israeli politics

Amaryllis - 23.3.25

Ezi’s mother left us an amaryllis over twenty years ago.  

Not only does it bloom every year, but has given us a few other beautiful children.  With flowers like these why should I care that a rocket alarm woke me at 7:20 in the morning.  I found myself down in the shelter with the others while I was still sleeping.  But I couldn’t get back to sleep and the day filled up incredibly quickly. The highlight was riffing with Ronen Shapira.  He has me remember amazing poems I didn’t even realize I wrote, and make amazing music to them with his quarter-tone keyboard.  Ezi even filmed a few = maybe I’ll put them on youtube.  I love working with music.  

It helps me forget our evil leaders, briefly.

  


amaryllis – 23.3.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

spring in the air - 20.3.25

the siren that woke us at 4 in the morning seems to have mixed up my day.  We may be at war for a while and it shouldn’t be surprising that I couldn’t focus on the rehearsal we did about new beginnings.  And after I stood in the middle of the shopping center where we had been rehearsing and I couldn’t remember what chores I was supposed to have been doing.  

But by the second alarm I was back to myself – doing the usual household chores and translating poems.  

Scrubbed the cupboards for passover, almost finishing the spring cleaning.

if i get bombed tomorrow I’ll at least have a clean house.  clean underwear.  

But my conscience isn’t clear.  Why am I not demonstrating in Jerusalem ?  or why have i not been able to influence the politics here in any way?  

 

 

spring in the air – 20.3.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Getting Lost in Tel Aviv - 19.3.25

I’m not going to talk about the war.  I’m not. I’m not.

But, after a sleepless night, I had to go to my granddaughter’s school in the heart of Tel Aviv, and got completely lost in a neighborhood I should have known well.  This is not the way I like to walk this city.  I passed by my favorite bakeries, noted that the ice cream store I’ve been dreaming about is closed – and may have been closed for the past two years for all I know.   Waze must have thought I was a car and kept sending me farther away on highways. Finally I realized that Tel Aviv has to be maneuvered the old way.  I asked a woman on the street.  my destination was right through the alley.

Maybe this will be the solution to our problems – the simple asking of the person on the street can tell you how to stop this war.  

 

getting lost in tel aviv – 3.19.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

pretty rotten day - 18.3.25

hard to deny this was a surprisingly rotten day, with a surprisingly rotten development.  The way I figure it, Hamas has billions of dollars and months of supplies – no matter what they withhold from the people of Gaza, and they can wait us out.  The hostages can’t.  So we’ve sacrificed soldiers and other young men for nothing with our bombing of Gaza.  And we’ve got the Houtis bombing us again.  And I’m sleeping in my clothes again.  For nothing.

Maybe that’s why I can’t do much today – I keep switching back to the news and then spend an hour playing solitaire. 

Maybe we can pull a revolution off.

 

pretty rotten day – 18.3.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Resistance - 3.17.25

Somehow I am beginning to believe that we may have a chance to change the government and start repairing the country.  The demonstrations and strikes are going to be full blown tomorrow and wednesday.  Even my grandchildren will be demonstrating with their school.  Keep your fingers crossed.

 

resistance – 3.17.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Tel Aviv - 16.3.25

Tel Aviv – 16.3.25

 

For some reason as I walked through Tel Aviv today I kept recollecting events in my past.  Tel Aviv is in ruins right now, what with the digging up in the streets for the light rail, and, of course, the recession because all the shopowners are in reserve duty.  And yet, and yet, I almost  found it beautiful.  Certainly in parts it IS beautiful, and I keep wishing I lived right in the middle, where I could go out for a coffee and a shmooze with Michel, or sit in the music flower garden of Habima, or walk through the street with a Tony Vespa pizza, or just meet my friends for coffee….

 

Tel Aviv – 16.3.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

motherhood - 15.3.25

Motherhood is even more complicated than I first thought when some student interviewed me about my poetry for a paper she was doing.  I didn’t talk about the enormous stress of the mothers of kidnapped people.  But I told her that I never write about my children, but I always write about my mother and the mistakes I made as a daughter.  Everything seemed trivial compared to the experience of mothers today in Israel.  

motherhood – 15.3.25 Read Post »