israeli politics

rehearsals - 5.28.24

  • 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.

rehearsals – 5.28.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

mount meron - 5.27.24

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.

 

 

mount meron – 5.27.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

ambulance - 5.27.24

My friend from Metula once described an ambulance ride to the hospital .  The bumps were unbelievable and she arrived in much worse shape than she left her sickbed.  

And I laughed.  In Tel Aviv, I said, it wasn’t possible.  We have good ambulances and good roads,  But at 5 a.m. when I woke Ezi up to call the emergency doctors, and they stuck me in an ambulance, I felt every bump in the road as if I was being beat up.  I kept looking at the back door that had the pictures of two kidnapped ambulance drivers and I kept saying – their situation, if they are alive, is much worse.  I have nothing to complain about.  

By the time we got to the hospital, nothing hurt me.

So – I got diagnosed with a UTI, got some intravenous antibiotics, and went home.

It was my first time in an ambulance, and I would have believed that it was only Israel that has bumpy rides like that had not a friend in Boston told me of his heart attack rush the week before.  

 

ambulance – 5.27.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

planning parties, launches - 5.25.24

And while we’re all burning, I’m planning parties.  Really.  First is the conference on Whitman at the University on the 4th of June, then Ezi’s birthday on the 5th.  On the 6th is the party – for me a farewell to the Writers’House on 6 Kaplan St, then on the 9th a big family party for Ezi.  That’s enough for the moment.  I have to make some invitations.

 

planning parties, launches – 5.25.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

silences - 5.25.24

So much of what goes on here isn’t mentioned anywhere else.  I think we are ashamed of what was done to us – like rape victims who remain silent unless they are prodded to do more.  For example, there’s a Hamas handbook for the invasion of October 7 that specifically instructs Hamasniks to rape, mutilate and murder citizens.  There are even  translations for important phrases like “pull down your pants.”  How did that never come up in the international courts?

 

silences – 5.25.24 Read Post »