Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Syria as "willing to fight to the last Egyptian"

     "The [Syrian] shelling of Israeli settlements escalated meanwhile, reaching various levels of lethality throughout the [second] day.  Rabin was not impressed with the display, dismissing it as an attempt to refute the allegation, already gaining currency in the Arab world, that 'Syria is willing to fight to the last Egyptian.'"

     Michael B. Oren, Six days of war:  June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East (New York:  Oxford University Press, 2002), 231.  Not anxious to open up a third front, the Israelis, and most notably Dayan, had been studiously ignoring Syrian activity.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

"A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love."

"Canticum, res est hilaritatis; et si diligentius consideremus, res est amoris."

A song is a thing of gaiety; and, if we reflect [upon the matter] more diligently, [we come to realize that] it is a thing of love.

     St. Augustine, Sermo 34.1 (Carthage, 420).  =CCSL 41, 424 (424-426) =PL 38, col. 210A (209-213).  The translation in the header is that of the Liturgy of the hours.  WSA III/2, p. 166 (166-170):  "A song is a matter of cheerfulness, and if we think about it more thoroughly, it's a matter of love."