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The days are coming: Meir Ariel

Muses: A moment of respite in times of crisis

January 10, 2024

29 Tevet

The days are coming: Meir Ariel

Meir Ariel served in three wars – in Jerusalem, Suez, and Lebanon – and in each of them he sought to turn the memories of the battlefield into songs. He wrote not the heroic victory anthems, but sober and restrained ballads that look at the cost of war, as well as at the moments when art allowed him to imagine, if only for a second, a different reality.

In the second episode of “Muses” Maya Kosover turns to the war songs of the “wandering troubadour”, to the prophecies of rage he wrote as a warrior, and also to the utopian vision of Israel he had created over the years.

Credits:

The photos, manuscripts, and video clips courtesy of the Ariel family archive

Kibbutz Mishmarot. Credit: Rick Peleg

Water Tower. Credit: Michael Jacobson

Meir Ariel (item 15). Credit: Rafi Goldman

Dori Ben-Ze’ev. Credit: Alona Einstein

The break-in of IDF forces into the Old City of Jerusalem through the Lions' Gate during the Six Day War. Credit: Shabtai Tal

Map of the Sinai War battles. Credit: IDF Paratrooper's History Site, the first decade

A photograph of the Romani Egyptian commando ambush of the 217th Armored Brigade. Credit: Courtesy of the IDF and the Security Forces Archives, photograph number: 8320/5181, type of collection: in Camp Sidra 1, photographer: Moris Koshelwitz

Photograph of the attack on the Augusta Victoria outpost on the Mount of Olives during the Six-Day War. Credit: Courtesy of the IDF and the Security Forces Archives, photo number: 6200/2031, collection B1, photographer: Amos Zuker

Video courtesy of the IDF and the Security Forces Archives

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