Ein Fescha – I wasn’t expecting it: to go down to the Dead Sea and to find sweet water flowing through the local greenery, ponds for swimming, fish and the apple trees of Sodom. It was all the antithesis of desert in the middle of the desert.
Maybe things can exist and contain their own antithesis at the same time.
The Hidden Nature Reserve – Jan 16, 2024 Read Post »
We have begun today to speak about hunger in Gaza. Until now we believed it was just another tactic Hamas has been using to sway public opinion, but even if it is one of their tactics, we can’t be a party to permit hunger. After all, people like me are products of the Holocaust, and although I inherited from my mother, my children have inherited from me. When my son was finishing up high school with the usual trip to Sinai and I was driving him to the bus, he suddenly voiced qualms. “I’m having separation anxiety from the refrigerator,” he exclaimed. I’m going hiking tomorrow and my knapsack is already filled with sandwiches, cookies, coffee – much more than I can carry.
How can I not make every effort to help promote aid to Gaza?
hunger – Jan 15, 2024 Read Post »
I had to cancel the event the night before because we received a number of complaints, some strongly worded, that the speaker supported UNRWA, and this led me to fear that I wouldn’t be able to moderate a discussion in which politics dominated.
This led me first to ask 12 friends if I did the right thing, and then look up UNRWA all over the web. The web is extremely enthusiastic about UNRWA, giving glowing reports about how it gets an annual billion dollars to help the people of Gaza. (how much is that per person? $500) Only Israel seems to question its authority entirely – like here https://www.jpost.com/tags/unrwa
or here
UNRWA: an obstacle to peace?
But I don’t get it. Where does the billion dollars go? and why do UNRWA sites show people living in tents before we apparently destroyed what we saw in the footage as gorgeous villas and apartment buildings?
I don’t have the answers – We say that UNRWA is doing the work that a government should be doing, that they are helping Hamas and in many cases are working for Hamas and UNRWA simultaneously, helping Hamas to maintain control. But we’re the only ones on the web who say that – why? Because it is false or because they are using their funding to control the news?
My lawyer friends, who are active in politics, never raised these issues, perhaps because they saw my little issue as too trivial to counter or perhaps because they unilaterally agreed that UNRWA is a problem.
uNRWA – jan 15, 2024 Read Post »
We’ve been hostages to this war for 100 days. The hostages in the tunnels of Gaza go through daily hell and our helplessness in the face of a violent government and an impossible military situation makes us hostages as well. Of course there is no comparison, but the helplessness is extremely painful.
not that I am not continuing to enjoy my personal life. i have the perfect conditions to ignore the world and ways to forget what is happening outside. But I couldn’t be a human being if i forget.
100 days of hostages – jan 14, 2024 Read Post »
Yesterday we saw the tunnel exhibit the families of hostages added to the big hostage site in front of the museum. It wasn’t quite open yet, but I peeked in. And since then I’ve been thinking about the cramped darkness, the cold, the hunger. How can they be so ignored by the world? The whole country is in trauma feeling these people are survivors of the relatives who were killed in the holocaust.
And the enemy is getting away with enormous lies.
One of my favorite restaurants in the past was Pastel, next to the museum and just a bit more pretentious. But last year Tamar couldn’t find anything interesting to eat, and after than we were with a friend who found fault with every course and the service as well. I’ve been back a few times since then – celebrating my birthday, comforting myself after a bad lecture I gave. Today, however, I hated it.
Maybe because I was looking out at the families of hostages who were building exhibits to call attention to their situation – in vain. Maybe because it was because I was also watching a couple next to us who didn’t exchange a word the whole time we were there. But after the soup, I lost my appetite. I have to find another place to celebrate.
or mayve just another time…
restaurant – Jan 12, 2024 Read Post »
There are so many reasons that Israel will give to prove we are not committing genocide but are seeking to rescue our 130 odd people who were taken hostage and to stop the agression against our people. I’m sure Israel will raise the obvious defenses in court.
But I would like to add my 2 cents. The only reason Hamas hasn’t committed genocide is that they haven’t succeeded. They have certainly tried hard enough. They started out successfuly, but we were able to stop them, and defend ourselves with good alarm systems and by going into shelters. These are things that the Gazan people could also have done – but the Hamas wouldn’t allow it. They wouldn’t even allow the citizens to hide in the tunnels – a decision that would have saved thousands of lives.
The population of Gaza participated in the guarding of hostages. I know I’ve said this before and I’m sure there were many who were forced to participate in creating inhuman circumstances for the hostages, and were persuaded that these people who had been snatched from their beds or from a party were animals and deserved beatings and rapes and starvation. Nevertheless, they cannot be considered innocent.
Genocide of Palestinians? How is it that the population keeps expanding geometrically? Are we so inefficent? I have not stopped loving the Arab people I have known – including those I have met in Gaza.
I have taught hundreds of Israeli Arabs – I have created teachers, researchers, and have helped them to learn to think for themselves and respect their heritage and folklore. And I have been greatly enriched by their friendship. May it continue and grow. And may the need for violence disappear entirely.
genocide – jan 11, 2024 Read Post »
The overall reason for depression is the government. With no connection to reality, they make laws, budgets, policies – everything that counters basic reason. Whatever their motivation – greed, fanaticism, or simple madness – they are what got us into this situation and are keeping us there.
and what about the elephant in the room? – Jan 11, 2024 Read Post »
