Israel and Richard Wagner

           This story alone confirms my perception of Israel as a functional

    if not an exemplary democracy: Jewish conductors told their parliament-

    no doubt in the interest of general culture- that the German composer

    and inspirer of Adolf Hitler, Richard Wagner, should no longer be taboo

    in Israel.

          Can one imagine anything comparable in the Islamic Republics ? Even

    the rabid " Mein Kampf " is just another dusty old book at Hebrew University.

        Recall the death sentence handed out to an " irreverent " Arab

    writer .

         A functional democracy has this virtue : it can -in the long run -

    correct its own excesses and errors.

          I don't know enough about Richard Wagner's  anti- Semitism to

    pass damning judgment. People often claim to hate particular groups on

    the basis of very limited  encounters.

            His music is  BEAUTIFUL. It is truly ROMANTIC!

        We might reflect that the stirring hymn " Onward Christian Soldiers "

    may inspire  even the KKK !