With the world gone so totally mad, we picked up a friend for a beer
and some sushi
and no one looked. No one noticed because we are all so involved in our tragedies and fears. So I thought I might share this fun with you. Sharing the news is just too depressing.
I was wrong. Every victim keeps coming into my mind – as individuals: the young father who bent over the carriage to protect his baby he’d taken outside the house to lull to sleep, the Christian policeman who was passing on his motorcycle, each one of the 11 victims this week has been appearing before me when i close my eyes.
march 30, 2022 – continued Read Post »
Do not think it is all terror around here. We have been ignoring our obligations and rejoicing in the return of good weather. Yesterday we celebrated at Shila, a restaurant everyone seems to know but me – classy and tasty. No parking, however. Then in the evening we
well, you know.
unfortunately, at that moment i looked down at my phone and saw the news. Fortunately, there is another day for us and we went to the river.
march 30, 2022 – relax Read Post »
I have never understood the possibility of rejoicing in the mourning of someone else – even if the mourners are enemies. The parades in East Jerusalem yesterday evening have left me mourning even more than the murders on the streets of Hedera, Bnai Brak and Beer Sheva. Most of us don’t know that when we celebrate on Purim we’re also celebrating a huge massacre of Persians at the end of the story, and I’m sure it would change the atmosphere if we knew it.
But I fear there will be many more Isis celebrations before peace will be restored.
The two Ukrainians who were killed in the last terror attack struck me as the most strange. Not because Jewish lives are less significant than the lives of others, but because they weren’t in this deal. I guess everyone who lives in this country puts his life on the line.
march 30, 2022 – mourning Read Post »
My birthday started off so perfectly. The day I was born – was the last day of the V2 rockets in London. My father was insistent that they not go to the hospital because the bombings were very heavy, but I was equally insistent on coming out, and the nurses at what was the Salvation Army hospital for unwed mothers and Jewesses were shocked to see her. They themselves had recently been bombed and their new operating room was adjacent to the shelter, so right after the delivery, she was made to get off the table and run to the shelter. I’m lucky they remembered to take me along.
So this new wave of terror – the third this week and the most devastating with at least 4 people killed – is a reminder of the way things have been going for the past 77 years.
But the day did start off wonderfully – with flowers and friends and a beautiful feeling of health after a long period of illness. The blessings came in all languages – Hebrew, Arabic, English, and French – and it seemed to me the world could come together, that the optimism of King Abdullah and Nafaly Bennett could work. It was only during the last party that I found a message on my cell – optimism hasn’t worked for all these years. Why should it work now.
march 29, 2022 – terror on my Birthday Read Post »
The antithesis of the terrorist attack in Hadera last night and the conference this morning on cooperation with five foreign ministers of middle east countries is unbelievable to me.
First, let me tell you about the site of the conference. A few months ago we were there for a few days. Even though it was the Negev, as luck would have it, it was raining most of the time. Fortunately, it is a stone’s throw from Ben Gurion’s house and we had a chance to walk over for a visit. We also had a wonderful visit to Ovdat, the ancient Nabatean site, and the Zinn river – What a perfect environment for reconciliation! Egypt, Morocco, the Emirates, the US, and Israel – and they spoke of friendship and cooperation with the Palestinians. Even though I know how suspicious my Arab friends are of this union, let’s pray a cooperation can be realized.
march 28,2022 – oxymoron Read Post »
The news from Hedera is terrifying, with two dead so far, but the worst part is that the terrorists are from Um El Fahm – a place that my son visits regularly and some of my favorite acquaintances live. The fact that the recent terrorism is coming from local Arabs is an incredibly bad indication of the difference between our evaluations of the Arab-Jewish relations and an apparent reality.
At this moment I am waiting for Ezi to do his PET-CT. I am surrounded by staff and patients who seem completely similar, but at least a quarter are Arab. It is almost midnight and we are probably going to be here all night, as the news slowly unfolds on the television over our heads. how amazing!
march 27, 2022 – Um El Fahm Read Post »
The television keeps interviewing Bedouin who keep denying any connection with the perpetrator of the murder three days ago. My grandson at lunch today spoke of the highlight of his high school trip to the south this week was the visit to a Bedouin village. Bedouin hospitality is famous, but this week our suspicions have been aroused because one mass murderer was influenced by Isis. We must always be on guard against the generalizations we make about people and individuals. Even though it helps us cut through so many complexities. Sometimes it even saves our lives, and sometimes it damages our lives.
Here’s an admission – years ago I wasn’t too happy when I heard my cleaner was Ukrainian. I had heard such terrible stories from survivors about the kind of glee the Ukrainians took in their participation in the Holocaust, that even though she had converted decades before upon her marriage to a Jew, it took me ages to be comfortable with her. I’ve long since learned to double my instincts, to multiply my desire for connection with my stereotyped fears. For example, a few years ago we were with friends at the Sachne, a natural swimming hole which is often people with local Arabs. I think the men we were with disappeared for a swim, but the woman with me would not go near the water. Most of the females in the pool were children anyway – the other women were all in hijabs and seemed to think it was unfitting. So when I entered the water, I was mobbed by girls who wanted me to judge their races. I knew very little Arabic and what I did know I forgot in the excitement, but I found myself declaring winners, encouraging losers, coaching style, and, ultimately, teaching diving. It was a world I remembered from my days of camp counseloring, and the afternoon gave me particular pleasure, especially when I encountered the disapproving looks of the woman I was with.
