israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

We were sitting in Mantra Ray on the beach, talking about politics, high finance, operations and their success rate, and even the vague hamsin weather, when I spotted the sailboat seeming to float between sky and sea.  Ezi took the above shot.  Me, I took a less ‘artistic’ view. 

you can barely see the boat from my perspective – but it is precisely the small size of the boat that I identified with.  The helplessness we all feel in the world of massive forces which are determining every aspect of our lives.  I can’t even answer my friends who are all nervous and deserve to be calmed down with friendship.  I hope they will excuse me – I’ll be back when the skies are just a little more clear.  

march 6, 2022 – manta ray Read Post »

israeli politics

The rains have “bathed every vein in such liquor, of which virtue engendered is the flower”  as Chaucer said of April – but here it happens at the beginning of March, not the April of England,  And this year everything is greener and wilder than ever.    Everywhere we go, the smells are overwhelming.  Animals appear from nowhere.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Flowers burst out of unexpected places.           Besides the lushness, the sense of regrowth, what’s different?  We’re so anxious to escape the news as much as possible that everyone was out in nature.   Some of the refugees who have reached our borders seem to have local relatives.  But many have been caught at the border while their heritage is being checked – of course, there are donations and contributions but there is not enough information about what can be done to help.  So we escape to the wonders of  blooming nature, knowing we have to capture the good times while we can

march 6, 2022 – flowers Read Post »

israeli politics

Bar Kochba, my son called Zelensky, a hero to the Jewish people, even though his rebellion caused Judea to be – a Wikipedia calls it – “depopulated.”   In any case, we seem to be completely absorbed in his heroism and the devastation it is causing.  Kids like my granddaughter are not sleeping at night around here – afraid it will reach us somehow.  I used to have Hitler dreams when I was her age, sure he would enter our home and kill us all.    This situation is much more complex, however.  If we were to give the help Zelensky needs, we would be swiftly punished by Putin, who has missiles near our borders.  Yet how can we watch silently as masses of people are slaughtered?  

 

 

march 4, 2022 – war Read Post »

israeli politics

As we raced in the rain to the concert hall so we could make it in time for Zubin Mehta conducting Tosca, we encountered a crowd of people shouting something about Putin.  For or against?  We were too much in a rush to hear, but when the rain stopped the demonstrators put down their umbrellas and raised flags of Ukraine and signs urging Israel to help in the fight.  There are many people here who really identify with Ukraine.  And the Russian people. 

So of course in the opera it was all I could think of – tyrants, loyalty, and what is worth dying for… 

and most of all – the fact that evil is not punished and the good suffer.

 

 

march 3, 2022 – protest and Tosca Read Post »

israeli politics

Who can be deaf to the cry of Ukraine?  Our hearts are broken and our hands are tied.  Putin’s power over Syria is a serious threat to Israel – we dare not endanger our existence.  And yet many Israeli citizens have gone to fight in Ukraine, and at least 2000 Ukrainian workers from here have returned to Ukraine to defend their country.  The terrible misery of the people has also brought out their heroism.  Zelensky is of course the man of the year.

march 2, 2022 – ukraine Read Post »

israeli politics

what a way to escape the news.  what a way to run away from the prospect of the world falling apart.  

But the most overwhelming sensory experience was the overwhelming aroma of the Rotem.  As Natan Yonatan once wrote.  I remember translating this poem with him, and feeling the pain of beauty of which he spoke here

AND THE ROTEM* WOULD WHITEN 

And the rotem would whiten slowly along the way

Tel Aviv wrapped in mist, Jerusalem far off

Someone may not get to the end of this winter, to nowhere.

Blood comes and blood goes and the earth abides forever.

Yesterday a beautiful photographer was shot in the heart.

She who desired the gold of dunes and the noble ascent

Of pelicans from the nature preserve of Ma’agan Michael,

How it chases away clouds in its flight and scatters

A flock of electric poles on its voyage to the winter 

Holy‑feast in the slumbering fish pond.

This was not what I had intended from the start; 

this draft was written

At the beginning of winter.  The first buds of frost 

broke out in the air.

The sea green of the rotem were blown waves on waves

In the shore wind.  

I wanted to leave after me in these troubled times

A short confession of the love of rotem and the need

To write poems.  I thought beauty could protect us

And the children from fire and ice

That delicate longing of the flower along the way

And the one land that remained

And sandy desert rotem and its awful beauty, I thought

 

 

march 1, 2022 – Where have the flowers gone Read Post »