israeli politics

Skies Over Israel – First of the Month

i love the poems in my article in First of the Month.

Two are by Ronny Someck:

This one is about the decapitation of a young girl:

 

I Am the Severed Head You Do Not Know

My hair is more blond than the sand it rolls over
On my lips crowd words
sharp as the knife
that met my throat.
You who are mesmerized by my eyes,
put a chip on the wheel of fortune
that spins under the eyebrows.
Don’t ask my name and imagine my hands
hugging the body that was so beautiful
beneath my neck
and now cast upon the disgrace of the earth
as if it was no more than a banana peel.

The sun shone, the poet wrote,
and I am barely a model of darkness.
No more.

 

and this is about the clothing Yashar leHayal is collecting and distributing to the local refugees.

 

In the Clothing Donation Depot for Survivors. Expo, Tel Aviv

I sort bras and learn the difference
between the lacy padded one
and one that is soft-lined underwired cotton.
War is a time of shame
and I’m not Charles Bukowski, who surely would have
tried to identify from whom it was removed and on whom
it will be put on.
I just stuff a pile into a used carton
of chocolate bars
and then pass on to the next pile.

(Translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut)

and one by me:

Regenerating

No sex in wartime,
I always say.
Even a touch of foreplay
brings on the rockets
that give it to us all at once.

Afterward,
everyone who can
makes babies
and give them names
in memory of

 

 

rockets and poems – nov 2, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv,

Ezi thinks that they set the timers for the rockets in our neighborhood on the hour.  I think that if it true that the rockets in our neighborhood fall on the hour it is just because they’re in a rush to set the timers and run away.  

The frequent use of human shields is another sign to me that Hamas is trying to be very careful – of their own lives.  I am watching the filming from Jabalia on BBC – In Israel we can only see the catastrophe from above.  But what we see is an underground tunnel exploded and we can’t see the individuals from so far away.  These are the people who were warned again and again to leave the area and go to the south, but, the BBC says, some left and returned because conditions there were so bad.   Some had told foreign press that they had not been allowed to leave by Hamas.  When they did have choices, they were not good ones. 

I too feel I am at the front, but I feel I am being protected in every way possible.  The sirens, the shelters, the iron dome, the phone calls – all make me aware that there are major efforts made to protect me.  The people on the street at Jabalia make it clear to me that they are shields.  I pray for them – may Allah have mercy.

on the hour – nov 1, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

It is like we are dancing a dance of death.  Every day is worse and we keep switching partner – Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and of course, filling our dance card, Hamas.  So what was my day like?  After my exercise class, and after Ezi had me do a few sets of stairs so I’ll be able to race down faster, I decided I had to go out and get printer ink and some other stuff ‘in case.’  I drove to a mall that had all the stuff I needed and found it totally crowded.  Most of the staff was Arab with varying degrees of Hebrew, and I was generously helped with all my purchases – since it’s been so long since I’ve been shopping. 

Driving home, I couldn’t help wondering what happens there when there’s a siren.  Shoppers probably ran down to the parking garage, but what happens to the shops? Is there a designated salesperson who locks up and sacrifices herself ?

While I came home, the sirens came on – my friend at the mall called to say she was in the parking garage of the mall.  She didn’t notice what happened to the shops.

But soon after, my lunch was interrupted by another siren, and my sense of humor disappeared.   It’s hard to be ironic when the situation we are in is total madness.

Here’s one example – As our soldiers were going through a tunnel in Gaza today, they were met with a group of women holding babies backed by Hamas militants.  

So now I am ready to go to bed, but I have to be dressed and ready to go down to the shelter.  I am trying hard not to think of the two soldiers killed today.

Nope.  A big bunch of rockets just hit.  I suddenly feared we wouldn’t have enough time to get to the shelter and stopped in the hall.  It was much simpler than running down the stairs, but more immediate.  I don’t think Tel Aviv has been hit this hard before.

Quite a horror show.

 

As soon as

halloween, a typical day – oct 31, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Retaliation.. is that when you hit someone back?  

Retaliation.. is that when you hold their hands so they won’t hit you again and then they spit at you?

Or maybe when you spit at them because they’re holding your mother in front of them and you’re careful not to injure her?

Self protection isn’t revenge.

 

retaliation – oct 30, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

J

while I was trying to remember how to set up a zoom meeting with Adam Mansbach for the IAWE – and wasn’t succeeding – the phone rang – an unknown number.  I usually don’t answer unknown numbers but I was a bundle of news and I just wanted the ringing to stop.  But it turned out it was a guy from city hall, checking on seniors and their needs.  I was truly overwhelmed.  We always help each other out, but I’ve never thought of city hall as a source of assistance!  We must really be in trouble.

a little help from our friends – oct 29, 2023 Read Post »