israeli politics

So I’m sitting in the back of the cart we rented for our visit to the zoo, and the Safari is crowded with families all over.  The animals were all full of beans, courting each other all over, and everyone was having a great time

 

These kissing chimps are representative of what was going on.  The peacocks opened their glory to uninterested peahens and shuddered all over with desire. 

I kept thinking of Chaucer and his description of April with all the birds awake at night with hormones, and how it brings all the people out to go on pilgrimages.

“Whan that Aprille …”

Because it is Friday, most of the families were Arab, and I may have learned some names of animals from the lessons the mothers were giving to their children.

But then, sitting in the back of the cart we rented to let my bleeding big toe rest, I saw three young men walking as fast as Ezi was driving – smiling and seeming very happy and free.  I took up my camera, asked them silently for permission, and they joyfully agreed.  Not only did they agree, but they wanted copies – and caught up to ask me to send them.  After failing miserably, I passed the camera back to Ezi, who worked long and hard with the biggest narcissist to get them through while i asked the other two in Hebrew “Where are you guys from?”  because i couldn’t remember the Arabic.  They answered together “Nablus.”  “Walla!”  I answered. 

It turned out we have to become friends on Facebook to get the pictures through, and I think my new friend is a barber.  But I don’t know if we should stay friends.  Barbers have a special place in my heart.

 

april 9, 2021 – zoo Read Post »

israeli politics

There is a distinction I make between the public Holocaust memorial and the private Holocaust sense.  For me, I try to distance myself from the public.  I didn’t want to watch the ceremony and preferred a stupid series instead – especially since I feared the event would become political in some way.  And indeed it did – Our PM reminded us of his responsibility for the vaccination drive, I was told again and again in the news.

As the evening began, thoughts and memories came to me –  new recollections filled my mind.  Here’s one example:

absence
“What are you looking for?”
We’d ask Mother, as she rummaged
A cupboard or a drawer or the phone book.
“My lost youth,” she’d answer
Absent-mindedly, having forgotten
Whatever had occupied her mind
When she first began to search.
The bombs, the soldiers, the streets
Covered with bodies, the story of the children
Smashed against the wall, her babies
Washed down the drain in the bathtub in Danzig
They were always
Right there in the cupboard, the drawer,
The book next to the telephone.
 
This morning both Ezi and I stayed home to work on banal red tape – we stayed in our different rooms and didn’t discuss anything.  But when the siren sounded I stood in the doorway at attention and found myself looking into a mirror where I could see Ezi standing at attention as well.    We were, it seems, both in our private Holocaust thoughts.
 
 

 

 

 

april 8, 2021 – holocaust remembrance day Read Post »

israeli politics

For the past four years we’ve been walking on the Israel Trail, or rather, my group has been walking and I’ve been shlepping behind – breathless, pale, aching.   Our guide emphasizes archeology and we learn about the specific sites – many thousands of years of history.  The walking is never easy – yesterday was almost impossible for me –  but when we got to Megiddo I almost forgot that my toes were bleeding.  

The site has been closed for over a year, and is still really not open yet, because they are still rebuilding the site which has been ravaged and plundered by archeologists over the past hundred years.  Not because of some hunger for wealth, but because there are over 20 layers of civilization there and I imagine that each time a different layer interested the diggers so they threw away the later layers.. 

but these are original constructions – the altar that is one of many generations of altars 

and the Canaanite granary.

 

 

 

 

april 7, 2021 – megiddo Read Post »

israeli politics

I get the idea – it’s all about walking through the entire entire – touching the ground.  For us, the emphasis is on the archeology of this land.  And the archeology is very confusing.  Because it’s clear we find what we are looking for.  But I’ve been walking over rocks and stones for 14 kilometers all day.  And I will have to add to this tomorrow….

april 6, 2021 the israel trail Read Post »

israeli politics

When you study Shakespeare you learn about “The Great Chain of Being” that begins with the highest being and works down to stones.  Without order – especially at the top – we’re lost.  In Troilus and Cressida, Ulysses says:

O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows!

maybe that’s why our lives are so disrupted now. Even though we seem to be getting past Covid, we’ve got a criminal trial going on for our Crime Minister at the same time the new government hasn’t been formed. And perhaps can’t be formed.  And we’ll have to try again.

april 5, 2021 holding our breath Read Post »

israeli politics

Two things I had to do today, buy shoes and get an ultrasound.  The shoes are for the hike to Armageddon on Tuesday, because the hiking shoes I have been using seem to make me lose my toenails.  The ultrasound is for my usual multinodal goiter check.   The things that bring them together were the men who served them. 

I chose the shoestore because online the recommendations were for the amazing service and I really need help.  But I couldn’t even get the salesman to look at me.  And when he did he said he didn’t have my size.  I wasn’t about to let it go and finally got him to take out a bigger size that he did have in stock – he spent the time I was trying them on – texting.  I don’t know if the shoes are good but I bought them out of spite.  He disappeared before I paid for them.  

But the ultrasound guy was terrible.  I’ve had many, many of them – and a number of ‘fine needle analyses’ where they stick needles into my throat.  But none of them freaked me out more than this cold, uninterested technician.  

Both guys were tired and distracted.  It wasn’t about me.  

That made it worse for me – the fact that people are so sick of their jobs that they can’t even look at me, or any of their clients, was incredibly sad.  I want to live in a world where people enjoy their lives.

april 4, 2021 shoeultrasound Read Post »

israeli politics

Catching up with friends, and feeling incredibly grateful that we are not in France and not in Brazil.  We went up Bat Shlomo today and it was as if a year hadn’t passed.  Sometimes old friends stay old friends no matter how much time has passed.

We also managed to hit the beach for a sunset that didn’t seem like it was going to be spectacular, went down behind the clouds, and then came out again underneath, very much like my days recently –  they seem to be simple, but turn out to simple and fabulous. 

 

 

 

 

april 3, 2021 – Read Post »