blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Many of the refugees who stayed with us after the war seemed to have trouble talking about their past hunger.  I remember ladies surreptitiously filling their handbags with sugar cubes that were offered on the tables for tea, 

And of course Ezi is in a constant battle with me over my overbuying of foodstuffs. 

Hunger is a terrifying thing and an unnecessary one in our times.  And I feel the hunger of the Gazans and the hungers of our soldiers all the time.

 

 

food – march 3, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

For the religious, the rituals of every day and the rituals of the Sabbath remain the same whatever the situation, but we who are not observant, have found that so much of what we usually do have changed – not always outwardly, but always inwardly.  I am not strong enough to march to Jerusalem with the families of the hostages, but our usual activities seem to have no significance any more.  In the past we spent our Sabbath with our children and grandchildren, or with friends, but it is less meaningful than usual.

Still, we do it, and enjoy it.   Today we went to the beach for breakfast with old friends.   There was no way to make reservations – everything was full up – I had gone around to a few restaurants to see what was available yesterday and was met with supercilious responses.  So we found ourselves finally at the Mandarin hotel – a bit seedy, and no longer with servers and elegant dishes – but great food and a quiet atmosphere.  It usually fills up before and after movies, because the small theater is next door.  The other times are for hotel residents and near-by trysts.  So it has a kind of exotic atmosphere but is not known for the food.

I liked it.  Especially because I didn’t want to be in the sun and wind, and among chattering crowds.  Especially since our friends are hard of hearing and the quiet was good for us.

But I was overwhelmed by the fact that the shadow of irrelevance in the face of the horror around us and our helplessness.  We are even stuck with Russia – unable to object too much for fear of their influence on Syria and arms deals, but dccidedly against their policies with Ukraine but fearful of saying a word.

How wonderful can breakfast be?

 

breakfast Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Dana asked me yesterday to explain the mess of the Middle East – a subject that needs at least three volumes of 2 columns of text – one side for the arabs and one side for the jews.  With the British text as a transparent overlay over each page.  

Start with this: The Turks were in control for hundreds of years from 1516 the Ottoman Turks invaded for over 400 years until 1918.  The British won over them because they promised the land to the Arabs if they helped them, and the same thing to the Jews.  Of course they didn’t tell the Arabs and the Jews about their impossible promises.  

Then the British tried to control this country – by outrageous punishments to the Arabs, and by making immigration almost impossible.  My parents, for example, twice tried to get away from an increasingly dangerous Europe and were twice turned back.  The second time was in August of 1939 when Hitler was putting the final touches on his invasion of Poland.  I am sure that hundreds of thousands of lives would be saved from the crematoriums had they been allowed sanctuary.  

To be fair, the British tried to keep the Jews and Arabs apart, but just to keep their job an easy one.  There was no real plan.  In fact the White Paper in 1922 promised a Jewish Homeland again but also kept Jews from immigrating.

Palestine was British and the Jews were supposed to have a homeland.  

This was reiterated with the acceptance of a Jewish State by the UN in 1948, when a few hundred throusand refugees from the camps showed up and were accomodated in tents and shacks.

This understandably annoyed the Arabs (those who had not fled or been chased out or killed in the war of 1948) and those who remained were not very neighborly.  Because of the shootings and killings they were confined to their villages and suffered greatly from poverty, lack of proper education, and general discrimination.  

I’m going to skip over all the other wars with the other countries, the fact that we won a lot of territory in the six day war, and all that – but only because you can get that stuff anywhere.

Lets move to the past year.  Or at least the past few years in Gaza.  Somehow we believed a dream that if the people of Gaza were financially comfortable, and their medical needs were ameliorated, we could come close to a kind of friendship where we could communicate and determine a kind of peace.  

So even though there were clear warnings that all the money being pumped into Gaza was diverted to tunnels and weapons, that all the children were being taught war tactics and hate, we could pay attention to handling the west bank.  

And on October 7, they conducted a well-planned massacre of about 2500 people.  Some people managed to shoot back, some escape.  The number is less significant than the crimes committed – babies in the microwave, rifles shot up vaginas, men and women raped, mutilated, killed before the eyes of their loved ones.  

Even if was true that Israel’s efforts against Hamas were initially motivated by revenge, the discoveries by the Israel army of the plans for overcoming and destroying every single person here, make the extreme reaction perfectly rational. 

And now with hundreds of thousands internal refugees and at least 130 hostages in Gaza, we’d really be happy about destroying Hamas.  It’s not genocide.  it’s protection.  

 

 

questions – march 1 Read Post »