Love in the time of genocide: This wedding photo of an Israeli couple taken yesterday has the incongruence of surrealism–but in it’s worst moments. It’s being “shot” (apropos the setting) in an army staging area on the Israel-Gaza border near a kibbutz. Is the groom on furlough from driving the tank? Are they from the kibbutz? Wouldn’t they have preferred a bucolic pastoral setting to celebrate their nuptials? What will the grandkids say when they look at the wedding album?

Or does this reflect the militarism of Israeli life? Rusted out, abandoned military tanks & equipment are the backdrop in many public parks where children play & families picnic. But this young couple selected this place. Is this the Promised Land envisioned by Theodor Herzl? When Zionists cooked up their colonial schema, was this their vision of Jewish freedom from persecution? Because to most people it looks a lot like hell. And the Hallmark moment doesn’t alter that an iota.

(Photo by Oded Balilty/AP)