I’ve got lots of experience dealing with grief and I know some people need to be left alone while others need to connect. So I set up another account for this purpose, to give writers in Israel an outlet. If you’re interested, let me know here.
dealing with grief – oct 19, 2023 Read Post »
And here we are in another bright shiny morning. “The best country to dry laundry,” my mother used to say. And I wonder if they are looking down from above – my mother who was a fervent Zionist and my father who believed in universality and Yiddish. Actually, they held down both forts – because they learned Esperanto as the universal language, and prayed. Neither solution worked.
What worked was flexibility, luck, alertness, and the ability to fit in. And health. My father who had been beaten very severely in Danzig, contracted perontinitis only later in England, but stayed healthy afterward for a number of years. Until her lymphoma my mother was a picture of health – or rather – the usual complaining woman. (I”m like that – a thousand illnesses)
So they survived. But when they got to know the daily life of Israel, they were not happy about it. My father – who had spent years in prison – did not like the way they pushed in line.
I wonder what they would think of this massacre.
morning – oct 19, 2023 Read Post »
I’d really like to get to sleep tonight, but although there has been a second barrage on Tel Aviv, it didn’t fall in my area yet. The problem is that once I’m woken I can’t get back to sleep all night, and there is no way I’m going to sleep through a siren. So instead of doing some of the really important things I have to do, I’m kvetching here.
I’m really waiting for the rocket – just like I did in the Gulf War.
Masochism becomes habitual.
sleep – oct 18, 2023 Read Post »
This video shows the evidence Israel has been presenting all day that it didn’t bomb the hospital – that it was a misfire from jihad
Biden agrees, and so does anyone who sees the site – it is burnt cars and a few holes in the wall – that’s all. I don’t believe there were more than a few victims. But I do believe that
Since we’ve had 3 strikes on Barzilai hospital, we don’t like the idea of hospitals as targets.
My suggestion is that we airdrop aid to Gaza. The citizens here have been collecting food and clothing for the local refugees – why not use some of it for Gaza?
because we’ve seen humanitarian aid for Gaza go only to Hamas. We’ve seen them rob UN medical services of gasoline, of equipment. We’ve seen the concrete meant for building secure houses go to tunnels to invade Israel. We opened up our borders to 25000 workers from Gaza and they gathered information about Israel for the Hamas. It’s hard to do what Biden said – don’t let your rage overcome you.
And we can’t let our rage overcome our humanity.
Israel’s evidence – Oct 18, 2023 Read Post »
So he’s old. So what. He remembers the Holocaust. And he’s everything I’ve always wanted in a leader: He may make mistakes but he’s a mensch. And I will never forget that he was here, and whether he succeeds in making a difference or not, he gave me hope for the future that problems can be solved with good will.
I’m old too.
Biden – Oct 18, 2023 Read Post »
Some of you remember when I began this unfiltered unedited report of my days in Tel Aviv. It began on April 2, 2002 when shahids had been blowing themselves up in the city and people far away were calling and asking me whether I was still alive. The grammatical mistakes and the typos attest to the fact that I could not bear to look back and relive what I myself wrote. I still do that. just to explain why this is so choppy.
some journal history – Oct 18, 2023 Read Post »
We didn’t blow up the hospital in Gaza. Even before we started bombing last week news reporters were asking provocative questions about whether we would blow up a hospital, and we did not deny the posibility.
BUT WE DIDN’T DO IT.
We’ve been photographing every move we make in this war and we say that Hamas fired a rocket from the hospital that exploded upon firing. I’m sure the footage will be released in a few hours.
in the meantime Barzillai Hospital here in Ashkelon has been bombed three times.
Why would hospitals be a goal? In our case because Hamas fires rockets from that site. In their case because as many civilian sites as possible are the goal.
hospital explosion – Oct 17, 2023 Read Post »
My two friends and I dared to drive together to the shiva of a third friend’s mother, but it really felt like a daring deed – As trivial as this trip was, we were in such a state that we could barely keep from fighting about the directions. We never know when the rocket will hit us or where, and everything is much more stressful than normal. As I write now, I know I’m going to be interrupted to run down to the shelter. We haven’t had a siren all day. This time I’ve got to bring down some scissors to separate the water 6 pack so people can drink to calm down. After all, Ezi is the only one functioning on the apartment board and it makes me feel just a bit responsible for all the old widows in our building (and they are the majority).
This is the way Hammas is playing with us nowadays. Rarely does someone get hurt, but everyone is shell-shocked, and we run around like headless chickens (and not even spring chickens). ….
So there’s no rocket in our neighborhood yet, so I will continue. It seems that most of the public underground parking garages are open and free, so when we arrived, there was no room, and after we waited for more than a quarter of an hour in the long line outside the closed gate, I went to speak to the guard and asked him to open the gate so in case there was an attack, we can at least be undergound. He let us in, and we continued to argue about where to go, where to park, how to walk to the apartment building. I was the worst of them because I just walked ahead through the park very fast (fast because rockets are not shot down if they’re going to fall in open areas and my friend’s apartment, next door to a park, was badly hit by the shrapnel of a rocket that fell into the park). Anyway we go there all together and said the right things. Only when I returned home did I see how dissheveled and demented I looked.
There was no rocket but the damage was done, and now I heard a boom right next to us (probably a kilometer away) that must have fallen in an open area. That iron dome is really expensive and can’t be wasted.
Now that Israel has eliminated a few of the major players in Gaza, Iran will enter the fray and the warfare won’t be only psychological.
a day in the life – oct 17, 2023 Read Post »
