Everyone in Tel Aviv knew that even the sky was weeping for us.  The first rain of the year – a few minutes of downpour – always clears the air and brightens the colors of the city. 

But today, the news that 6 hostages were murdered days before their bodies were discovered, has shattered whatever remains of our hope for the future.  And then 3 policemen murdered in the West Bank.  The need to regain control of our government and get the deal done in Gaza, to pay attention to our thousands of homeless, to restart our government and economy, is so keen that every group in my whatsapp list is begging people to go to the center of Tel Aviv tonight to demonstrate.  A million people.

I have thought about the change in this blog in the past year, the fact that I can’t really write about my life in Tel Aviv any more because whatever happens in the country affects every single person.  And so many of us feel the same thing.  We’ve been trying to get ourselves out from under this oppressive leadership.  It’s true we don’t have alternatives, no leader who could replace the present prime minister, but we can’t remain with the one we have. I know that many people in Jerusalem don’t feel the same urgency as we do, but surely we could find a compromise.  I would never wish on them the human losses that the rest of the country have experienced, and I know that in many things we agree and feel a sense of unity, even family.

The rain, after all, falls on all of us.