writer he is.
The song never mentions Israel, yet it is widely interpreted as a Zionist anthem – a biting satire lambasting those who fault the Jewish state for defending itself.
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a
million to one.
He got no place to escape, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully has been driven out of every land
He wandered the earth an exiled man Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he knocked out the lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully
Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully
Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he has signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully
What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothing, they say.
He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed
He’s the neighborhood bully
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully
Well, Jews have been fighting for their survival for thousands of years.
Their homeland will outrun the clock and bring tears
To Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran for years
Until there is peace
Hop in and chime
To the neighborhood bully
Here’s to toasting a New Year of peace, listening to the song, with a glass of wine, or other prime.
Le Chaim!