israeli politics

couldn't do it - 4.23.24

a holiday of freedom when we have kidnapped victims whose fate is unknown, makes us all slaves again.  Even though we wore the shirts of the communities massacred, I couldn’t concentrate on the freedom. 

We cut the seder short and went home – but I didn’t sleep all night.  I was broken.

A friend called to ask why we have to involve the whole world in our conflicts, as my granddaughter, stuck in school at Columbia, show me the people shouting for the destruction of our people.  “10,000 times October 7th”.  That’s a bit more than “Go back to Poland!” which assumes we have another country, and that more than half of our population wasn’t evicted from Arab countries.   The ignorance of history, of sociology, of society, of the facts on the ground – astounds me.

Take for example, the support of Hamas by LGBTIQ – they would not fare well under shariya law.  what would make them ignore that danger?

 

couldn’t do it – 4.23.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

"resistance is not terrorism" - But Terrorism is not Resistance 4.21.24

I look at the signs at Columbia University, and none of them make sense.  They don’t apply to the situation.  As if the students have no connection to the real live situation. 

Do they know that there are Bedouin who are hostages? Americans?  Thais? Are they enemy as well?  Do they too deserve to be tortured as resistance?

Do they know that most of the Jews they’re threatening don’t have any connection to Israel or the subjects of their protest?  

There is so much we all need to learn – but we’re not going to learn it on the south lawn of Columbia.

I spent 3 years as a visiting scholar at Columbia,  I saw Edward Said walking to class with his wife behind him carrying his briefcase, and using the stairs while he took the elevator.  That was my lesson at Columbia.

 

“resistance is not terrorism” – 4.21.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

passover preparations - 4.21.24

How can we have a seder?  The seder is to remind us about freedom, and not only are the 133 hostages still imprisoned and enslaved, but so are all of the population of Israel.  We are all traumatized, functioning on neutral, trying not to despise the people who have murdered us and managed to make us into the villains. 

The Hagaddah is so clear.  It makes sure we know who are the good guys and the bad guys.  Even when Pharoah relents, he regrets it and has to be reminded who the boss is.  So we know he’s really really bad.

And it’s not our fault that he’s being punished.  It is the Lord who’s doing the punishing.  We’re just the victims.

 Ah, the good old days.

But seriously, we’re not only leaving a place for the hostages at our table, we’re wearing shirts with their pictures on it.  So we’ll be making sure we remind ourselves that we’re not free even as we read about freedom.

Maybe we should stop being such masochists and label the villains as villains.  You know if they had succeeded in their plan on October 7 we would not be having a seder at all tomorrow.

 

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israeli politics

on the beach - 4.20.24

It seemed like propaganda.  We watched the Gazans enjoy their beach, all looking fit and happy, and we were jealous.  So today we all went to the beach.  I mean there was no room to park, no room in the water that was too choppy to swim in. 

It reminded me of the poem by T. Carmi – I once translated it but I can’t find it now.  It goes something like this: “It is hard for two conch shells to have a conversation.  Each one hears his own sea,”  But, as he ends the poem, “once you listen, you hear the same sea.”

 

 

on the beach – 4.20.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Doctors - 4.19.24

A far-away friend asked me today why I don’t talk about doctors.  After all, I’m at that age.  And I’ve been overwhelmed with aches and pains, so here goues this week.  1. hemotologist – just checking 2. otolaryngologist (ENT) to discover it’s not that I’m allergic to Jerusalem that my ear aches dreadfully when we go up there.  It’s that I’m really allergic. 3. dental hygienist – routine 4. pressure room exam.  No, I don’t qualify – because I have to cure my ear problem first.  

There were some other things that happened this week – what were they?  Oh yes, we were threatened with extinction again, the kidnapped hostages weren’t returned and the families are going for desperate measures to bring this to our government’s attention, and we’re still getting rockets – here and there in the south, but heavily in the north.   So every visit to the doctor seems like a luxury.

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israeli politics

Metula - 4.18.24

Metula – the most bombed town in Israel.  I have been following the damage, the pain, the refugees, through one of my most favorite places in the world.  For months the town has been constantly bombarded from the three borders of Lebanon, and it is in ruins.  Remember the Good Fence?  I must have written about it many times – For me it was a hope for peace, and now the tv is showing what it really looks like now, how Hizballah watches everything, calls people up and threatens them, ticks them off  once in a while, and this government doesn’t even try to protect them.  They’re in it on their own.  A brave mayor, a few devoted citizens – that’s all they have,  and no brave cowboy, no Alan Ladd, or Cheyenne, to ride into town and save the population.   Oh boy, have we got to change the government.

 

Metula – 4.18. Read Post »

israeli politics

Arab al-Aramshe - 4.17.24

18 people injured in the community center. I thought the town had been evacuated because it is so close to the Lebanese border, and there are no shelters there.  But I was wrong.

My kids don’t have shelters either, but they’re not on the border.  

Why are people just talking about what we’re going to do with Iran when we’re still not protecting our citizens from Hizballah and Hamas.  

I just unpacked the bag that I arranged for the shelter in our building for the Iranian ‘retribution’ – lots of water and figs and chocolate.  And now we’re going to have to pay Hizballah back for the UAV s and Iran for those 330 rockets.  I’ll have to pack up again.

 

 

 

Arab al-Aramshe – 4.17.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Traffic - 4.16.23

I forgot.  What can I say? I should have known there was no way to get from one place to another when the Passover vacation begins.  I should have written a nice letter of consolation and stayed home.  But something drove me to make the trip that should have taken 30 minutes but took an hour, each way.  Most of the time we didn’t move, but we must have moved some of the time because we made to the museum just in time for a lecture about Sebba.

We raced past the tents and exhibits of the hostages, rebuffed the ladies to invited us to make matzos with them, and ran to the museum library just in time. 

It was liking exiting the crazy real world to enter the sane make believe world of art in a different time zone.

 

traffic – 4.16.24 Read Post »