israeli politics

We keep talking about the hostages, the hostages who were freed, the children, the rockets, and so on, but all this takes away from what I think is the big plan.  I think Hamas has been planning for the past two years to take over this country and get rid of us.  The first step was to pretend that they are negotiating with Israel for an exchange of their prisoners for the bodies of our soldiers.  Bibi was promoting Hamas instead of the Palestinian Authority in the West as if Hamas would take over the leadership of all the negotiations of the Palestinians.  After misleading us about keeping things quiet for the time being while building an underground city with the vast amounts of money given to them by Qatar through Israel, the second step was to terrify us into leaving the strip by raping, murdering and committing acts of savagery while taking hostages (apparently the promise was 4000 dollars and an apartment for each hostage).  The third step was twofold – to lure us unto Gaza and fall into the pre-prepared traps. and while the army is busy being destroyed by this, to invade from the south to the entire unprotected country, meeting the Hizballah in the middle.   This would do the trick.

I think we should try to focus on the bigger plan and not worry about how we appear to the press.  

Ezi says I am a poet.

the big plan – oct 24, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Maybe if they stopped bombing us, we’d stop bombing them… If they have a million displaced persons, we have 120,000 families looking for places to stay because of the rockets.  If we have fewer casualties, it’s because we have a warning system that they could have built as well.  And sometimes pieces of shattered rockets fall on us, so we stay sheltered.  We scurry out and scurry back in.

The 222 hostages have still to be identified and listed –  none of them are guilty of a single crime – almost quarter are still in diapers, or back in diapers.   They all have families – some still alive – who know nothing about their physical state much less their mental state.   These are to be exchanged for 100 odd prisoners who were arrested because they tried to kill us.  This seems like a strange inbalance, but, okay, we would do it. 

I don’t think sufficient accurate information has reached the West to allow a reasonable judgement on what should be done.  Sure, we don’t get all the information either.  For example, we haven’t seen footage of the massacre in the areas down south – no rapes, no beheadings, no fetuses ripped from their terrified mothers.  We just hear a few of the stories that survivors tell.  

We have 4 tv channels:  One is so rightist that I can’t bear to watch it, the others have Arab commentators, moderators, photographers, and guests – almost in proportion to the population of people living here.  I’m watching Lucy Aharash (who begins her broadcast with  ‘masa el nur’ (good evening in Arabic) right now as I write because I have to know whatever I can at any given moment.  Sometimes I watch CNN or new in France to get a bigger picture.  I still can’t absorb anything because I’m not able to concentrate, and I worry about the all the people who are suffering because of the brutality of Hamas, and the unpredictability of Hizballah.

Orit calls to ask Ezi if a half a ton bomb from Hizballah would flatten her house.  He says yes, but assures her it won’t come to that because we’d flatten Lebanon.  Just before that Joe calls from the States to ask if it’s true that we’re rounding up local Arabs.  I hope not – because I have an appointment tomorrow with an Arab doctor, and I have to pick up the prescription from an Arab pharmacist, and some of my neighbors are Arab, and- oh, I forgot to write one of my aged Arab colleagues to see how he is faring…

 

 

 

 

bombing – oct 23, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

“Yeah, yeah,” a close friend writes. “You’re posting a lot, but what’s happening with you? How are you reacting to this mess?”  So I’m going to bore you.

In the effort to maintain a full time job of taking care of an aged woman (me), I have not been volunteering to help out the hundreds of thousands of internal refugees in Israel.  Apart from money, clothing and good will, I have done pretty much nothing.  And they are so needy, so traumatized and so helpless in this confusing situation, it is pretty awful.

i try to help out my friends, who have become crazier by the minute from all the stress, and buy as much as I can from any shop that has managed to stay open, but that’s it.

And I haven’t helped my family much either, except to shield them from my fears and anxieties as much as possible.  In the last month I did share my expectations of a war, but they shut me up, and I was wrong about the exact date.  

All I can do is offer to share my apartment and my erratic cooking.  And hope they don’t need to take me up on it.  

I’m hoping that at least some of the supplies sent yesterday and today got through to the people of Gaza, and didn’t get grabbed first by Hamas, but I doubt it.

And I try very hard not to let the bestiality of the raid on October 7, the brutal murders and the dreadful kidnappings, affect my attitude to the Gazan people. 

All this is very exhausting,  So basically, I’m pretty sedentary, try not to watch news, and cheer up my friends as much as possible.  

And pray people don’t get swayed by the false propaganda going around…

 

so what’s new? – oct 22, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

My mother used to sing me to sleep with the Partisan Song.  It always made her cry because it would remind her of her favorite sister – a partisan – who was killed on June 24, 1944.  Hirsch Glick, who wrote this song, was also killed around the same time.  To hear it sung in Yiddish behind the gun of a tank reminds me of why I came to Israel in the first place.  

 

Here’s a draft of my translation of it:

Never say you’re going the final way,

Although grey skies hide the blue days;

For our longed-for hour will come –

And our feet will sound the drum – we are here!

 

From green palm land to distant lands of snow,

We move forward with our pain, with our woe,

And where a shower of our blood has fallen,

There our bravery and courage will grow.

 

It is the morning sun that accompanies us today,

And the enemy will disappear with the yesterday,

Only when the sun gathers at the dawn –

Generation to generation will transmit this song.

 

This poem is written in blood and not with lead,

It is no ditty of a bird passing by,

This song of a nation between falling walls

Is sung with grenades in their hands.

 

So never say you’re going the final way,

Although grey skies hide the blue days;

For our longed-for hour will come –

And our feet will sound the drum – we are here!

 

Partisaner lid

Zog nit keyn mol az du geyst dem letsn veg,
Khotsh himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg;
Kumen vet nokh undzer oysgebenkte sho,
S’vet a poyk ton undzer trot – mir zenen do!

Fun grinem palmen-land biz vaytn land fun shney,
Mir kumen on mit undzer payn, mit undzer vey,
Un vu gefaln s’iz a shprots fun undzer blut,
Shprotsn vet dort undzer gvure undzer mut.

S’vet di morgn-zun bagildn undz dem haynt,
Un der nekhtn vet farshvindn mitn faynt,
Nor oyb farzamen vet di zun un der kayor-
Vi a parol zol geyn dos lid fun dor tsu dor.

Dos lid geshribn iz mit blut un nit mit blay,
S’iz nit keyn lidl fun a foygl af der fray,
Dos hot a folk tsvishn falndike vent
Dos lid gezungen mit naganes in di hent.

partisan song – oct 22, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

There are so many people and places in trouble now, so many people displaced in this country as well as in Gaza, so many requests you are probably  getting for money. 

Probably the most urgent place is the Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross.  Right now we’re in urgent need of medical equipment, supplies and so on.  

I must add that because we don’t have enough pathologists, and the bodies of October 7 were so defaced, the identification of the bodies and therefore the funerals have been painfully delayed.  There are still many people who are not sure that their loved ones are dead.  

Then there is the site for donations to the soldiers. money for sweaters, clothes, underwear…

And there are thousands more.

Here is one that you probably haven’t received, from Kuchinate a company of African women refugees:

Dear Friends,

We are writing to you with heavy hearts and in despair. The recent terror attacks by Hamas and the resulting war in Israel have shocked and saddened us all. In addition to our indescribable grief and loss, Kuchinate’s artisans and asylum-seeking community find themselves on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Due to rocket attacks and other developments relating to the war, we have been forced to close our studio for the foreseeable future, and it is currently impossible to generate income through sales of Kuchinate products or by hosting workshops, which our women rely on to survive. As African asylum-seekers, they are unable to access any social benefits or emergency funds. Kuchinate is responsible for hundreds of asylum seeking women, who are now unable to provide for their children and families and will shortly face hunger, eviction from their homes and dire poverty. In a state of distress, we are turning to our loyal supporters for urgent help. Any purchase or donation, no matter how large or small, will make a difference.

In these troubling times, we stand with and support all of the innocent victims. We have decided to donate 10% of all our income to those affected by these tragic events. Your support will not only help sustain the vital work of Kuchinate but also make a meaningful impact on the lives of those who are suffering. Together, we can provide much-needed assistance to the innocent victims during this challenging period.

We would appreciate you sharing this email with friends and family, as we can use all of the support we need. Your generosity and compassion can bring hope and relief to those in need. We thank you for your continued support, and together, we can make a difference.

*Please note that any purchases made now will be shipped after the war subsides and postal services resume. 

Here is the website

There are some really nice things there but you can also simply make a donation.

 

some places to support – Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry,

Ronny Sommek

I Am the Severed Head You Do Not Know

My hair is more blond than the sand it rolls over

On my lips crowd words

sharp as the knife

that met my throat.

You who are mesmerized by my eyes,

put a chip on the wheel of fortune

that spins under the eyebrows.

Don’t ask my name and imagine my hands

hugging the body that was so beautiful

beneath my neck

and now cast upon the disgrace of the earth

as if it was no more than a banana peel.

The sun shone, the poet wrote,

and I am barely a model of darkness.

No more.

 

translated by karen alkalay-gut

 

poem Read Post »