israeli politics

We went to visit the place where the Declaration of Independence was first signed, promising equality for all.  

so we walked the “Independence trail” and found much that reminded me of our uniqueness and independence.

  

But then I happened upon a group of tourists, led by a very authoritative guide, who stopped before a shop on Allenby and explained the architecture in great detail.

then she pointed out the fact that the restaurant was kosher and closed on shabbat.  

What she didn’t notice, was that the place was for sale…

allenby – dec 31, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Last day of the year so I should tell you what I think of the 2022 Pulitzer prize winner, the Netanyahus having found it a great escape from reality for the past few days.  

What a mixture of contemporary college life with the life of the fifties! I kept criticizing details while enjoying the whole.  But it was only at a point in the middle that I had to shout out to Ezi that there were deep truths buried here.  

That was the moment when the Netanyahu boys were watching westerns on TV.  Because I always say that Meir Kahane learned his politics from Hopalong Cassiday and the settlers circling their wagons against the bloodthirsty Indians.  But Gunsmoke and the later westerns had a little more humanity in them and Bibi didn’t learn that from them.  

It was also the blending of Harold Bloom with the narrator I found strange, and the partial need to straighten out the truth and the fiction at the end of the book.  It feels like he was hounding people to get his kind of information from them and they (rightly) wouldn’t comply because they knew he would be ‘using’ them.  

He’s a great writer, Joshua Cohen, but I really hope he focuses on something else next time.  

But yes, it is rollicking funny. And except for Lawrence Durell, the first author I couldn’t put down until the end.    

Want something to read?  Read “The Weight of Ink.”  Even that one feels more unified and ultimately truthful. 

the netanyahus – dec 31, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

As much as I support the opposition and couldn’t bear the sight of the new government being sworn in, I was happy when Gantz today condemned the catcalls they made in the Knesset yesterday.  It reminded me of the morality that we forgot about.   And I was happy that Benny Ziffer was on tv today saying that Bibi promised him that nothing serious will change.

Of course, none of this comforts me.  I’m still staying home mourning.

 

 

that’s what he said – dec 30, Read Post »

israeli politics

I haven’t been to Mishkenot Shaananim since I gave a talk there maybe 5 years ago about Assia Guttman.  But yesterday and today there was a conference on Amichai that was pretty smashing.  

First of all, there were enormous audiences.  Amichai of course deserves enormous audiences, and I found thousands of people who miss him as much as I do.  Today was a day of more academic papers and for some reason I found myself giving a paper (in my inimitable sloppy and confused way).

I just couldn’t concentrate.  I was so impressed with the facilities as well as Amichai’s poetry on my screen I spent too much time on the first part of my talk and didn’t have time for the second part.  

Why oh why can’t Tel Aviv drum up a literary audience?  Why oh why isn’t there a proper home for literary endeavors here?  Yes, there is Writers House on Kaplan Street, but we don’t have the funding for organizational staff.  We don’t even have the money right now to paint.  No private funding, no sponsors, no donors.  Maybe I’m missing something.  But I’ve been running the Israel Association of Writers in English for a few years – just because there’s no one else who’ll take it over and I’ve never met a donor in Tel Aviv. 

But never mind.  Tel Aviv operates on its own, and maybe art should be independent.  Poor and independent. 

amichai conference – dec 28, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

High Court Judges are warning, Military Commanders are warning, former Prime Ministers are warning us, that this government is a disaster.  And yet we don’t seem to be able to do anything to stop it from becoming a reality, from it taking over our lives. 

There is something that I have been noticing for years and even spoke about in an interview last year on the radio.  Then I said that in a country where there is no love, there cannot be love between people.  Now I see hatred everywhere – between individuals – where there used to be warmth and understanding. It’s within families, on the streets, on the roads.  

But there remains a great love in this country – something that may well overcome the terrible feelings we have of frustration.  We’ll just have to see….

how low can we go – dec 27, Read Post »

israeli politics

I know I’m grasping at straws looking for reasons to welcome a new government – right now it looks hopeless to be happy about the fascist laws that are being enacted.  

So I think about butter.  The previous government opened the dairy market up to free enterprise, the prices went way up as high-price imports flooded the shops here, and now no local butter is to be seen.  

In the old days of socialism we used margarine and were happy,  I’d gladly go back to margarine to get rid of all these capitalists.

And don’t get me started on those extremists in power now who are making life impossible, recommending that doctors not treat people they find objectionable.  It was Rambam who enumerated the ethics of medical obligation.  

I can’t even begin to describe my disgust and humiliation.

 

butter – dec 25, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

The more candles we light, the more we realize that the holidays are coming to an end.  We keep saying that bad things are going to happen, that the opposition has to unite, but we know that without a unifying agent there is no way to bring the individual parties together.   Tsipi Livni looks good to me as a uniting agent, but she knows how impossible her role would be, and I’m betting she’s not going to take the risk.  She’s the one candle left.

 

 

hanukkah dec 24, 2022 Read Post »