Is there a phrase that is the opposite of "deja vu". Something that you can use that sounds a bit more sophisticated, educated and less yobby than "been there - done that". You know the sense of deja vu - when you see something that you know is new, but you have the feeling you've seen it before - somewhere.
I was looking for such a phrase when leafing through an old copy of the Jerusalem Report - October 26 1998 to be exact, and I had exactly that feeling - the opposite of deja vu. Everything I was reading was today's news. It was simply remarkable how you can look at a magazine that's nearly 7 years old, and still get the overwhelming sense that although we'd obviously been there before, it was all new. Just look at some of the headlines and content I read.
1. Main story - For the Love of Gaza
"Gaza's Jews say that their reality now awaits West Bank Settlers if another withdrawal takes place."
"Rafael Eitan says "there's going to be war for every inch of territory' "
"Isolated, sometimes besieged but determined to stay put, the settlers of the Gaza strip say .."
"Anticipating siege, the settles have stockpiled canned food..."
"...political stickers are common here - 'We are not budging from Gaza' 'We are all Netzarim'. "
"In terms of attachment to the Land of Israel, we're at the bottom of the ladder. Still, we do have have support - even 30% is significant ... My job is to hold any part of the Land of Israel that I can"..
2. The Courts
"The courts are castigated by politicians...."
"a growing wave of well-publicized verbal assaults on the judicial system, particularly from ultra-orthodox quarters..."
"...relentless criticism of the legal system comes from two groups - the religious parties and the far Right..."
3. Palestinian "Justice"
"..tribal bloodletting has worsened in Palestinian society..."
"thousand of armed security force members ... who routinely act as though they are above the law..."
"... there is always someone killing someone else, in the process of taking revenge for a previous killing, seemingly without end."
"..within a day, 3 members of the clan were sentenced to death....there are reports that the convicted men are now free"
4. The region
"..Egypt has regained a position of seniority by taking a line of occaisional recalcitrance against the US..."
".. Hizbullah has absorbed weapons that are more accurate and dangerous than anything previously in its posession"
" Iranian Admiral Shamkhani has threatened retaliation in the event of an Israeli strike - within two years Israel will be within range of operational Iranian missiles"
5. The economy
" despite a shaky start, privatization - the crown jewel in Benjamin Netanyahu's master plan to reshape the Israeli economy, appears to be moving ahead..."
"...the Manufacturers Association is comlaining about a drop in R&D funding in the budget ..."
6. Politics
".. Barak has yet to learn that, unlike generals, politicans cannot order people to vote for them..."
One of the redeeming features of life is the feeling that we are going somewhere. Here in Israel, the overwhelming feeling has to be that wherever we may be going, we've been there before. How depressing!
The French say "plus ca change, plus ca meme chose", which means "the more things change, the more they stay the same", but I don't speak French, so find me something in Yiddish, Latin, or even Japanese, that says the same thing in two words.
