israeli politics

Our wanderings will begin saturday evening – very suitable for sukkot. I am grateful for all our neighbors who have taken over our apartment and will be keeping guard, especially the nasty dog who will guard my precious glass earrings. It is sometimes good not to own valuables, The fact that I once had many diamonds and gold and had to give them up to my ex makes me feel always that jewels come with a price, and I am happy to give them away for my freedom.

But I digress. If the doctor today gives us an okay, we will be in Japan in two days. In four days I will be able to hug my old friend Laura and weep copiously with joy. if I have wifi and time I will relate it all.

israeli politics

We seem so close to an agreement with Lebanon about gas – and it is clear we would all benefit somehow from a deal. For me, the benefit would be that I’d be able to see Beirut.

I once had a friend in Beirut. In the 80’s I wrote poems about him. I don’t know if I ever published this:

Friend and Foe

(June 10-12, 1982)

Skyhawks fly over my city
on their way to bomb yours.
We are awakened by the noise
and I fall asleep restlessly
dreaming of you and your daughters.

“If anything happens to my girls,
I hold you personally responsible.”
April 25. Israel is bombing Beirut.
You and I stick to wine with our
lamb casserole in Cyprus
and discuss politics.

Spinning the dial now from BBC
to the Israel Army Channel
I don’t know what to believe.
The thin voice of an 18-year-old soldier
telling how a Lebanese
kissed him when he jumped out
of his tank, is muddled with the British
accents of the newsmen estimating
half a million homeless
in southern Lebanon.

Minutes after the cease-fire in Beirut
CBS photographs antiaircraft fire
from a small apartment building.
(Is that where you live? Then
who lives with you?) The Skyhawks
go down on the city again.

Friend! My husband is in civil defence
and my sons are too small for the army. You
have daughters and are old and alcoholic.
We can’t fight this war.
But both of us are in it
and responsible.

beirut – Oct 6, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

the doctor who released Ezi yesterday with a big smile said the tests were fine, but when I saw them today I was not pleased. A CRP of 12.9 is not good. But I am not considered an authority in the family and we are in the holiday spirit and no one is working so it will be difficult to get more tests or advice. And now we’re entering a nice, long, holiday and we will be on the other side of the world.

Tests – oct 6, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Suddenly Ezi announced there was something wrong – Ezi who never complains said his heart was racing. He did an ekg that he sent to the service, which came racing down in an ambulance and, after fifteen minutes of figuring out how to get the ambulance started again, he was taken the long way to the hospital. We spent the evening in the emergency ward, in which everything turned out fine, and were sent home with the advice to do more tests and consult with our doctor about further procedures. Our doctor happens to be the guy in charge of the emergency ward.

I think Ezi just went crazy with all my complaining.

although he was dehydrated,,,,,

emergency ward – oct 6, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

What reflection have I been doing today. Unlike any year before . The antireligious voices I’ve been hearing all around have multiplied, and become more enthusiastic, more violent, in part as a result of ignorance of religion and primarily as a result of the increasing awareness of the cost of religion in our area. And me – somehow I still love God with all my heart, whether God exists or not.

Neila Read Post »

israeli politics

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT IN TEL AVIV

It is Yom Kippur

and the only voice on the street

is our neighbor, crazed from Auschwitz, shouting

“without a cause, without a reason, without a purpose,”

Over and over. Then “All, all, all, all.”

From the synagogue nearby

There is no sound.

yom kippur – 2 Read Post »

israeli politics

Yom kippur of non-believers

Next door my neighbor is preparing lunch

I hear each dish as it is placed on the table,

Each item removed from the refrigerator,

Each chair moved towards the food.

There are no other sounds except the crows

cawing their usual complaints,

So each human sin is clear, each washing machine,

Each peak at foreign news programs.

Where would we be without the believers,

Those who scurry back and forth from prayer,

Paler and paler as the day goes on,

Those for whom we try to keep a semblance

Of the silence of faith?

Last night in the streets

The children were running wild on their bicycles

As if there was no other day to show their skills

To their parents, their friends.

But it was more subdued than usual

With less bravado than the years before

As if the last war had finally broken

All pretense of freedom from identity.

yom kippur Read Post »

israeli politics

Yom Kippur may begin tomorrow evening but the sense of it has started. I don’t know what exactly initiates this atmosphere but our friends who are devout atheists served a traditional Jewish dinner tonight, and their plans for the morning were extensive, but also the bicycle riding all afternoon. i’m not into it right now – but my Arab partner who zooms with me every week pointed out we’ll have to put off our meeting on thursday morning.

Erev erev yom kippur – oct 3, 2022 Read Post »