| Faked Reporter: |
How will things go on, Ms. Shalev? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
It is sheer desperation. |
| FR: |
You are an Israeli writer. Will you go to the elections? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
I will give the labor party a chance. But it is no use. |
| FR: |
I see. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
My nervs are completely ruined. Here in Jerusalem it's only Intifada Intifada. |
| FR: |
Really? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes, I even started to protect myself from the news, they are only frightening me. |
| FR: |
Why don't you go to Tel Aviv, there it is more calm. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Well, you know, I like Jerusalem. Although it is a terror city. |
| FR: |
A terror city? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes, you can be dead from one minute to the other. |
| FR: |
Or abroad? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No, it is my duty to stay in Israel. This is why we built this country. |
| FR: |
To live in security. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes, to live in security. And now this! |
| FR: |
Do you dream about peace? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No, I almost every time dream about terror attacks and imagine the worst things. |
| FR: |
Do you feel safe in West Jerusalem? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Not exactly. But this fear sometimes is really ridiculous, too. |
| FR: |
And your children? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Of course they suffer a lot. |
| FR: |
How do the children handle the Palestinian problem? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
The Palestinians have screwed them up completely. |
| FR: |
Friends abroad have offered to save them. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Of course it is sad that we have to live such a life, but we are innoscent. |
| FR: |
What do you think about Germany? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Well, it does, in fact, still remind me a little of the Nazi time. Achtung Achtung! etc. |
| FR: |
What, this is enough to frighten you? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
I told you my nervs are completely ruined. |
| FR: |
We are sorry. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
But one day I will be able to forgive you. We will manage. |
| FR: |
Critics say the German press is pro-Palestinian... |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Of course it is. The journalists are too stupid to understand the contexts. |
| FR: |
I see. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
The Europeans do not know how much there is at stake for us. |
| FR: |
I see. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
The Europeans do not know the facts and are quick in their judgment about us. |
| FR: |
For example? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
1. T-h-e-r-e-h-a-d-b-e-e-n-t-e-r-r-o-r-e-v-e-n-b-e-f-o-r-e-t-h-e-o-c-c-u-p-a-t-i-o-n-! |
| FR: |
Ms. Shalev, everything alright with you? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
2. T-h-e-I-s-r-a-e-l-i-s-w-e-r-e-t-h-e-r-e-b-e-f-o-r-e-! |
| FR: |
Goodness. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
3. T-h-e-P-L-O-w-a-s-n-o-t-a-r-e-a-c-t-i-o-n-o-n-t-h-e-o-c-c-u-p-a-t-i-o-n-! |
| FR: |
Are you in favor of a Palestinian state? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No. Sadly, this would be a terror state. Terror! Terror! You understand? |
| FR: |
al-Qaida and all this? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes! Listen, I am very self-critical and will not excuse own mistakes. |
| FR: |
Yes. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
We, I, my, our... |
| FR: |
Other people sympathize with the Palestinians, because Israel is over-potent. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Nonsense! Of course we have a strong military, because we have all this fear. |
| FR: |
It was just a thought. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
I was prepared for the Davidagainstgoliathromanticism. |
| FR: |
This fear obviously also leads to Israeli violence. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Nonsense! |
| FR: |
Some Jews even say that there are no Palestinians at all. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
This is all nonsense. Golda Meir had said that even 30 years ago. |
| FR: |
Mmh, I don't understand the argument. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
The argument is that she was prime minister. |
| FR: |
Hm. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Maybe you cannot understand everything, because you don't suffer as much as I do. |
| FR: |
Then please explain to me. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
OK listen: most of the Israelis really want peace with the Palestinians. |
| FR: |
I knew that I can count on you. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
The problem is they are terrorists. |
| FR: |
Ah! |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
They have a c-o-r-r-u-p-t-l-e-a-d-e-r-s-h-i-p. |
| FR: |
Yes Ms.... ah |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
I-t-i-s-t-h-e-i-r-t-r-a-g-e-d-y-a-s-i-t-i-s-o-u-r-t-r-a-g-e-d-y. |
| FR: |
Please tell us about the past. How was it for you? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
It was terrible! Traumatic and full of fear. |
| FR: |
So you don't know a life without terror. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No, I am completely bad off, that's what I'm tellin' you all the time. |
| FR: |
Now I begin to understand you better. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
You see? |
| FR: |
Uff, now this really was a good deal of Jewish German understanding work. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
And those nightmares. Fathers killing their daughters. |
| FR: |
The 1967 war, you were only a child. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
It was a catastrophe. |
| FR: |
Let us rather talk about literature now. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Literature, yes, literature. |
| FR: |
In your first book grief and melancholy prevail. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
As a matter of logic, yes. |
| FR: |
The pain-proven heroine at the end enters a... |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
She enters a library and reads a book. |
| FR: |
Yes. |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes. Always only terror, terror, terror, you understand? |
| FR: |
Is it an optimistic book? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No, I am much too afraid to be optimistic. |
| FR: |
But the book is called "Love Life". |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
Yes. |
| FR: |
Ms. Shalev, will your third novel be more political? |
| Faked Ms. Shalev: |
No. This gets all too much for me. It is because... |
| FR: |
... the Palestinians, sigh. I know. |
