israeli politics

No sleep - 5.25.24

it’s not just the jet lag. i’m overwhelmed – even though i thought i’d see only the people i love, everyone was here. Including the crazy neighbor whose brother is trying to evict her. The international court got me so riled up, I can’t sleep.

I imagine Julia Sebutinde can’t sleep as well. The only one, against her own country’s will, to see that the others on the court have other motivations than justice, I cam see her tossing in her bed – more and more convinced she is right and the others are evil, but unable to convince the others with facts,

no sleep – 5.25.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

what no one hears - 5.24.24

As soon as we arrived, we realized the situation is so much more complex and difficult than the tents on college campuses imagine. The news of more rockets every day from the very people considered mere victims, the decision of the high court that Israel is not complying with the order to stop the war in Rafiah, and a hundred other points, makes our situation more and more impossible. How the world ignores the hostages, the bombing of israel, the situation of 150000 displaced Israeli citizens. I wonder who listens to Julia Sebutinde, vice president of the ICJ, who once again voted against the courst’s decision.

what no one hears – 5.24.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Air-Mess - may 23, 2024

When we arrived at Ben Gurion Airport today, it took forever for our luggage, and then there were no taxis because there is a war between the companies, and then a traffic jam all the way home. I kept thinking of how I was taught to pronounce “Hermes” – air-mess. But then I remembered yesterday’s Newark experience – when after hours of delay from traffic jams from Boston we finally got to the Marriot, dropped off our luggage, and returned the rented car.

That’s when the trouble began. From the rental returns to the shuttle for the bus stop was a long undesignated way, and when we got to the stop, there were lots of shuttles but not one for us, so I started calling the number we were given. Eventually a ratty looking car came for us, and brought us to the hotel – but even though we hadn’t eaten I was ready to give up for the night. But Ezi discovered an app to order dinner.

But the app wasn’t working and I was persuaded to try to speak with the administration about it.

But the administration knew nothing about the app. Neither did the dining room. So I gave up and we had dinner in the restaurant, and ran back to our room to get ready to fly in the morning.

I needed a wheelchair because my sciatica was acting up, and a lovely lady took me to a lounge to wait for our flight, reminding me that tipping is encouraged.

She promised to return to get me to the plane, but when the time grew near and she didn’t appear, we raced to the gate ourselves.

Once aboard the flight I began to realize that we were not going to have the same glorious food we had on the way to the US, nor would the other services be of the same quality.

So by the time we arrived at Ben Gurion, I was a plucked chicken, with no patience for any more. Newark was worse.

Air-Mess – may 23, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

discovery of patriotism

Ait the airport I bought 5 Biden shirts. There were hundreds for trump and only a few for biden, and they weren’t even displayed, so I decided that despite the fact that I was charged more than double what they should have cost, it was my last chance to act for Israel. What do I mean? That Trump won’t support Israel? I don’t know what Trump will do, and I do know that Biden has done everything possible for us. History, we know, is understood backwards.

Otherwise, I haven’t don’t anything for Israel, except to say I’m not planning on deserting. What about my grandsons – the one in the army, the others soon to go into the army. I want them to make peace. I want them to confront the ideas of peace and war and know what they’re living for. I don’t want them to have to make symbolic gestures without understanding completely what they mean. I want them to know exactly what they’re fighting for. Not that I don’t believe the kids who have now packed up for summer aren’t serious. They have a point about fighting the universities. “Piled higher and deeper,” my friend from Metula used to say about PhDs. And every academic I spoke to this time around had another irrelevant, narcissistic project in mind. Except the chemistry professor who spoke about poetry.

discovery of patriotism – 5.22.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

ibn Gvirol Emma Lazarus - 5.18.24

Night-Piece

Solomon ibn Gabirol

^{translated from the Hebrew by Emma Lazarus}

Night, and the heavens beam serene with peace,
Like a pure heart benignly smiles the moon.
Oh, guard thy blessed beauty from mischance,
This I beseech thee in all tender love.
See where the Storm his cloudy mantle spreads,
An ashy curtain covereth the moon.
As if the tempest thirsted for the rain,
The clouds he presses, till they burst in streams.
Heaven wears a dusky raiment, and the moon
Appeareth dead—her tomb is yonder cloud,
And weeping shades come after, like the people
Who mourn with tearful grief a noble queen.
But look! the thunder pierced night’s close-linked mail,
His keen-tipped lance of lightning brandishing;
He hovers like a seraph-conqueror.—
Dazed by the flaming splendor of his wings,
In rapid flight as in a whirling dance,
The black cloud-ravens hurry scared away.
So, though the powers of darkness chain my soul,
My heart, a hero, chafes and breaks its bonds.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on May 18, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

i was so surprised to see this poem on this site I had to copy it. Emma Lazarus’ translation of Solomon Ivn Gvirol’s declaration of the power of the human heart to transcend even the imperatives of nature – seems to important to me right now in the face of the chaos that academia and poetry has become. Two of my heroes remind me of how important is the spirit.

ibn Gvirol emma lazarus – 5.18.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

home - 5.7.24

i’m doing this evening on home and objects on June 6 in honor of my new book in Hebrew “Hanging Poems,” and today as a friend asked me if I had thought of leaving Israel, and I said no, it was a moment of truth for me. I thought of a poem of Yehuda Amichai that I translated but never published – a poem that stayed in my heart.

A person leaves home

And home doesn’t leave the person

who remains

on the walls and on

whatever hangs on them

and on the carefully closed

rooms and doors.

Or it is that the house

expands and goes on

to become the roads

where the person goes

who leaves that home.

Here we are, moving from place to place in the US, but Ezi keeps the app on that alerts us about rocket attacks in Israel. It’s not a loud sound, and the people around us don’t hear it, but we do. Last night, when I couldn’t sleep because my feet were aching terribly from sitting scrunched up in the car all day, the alarm kept going off. And I kept thinking about the joy I felt when I first discovered that Israel was not a theoretical concept but a real homeland. I even understand the longing of the Palestinians for a homeland even though they themselves never lived there. It stays in your bones, that home.

The rocket warnings are sounding now. someone doesn’t want me to have a home.

Amichai – home – 5.17.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

how we see ourselves - 5.15.24

Yesterday I think I wrote about the differences in the news we get – how sometimes we see ourselves differently because we get different news in Israel and abroad. But today it was there in USA Today, that the nymber of children and women estimated killed in Gaza has been cut in half.

To us it has always seemed strange that we would accept the statistics of a people who have never been known for their accuracy. Now let’s see what else comes out

how we see ourselves – 5.15.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Hush - 5.14.24

Israel is celebrating 76 years of independence, but we don’t dare talk about it. We don’t talk about the amazing gains Israel has achieved, the millions of people who have been saved from Arab and African countries, the millions of Arabs given an education and a career, the millions of Russians provided with the means to achieve a life and provide education and culture to so many others. …

Wandering the streets of NY I see names of students – Arab Filmakers, Russian Painters, Moroccan Restauranteurs, all former Israelis who were given their first opportunities in Israel. The numbers are overwhelming – the effects and influences. are overwhelming.

Me, I like to kvetch that my salary has always been 1/5 of what I would have received in the United States and my publications would have been five times the number of what it is. But I would never have given it up. Ever.

Hush – 5.14.24 Read Post »