israeli politics

waiting is half the war - 4.6.24

The Iranians have already won this round.  By not attacking immediately but promising a major attack (and we know it will be civilian), a good part of the population has become immobilized.  The knowledge that our neighborhood may disappear at any given moment can accompany us for days, weeks, and then it will become incorporated into our general panic about this war, and we’ll forget.  

And then it will come.

So we can’t forget the imminent danger, can’t wander around, can’t be comfortable anywhere in the world, can’t sleep naked, can’t, in my case, do a little blog like this without the tightest security possible. 

I keep thinking of books like ‘the red badge of courage,’ ‘the naked and the dead’ and how the worst parts were the waiting.  The ability to control the other’s waiting is the key to success.  So if I were a commander in a war game I’d use waiting as a major tool – like the Hamas are doing with our captives and like Iran is doing with their civilian attack on us.

 

Elementor #16956 Read Post »

israeli politics

Of course panic is the sane reaction to a terrible situation in which you have no control.  Maybe had you had control you would have found a less dramatic way to eliminate a mortal enemy, but now that you are being threatened with extinction, you would do well to be frightened.  

That’s what I told my daughter when she told me she had been drilled at work for taking care of terrified patients when there is no electricity or water.  She always performs perfectly under stress, but anticipating the danger is another kind of stress altogether.

My feeling is that I don’t want to be stressed for the little time I have left.  As a child I was sure I would become a victim of hitler, so my entire life since has been gravy.  And it’s been a good one.  I’m not going to let it get screwed up until i have to.

So, its a beautiful day today and my friend is safely out of heart surgery, Ezi’s washing the car, I’m going to write a poem about children who are victims of this madness, and we’re going to see some other friends for dinner. 

 

musings – april 5, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

I know I should be writing about what terrible things have been done in the past days, and what new hell Iran is planning for us, but I keep going back to the subject of rape, especially when I see these girls who were released dancing around the subject, endeavoring to explain the situation with metaphors or moments of silence, and not explaining the conclusion.  They don’t describe the act itself so much as the humiliation around it, and that is the point.  That they were dehumanized, and the social reaction they encountered afterward was/is a continuation of that humiliation.  Not being believed, not being taken seriously, not being empowered to make what they had endured meaningful and transformational.  To me, it is like high school boys laughing at the success of one of their boys to ‘conquer’ some girl, and then planning their next move on her.  That is the second rape.  Then, of course, the next shame is the fact that no one who knew the story would seriously date the victim.  It would be a mark on their future as well as their relationship.  It doesn’t matter that the victim was chosen randomly.  it doesn’t matter that she would be happy to forget the incident and continue with the morality and ideals of relationship that she had before her demise.  At best she is marked, at worst she is not believed.  

And I’m talking about high school, not the whole world.  The women and girls represent the entire country of Israel in many ways.  Shamed, disbelieved, defaced, dehumanized.  What you see is the guys bragging about how they overcame the sissies and have made them accessible to everyone – all the boys who wanted to humiliate the stuck-up jews in the past can now beat them up in the street and no one will stop them.

Am I wrong? Am I projecting?  It doesn’t feel that way.  Maybe it’s our fault for wearing tight skirts.

 

war is hell – rape is something else Read Post »

israeli politics

When the violinist was about to play an encore tonight, he said “May the hostages be freed soon,” and I almost cried.  Hostages is the word we’re using all the time, but the word is “snatched,” “kidnapped,” and although I never allow myself to reread what I wrote before I’m sure this has troubled me more than once.  Maybe even yesterday.   In fact, it is on my mind all the time.  Like genocide.  Genocide is a deliberate and methodical massacre over time.  We don’t see what others claim see all around the world – close-up murder of civilians.  Television time is all about the war, but it devotes it to showing reserve-duty guys whose business needs a big boost from clients, women who became single parents full time while their husbands endangered their lives defending their country.  It’s mostly about the people, helping them cope, but it’s also about how the government isn’t functioning and how the army is trying to avoid civilian casualties while behaving heroically.  It’s a weak attempt to gives us an outlet and calm us down at the same time, and many of us are addicted.

language 2 – April 3, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

i was on a webinar from the National Library – American writers and Israeli writers talking about what it’s like to write about oct 7.  One point that I wish we had time to develop was the idea that the language used to discuss even basic things about the war now is strange.  Say – the word ‘hostage’.  There isn’t a proper word to describe it, but there are 134 people in Gaza who were grabbed from their beds or a dance party, some were soldiers and some were babies and some were girls and some were old men.  And they are going to be traded – maybe – for thousands of terrorists who are serving sentences in prison.  What can you call them?  And what can you say about trading them?  Are they exchanged? Are they redeemed?  Are they freed?  releaseed?  found?

(I wasn’t a speaker – just a kibbitzer)

april 2 – Language Read Post »

israeli politics

It’s no joke – we’re just going on and on.  We killed hundreds of Hamas and Jihad fighters in Shifa and protected the 300 patients and doctors, and found serious war material all over the hospital.  One announcer was going through the footage of weapons in the maternity ward in the cupboards, the medicine cabinet, and even the ceiling,  and then she added “all you need for an easy birth.” 

But none of this is bringing us any closer to the hostages, who are being sold and resold to different tribes.  The girls will all be giving birth in a few months, and the men have probably lost all sense of being human.

 

 

april 1, 2024 Read Post »