If it is possible that Hamas accepts this deal, if it could possibly happen, we could all be in a different world.
When President Biden said these sentences, I started to cry. I don’t believe it will happen, but at least there’s a chance…
“I want to level with you today as to where we are and what might be possible, but I need your help: Everyone who wants peace now must raise their voices.”
“Let the leaders know they should take this deal, work to make it real, make it lasting, and forge a better future out of the tragic terror attack and war.”
“It’s time to begin this new stage, for the hostages to come home, for Israel to be secure, for the suffering to stop.”
“It’s time for this war to end, and for the day after to begin.”
Don’t get all excited. The only good news is that Ezi checked the availability of the medication I needed and it turned out there was a pharmacy nearby that had it. That’s the only good news I know about in this country. Everything else is caving in.
Not true. While all the borders are dangerous in different degrees, and many people who were once friends are now delicate acquaintances, we manage to hold celebrations (like Ezi’s birthday party and my long-delayed book launch and many little blessings.
And maybe all is not lost for our wonderful but lost people. The government may just fall apart and a provisional government installed instead. Or the shock of an uncontrollable war may make even our silly leaders wake up.
I mean we do have some good leaders whose hands have been tied but are fine people who in the right environment would accomplish many good things for all the people of this area. Give you examples? I’d start with our president, who has been absolutely castrated by this administration. He went up to Metula the other day to visit the little core of administrators and fighters who remained there when the town was evacuated. Then I’d point out the recently elected chair of the Labor Party who is bravely picking up the pieces of the left and may help to give us a more positive vision of our country. And finally, there’s an enormous number of fine people who are braving through this mess with smiles and powerful wills.
Sometimes memories come back to a person when they are least expected. In preparation for one of the skits being prepared for my poetry evening next week, my mind keeps going back to the first time I met Yehuda Amichai, and I couldn’t understand why. The first time we met we were supposed to read at the Nassau County Museum, and the host took us out for Chinese. When we got to the fortune cookie, Yehuda opened his and pretended to read, “In an hour you will be hungry again.”
The poem:
THERE IS NOTHING TO EAT What is missing is far more present than what is here as if there exists somewhere an ideal fridge in some ideal kitchen that contains all food for all hunger
We don’t need enemies. With all the rockets and shooting going on over all our borders we are doing our best to shoot ourselves in the foot. The petty quarrels continue while by my estimation 1/3 of the population is homeless. We have spent far too much money bribing one another and now have nothing left for defence. It doesn’t look good for our feet…
the actors who are participating in my little show on June 6 had a rehearsal todaythe building will be torn down in a week or two and replaced with an office building with a few floors for literature.
The thing is that when I used to perform there, the entire concept of literature was extremely important because we were building a language and a culture. And today when I looked at it, I couldn’t get over my memories of the events we had, the cafeteria where so many ideas were exchanged and so much hope was created and developed. Someday I will tell the stories of the great writers and poets. Today I have to start getting ready, building a new generation of writers.
We’re in a bit of a slump right now as far as literature is concerned, even though I know we’ll creep out of it. There’s so much fantasy in the government it’s hard to keep up. But the rehearsals with the three young actors made me feel like this country is really worth saving.
I probably don’t need to say it but the army closed down the entire area around mount meron because we are being fired upon all the time and Meron is dangerous. The custom of going to Mount Meron every year to celebrate the many customs associated with it therefore is against religious law. Life-threatening situations must be avoided according to religious law. So I don’t understand at all what these guys are doing there and why they are fighting for the right to do it. We have lost control not only of civilian order, but of the hierarchy of values.
I am not sure what happened in Rafiah yesterday – but at least 35 innocent people were killed. Our army, which has been claiming that it is very careful to avoid citizen, is mortified. And justifiably. This is where all our moral attention should be focussed, and not on irrelevant values that have nothing to do with religion.