years ago, when I interviewed Shimon Peres, I was overwhelmed with his practicality about cooperation in the Middle East. “It’s good for everyone – it has to happen” was the impression that stayed with me. I don’t know if I am remembering accurately, but so what.
when i meet so many Arabs in the medical profession, in the world of retail, and all over I know he was right.
august 31, 2021 – can an understanding be achieved? Read Post »
Dizengoff Center – To me, it looks like we’re too late. There’s almost no selection of holiday clothes for kids, and the school gear has been well-picked over, we get the last of the erasers and compromise on the wrong kind of rulers and just a few notebooks that may have the wrong number of lines. Nobody seems enthusiastic about school. There is much enthusiasm about the neighborhood nursery school – the neighbors have hired a lawyer to get rid of it. Why? Because it creates a crazy traffic jam that blocks all the cars around here. Education has nothing to do with our excitement. We’ve actually forgotten about education and what it means. We’ve also forgotten about how holidays should be celebrated.
august 31, 2021 – back to school Read Post »
The tattooed woman who washes my hair was staring critically at my eyebrows and offering to reshape my entire look, when I suddenly thought to ask her, “Have you been vaccinated?” “No,” she answered, and leaned in more closely. I was in bed with Corona for weeks – it was terrible. it changed my life.” Then she went out for a break. Five minutes later there was a terrible commotion outside. Apparently she accused someone of stealing in the store next door and everyone was angry with her. “Don’t interfere with other people’s business, the hairdresser screamed at her. ” “I have to do what’s right,” she answered.” “Is that how your life was changed?” “Yes.”
august 30, 2021 – ethics, corona, and the hairdresser Read Post »
As much as I believe in the existence of the State of Israel, at some point in the ’80s, when I began to understand that we were not using the west bank as a bargaining point, but were intent on keeping it, I felt I could no longer be a party to it, and vowed not to go there. I remember an earlier conversation I had with Dan Ben Amotz, some time when I had separated from my first husband, about how our intentions were pure, and we are just waiting for the Palestinians to come around. It was the first time in a long friendship when he looked at me with disdain and backed away. That was the first time I think I questioned my beliefs.
Anyway, we found ourselves at the home of some wonderful people last night and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Only at the end of the evening, when we went up to the roof and I recognized the lights of Ramallah, did I realize I had broken my promise – and it hadn’t ruined the evening at all.
Politics on one side and pleasure on the other.
august 30, 2021 – crossing the line Read Post »
There are three places on the Yarkon River which mark where the British crossed over to conquer to Turks in December of 1917. We have visited every marker, not just because it is so near but also because it is so important.
it changed history
august 28, 2021 – healt Read Post »
surely you remember the ritual of putting on a face.
the cream, the base, the make-up, the powder.
the rubbing of eyeshadow onto the finger then the eyelid
the spitting into the mascara so the brush
will take it up the black stone, the brushing of the lashes,
then the liner to outline the new brightness of the eyes.
and the lipstick, put on with pursed lips
the touch-up for the day – the guarantee
together with the perfume
for a perfect day.
august 28, 2021 – putting on a face Read Post »
last month, when things were safer in Tel Aviv, i bought tickets for a friend and us for the opera of Romeo and Juliet, slated for this afternoon. The article in the Jerusalem Post had really hyped it up and I didn’t read it very carefully because I go all hyped about the fact that Romeo and Juliet are both women. So Bellini’s opera is in itself a stylized, artificial piece, something like a series of staged portraits, and despite the Lesbian pretension, the world in which they exist forbids everything but strict patriarchy and family feuds. In our world today all rules are open, where anything can happen at any given moment, this opera had absolutely no relevance.
And yet, it was not that mistake that drove me to leave my friend at the break. It was the crowding and misbehavior of the audience. Maybe it was because we were way up on the top, the peanut gallery, but there were no seats free, every other person was wearing a mask, and there was a lot of waving, coughing, kissing, and even dropping of bottles.
So I sat there – double-masked – watching two alleged Lesbians sing to each other without showing any affection to each other – and wishing I hadn’t had lunch because it was coming up. And it the break, I scooted out – never looking back.
Nili will never talk to me again.
And it will be a long time before I go to an opera again..
I must add that Orit, who came with us when Ezi backed out, said immediately as we left – that as the stylized pistol battles were going on, she couldn’t stop thinking of Afghanistan, and what were these girls all singing about. Certainly not life. Juliet in Bellini’s opera is self imprisoned. The concept of honor itself, she said, is a prison. And as we discussed this on the way to the parking lot, we began to move back to the real issues in the world.
august 27, 2021 – tel aviv’s Romeo – wherefore art thou? Read Post »
Because she had a clipped ear, we knew she had been neutered by the municipal animal control unit. And because she had a hanging empty belly we knew she had been neutered when she was pregnant. And because she was so small and battered and the other cats wouldn’t let her eat if we tried to feed her, we started keeping watch over her when we brought out food, and when that didn’t work, we encouraged her to come up to eat in our place. So for the past year and a half, she comes in twice a day for food – and sometimes sticks around to rub herself on the furniture. She grew up to be enormous. She doesn’t let us touch her, and this is her way to connect. But when we came back from a few days away, I saw blood under her tail, and then we could see she had been entered violently. Then we saw the bald spot on the back of her neck, where some cat had bit into her – as he held her down and entered her.
Even a neutered cat, or a neutral nation, can be attacked – especially when all order has been lost.
august 26, 2021 – cat rape Read Post »
