israeli politics

It is like we are dancing a dance of death.  Every day is worse and we keep switching partner – Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and of course, filling our dance card, Hamas.  So what was my day like?  After my exercise class, and after Ezi had me do a few sets of stairs so I’ll be able to race down faster, I decided I had to go out and get printer ink and some other stuff ‘in case.’  I drove to a mall that had all the stuff I needed and found it totally crowded.  Most of the staff was Arab with varying degrees of Hebrew, and I was generously helped with all my purchases – since it’s been so long since I’ve been shopping. 

Driving home, I couldn’t help wondering what happens there when there’s a siren.  Shoppers probably ran down to the parking garage, but what happens to the shops? Is there a designated salesperson who locks up and sacrifices herself ?

While I came home, the sirens came on – my friend at the mall called to say she was in the parking garage of the mall.  She didn’t notice what happened to the shops.

But soon after, my lunch was interrupted by another siren, and my sense of humor disappeared.   It’s hard to be ironic when the situation we are in is total madness.

Here’s one example – As our soldiers were going through a tunnel in Gaza today, they were met with a group of women holding babies backed by Hamas militants.  

So now I am ready to go to bed, but I have to be dressed and ready to go down to the shelter.  I am trying hard not to think of the two soldiers killed today.

Nope.  A big bunch of rockets just hit.  I suddenly feared we wouldn’t have enough time to get to the shelter and stopped in the hall.  It was much simpler than running down the stairs, but more immediate.  I don’t think Tel Aviv has been hit this hard before.

Quite a horror show.

 

As soon as

halloween, a typical day – oct 31, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Retaliation.. is that when you hit someone back?  

Retaliation.. is that when you hold their hands so they won’t hit you again and then they spit at you?

Or maybe when you spit at them because they’re holding your mother in front of them and you’re careful not to injure her?

Self protection isn’t revenge.

 

retaliation – oct 30, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

J

while I was trying to remember how to set up a zoom meeting with Adam Mansbach for the IAWE – and wasn’t succeeding – the phone rang – an unknown number.  I usually don’t answer unknown numbers but I was a bundle of news and I just wanted the ringing to stop.  But it turned out it was a guy from city hall, checking on seniors and their needs.  I was truly overwhelmed.  We always help each other out, but I’ve never thought of city hall as a source of assistance!  We must really be in trouble.

a little help from our friends – oct 29, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

We’ve discovered today that there are 239 hostages – not because Hamas is letting anyone know even their names, but because we’re discovering the names of the foreign workers who weren’t beheaded or had their faces smashed in.  The Thai farm workers weren’t identified until now because of the lack of DNA samples.  

So far Hamas isn’t talking to anyone about who the hostages are, and I wonder who is taking care of the 10 month old baby, who is getting medications for the old ladies, whether the teenagers have managed to escape rape, who is getting tortured, who has been slaughtered.  

 

no news about the hostages – oct 29, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

My parents were refugees, and so was I – and even though my situation was nowhere nearly as difficult as the situation facing the people in Gaza who remember their expulsion from Israel – I would urge them to do everything possible to move temporarily to the south.  It isn’t going to go well.  

Here I am giving advice and even though my own family is urging us to take a break and go abroad for a while, I barely leave the house.  How we cling to our home, as if it would save us.

 

go south already – oct 29, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

After an evening of rockets in Tel Aviv, we slept exhausted and woke to the news that the bombing of Gaza City, preparing the ground for their house-to-house search for terrorists.  All Gaza City is Booby-trapped and we’re going to suffer many losses.  I look around the shabbat table at the men and boys who are or will be going there, and I pray we will be able to celebrate hannuka all together in joy. 

And me, I’m talking about calming each other down and supporting each other, and all the while I’m thinking – why are they not eating my kugel, my moussaka, my chicken soup?  I’m finding little was to make little battles within me that will displace my anger.  

Aren’t I petty?  I was much more mature in kindergarten.

 

big fight – oct 29, 2023 Read Post »