Elbow-deep in chopped liver, we’re getting ready for three days of feasting, and priming ourselves for a really tough time ahead. Inflation is skyrocketing, hatred and misunderstanding is multiplying. But the new year is a chance to transform the ways we think and open ourselves to other ideas. Come on, try it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR – sept 15, 2023 Read Post »
Michael Kagan and Simon Lichman edited the latest issue of arc, the journal of the Israel Association of Writers in English. But because we haven’t had live events where we sell copies for the past 4 years, we’re too broke to send out contributors’ copies we decided to have prelaunches at home. Michael had one at Jerusalem the other day and I had one last night at home. And what luck! The people who came were those who braved the traffic jams (of the haridim protesting the possibility of the draft) and they were wonderful. Poems, short fiction, autobiographical reminiscenes. Wow. We recorded their readings and will put them on youtube shortly.
arc 30 -sept 14, 2023 Read Post »
it took me 3 years to go for a third opinion, primarily because I assume that if two completely unconnected doctors say the same thing, it must be right. But after 3 years of complaining that maybe my heart is okay but I’m feeling lousy, and not being checked even once, I gave up. And he raised suspicions that it was the medication that was making me into the zombie I have become and sent me for a heart mapping with radiation. For some reason the appointment came very quickly for today, and after 5 hours of fasting (longer than needed but we got busy) I got to the clinic.
Since I was told the test would take 5 hours and my radioactivity would keep me isolated during that time, I asked Ezi to leave. But as soon as I stepped into the waiting soon, and saw the old couples holding hands, I realized I shouldn’t have sent him home. We might not have reduced the age of the patients, but we might have brought one or two to smile.
Anyway there was an injection and a stress test first. No big problem – great technicians with the kind of sense of humor I need for these occasions. Then waiting. Then a big machine taking pictures and telling me when to breathe for half an hour. Then waiting. Then dismissal. Barely 3 hours. And I was home by 6. Results in 2 weeks
Then 2 hours of advice from friends around the world about what the proper procedure should have been and what this test means, why I was sent home early, and what the dangers are.
I feel better already!
me and my heart – Sept 14, 2023 Read Post »
my cousin up north is also busy with the protest and he’s got a lot to say and do. I hope this code works. let me know
Here’s what he wrote me yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/pfbid0H14rL5gyyboAsUGB2Wo8bZfEVnZyxizA3J34w6NY8fnFieHKDhh6r6Vaes6uDvwGl/videos/pcb.10168195426705096/303415438946354
Clip above is from the last day of the Northern Israel Protest March
Oct. 10 Update:
Life in Israel is crazy now and it is hard for those outside of Israel to imagine what it’s like to drop everything at least once a week to protest for 36 weeks straight, go on 3-day protest marches during a heat wave, follow government ministers to every event just so that they will listen. But that is life in Israel now. Why? Because we love our country and scared that we will lose our rights – our democracy is under attack – not from enemies on our border or Palestinian terrorists, but from our own elected leaders who have been systematically dismantling our institutions (IDF, security forces, independent judiciary, educational system and more). The top positions in Israel’s civil service and government owned companies have become patronage positions to filled by loyal friends and supporter regardless of their qualifications. Our economy is faltering and the type of protection rackets associated Chicago in the days of Al Capone are running rampant in Israel’s north and south, and in Arab communities that are begging for police protection. For more information on the scope of the proposed laws that if passed, will wipe out Israel’s democracy go to https://dictatura.today/en/ .
Today’s update:
All eyes are on the Supreme Court hearing of a petition regarding the new “Basic Law” to prevent the court from throwing out a law that is “grossly unreasonable”, and on whether the government will abide by the court’s ruling. Expect the next update later in the week after the court hearing when all hell may break loose here.
Yesterday’s highlights:
1. The 3-day Northern Israel protest march ended at Tel Hai in Metulla. After hearing the concerns of local residents along the way, one of the protest leaders, Moshe Radman pointed out that only 7% of the buildings in northern Israel that sit on the fault line have been earthquake proofed. This is a disaster waiting to happen, but the amount needed to earthquake proof the remaining 93% is 2.3 billion ILS ($600 million). At the same time that government could not find money for this, they added the same 2.3 billion ILS to the budget for a stipend that allows religious students to study in a Yeshiva instead of military service.
2. Another 1/4 million Israelis protested at 150 sites across the country, 120,000 at the main protest site in Tel Aviv alone (according to Israel’s largest newspaper). A driver was arrested and protesters fined 1,000 ILS ($260) each after the driver drove into and injured five protesters who blocked the Ayalon highway. The driver, who claimed that he mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, was later released. Some of the demonstrators in Tel Aviv marched to the homes of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, Yitzhak Wasserlauf.
3. 15 US senators call to delay Israel entry into visa waiver program. For details see: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-758223
Upcoming Events
Tomorrow: At 6 PM in Israel (11:AM EST) protestors will demonstrate outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem to send a message that the Court has the Israeli people’s full support to strike down the government’s anti-democratic legislation that would remove the Court’s ability to declare government action “unreasonable.” This clause was used by the Supreme Court in January of this year to strike down Ariyeh Deri’s appointment as both Finance Minister and Health Minister despite having served jail time for corruption and later convicted of tax evasion.
Next Week: Next week Netanyahu goes on a frivolous trip on the tax payers dime. He will travel for a full week with an entourage and security detail that will all stay at the most luxurious hotels; he and Sara will eat at the most expensive restaurants and burn through a budget that make Vladimir Putin, 3rd world dictators and MBS blush with jealousy. And all for one day of meetings in the Silicon valley and a speech at the UN that he could have scheduled back-to-back.
How can you help? Send an email to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il) with a CC to your congressman or to AIPAC. Let him know that as supporter of Israel you are concerned that his government will refuse to abide by the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court. Include your name and address so that he knows that your congressman and/or AIPAC is listening.
Link for regular updates in English: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LZT7kR3H17GG0BiuyXEJRP
Link to a great English-language source of information on what is really happening in Israel: https://en.restart-israel.co.il/
what luck! Yesterday I found a cardiologist I trust (3rd opinion) way up north and he recommended cardiac mapping. I spent the afternoon trying to find out exactly where, and Ezi, at the click of a link, got me an appointment for tomorrow. Apparently although the lines are long, the preparation complicated, and everyone is busy with the holidays so no one wants to go through a radioactive stress test. Me, I’m happy for any chance to be relieved from the increasing exhaustion I’ve been suffering from for the past 3 years.
cardiac tests – sept 13, 2023 Read Post »
While we wait anxiously for the high court to decide whether the ‘reasonableness’ clause is legal or not, knowing that whatever is decided there will be blood, the rest of my life doesn’t appear to be reasonable either. After a long pulgrimage to a learned specialist who speculated that the extreme and agressive treatment I’ve been getting for the past three years may not have been a solution, but may well be part of the problem, I was sent on a search for a specific radiation stress test and only with Ezi’s help, found it. Then made an appointment for thursday, and was confirmed for another test. Now I can’t find out what happened – offices are closed. It will be hard to plan the next few days …
So much for the personal – now for the general absurdity. Dear Frances Raday wrote an opinion in the paper today:
Israel’s Supreme Court convened Tuesday to begin hearing an historic case asking it to nullify a law so contentious that it has plunged the country into crisis. The law abolishes the Court’s judicial review power over decisions of the Cabinet, prime minister and other ministers on grounds of unreasonableness.
The law, the first of the far-right government’s highly controversial judicial overhaul package of proposed laws aiming to weaken the court, has been the subject of much public and professional discussion, in which the claim of the government that judicial review on grounds of what is termed “reasonableness” does not apply in other democratic legal systems has been roundly refuted.
The law, if left in force, would severely curtail the power of the courts to review arbitrary government decisions on appointments and administrative policy. It would leave the government free to make corrupt decisions with impunity.
It is hard to conceive of any government which was committed to fair and ethical governance even making such a proposal to remove judicial review of its decisions on grounds of unreasonableness. But for the current government this is par for the course.
Furthermore, there is direct political expediency in its doing so. Nullifying the court’s power to strike down what it determines to be “unreasonable” has been used before by the court to block government decisions or appointments they view as corrupt or otherwise extremely unwise. This was the standard used by the court, for example, to bar the appointment of Netanyahu’s coalition partner, Arye Deri, to a ministerial post on grounds of his criminal convictions and his promise during sentencing in a criminal court that he intended to retire from public life.
Beyond the substance of this particular law itself, the hearing is crucial as it’s the first in a series of judicial overhaul related laws at various stages of the legislative process, whose constitutionality has come up for review by the Supreme Court.
The president of the Supreme Court has created a historical precedent by including all 15 justices on the bench for this hearing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has further accentuated the drama of the moment by intimating in a CNN interview that he might not abide by the decision of the court if it intervened to nullify the Law. The ambivalent statement of the Prime Minister suggests predictive contempt of court. Others in Netanyahu’s government, have been more blunt in their warnings, including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. He declared last week, “not every ruling by the Supreme Court must be honored.” Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the judicial overhaul’s architect, said the court “lacks all authority” to review the law.
The blatant threat by government not to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court would be far more serious than even contempt of court – an egregious act of governmental challenge to the judiciary as an independent branch of democratic governance.
The claim of the Israeli government that the Supreme Court cannot overrule laws which have been passed by the will of the people contradicts Israel’s commitment under its Declaration of Independence, its existing Basic Laws and under its international law obligations to respect and protect human rights.
This is a commitment which is not subject to the will of the majority but is, rather, a restriction on the power of the majority. Israel’s Knesset and government must themselves be restrained by this commitment, which is part and parcel of all democratic regimes and the implementation of which necessitates independent judicial review.
Furthermore, the claim by the government that there is no power of judicial review over legislation which is in the form of a basic law, as is this particular law, is without merit. The labelling of a law a “basic law” (a quasi-constitutional law with supra-legal status, designed to deal with the principle institutions of the state and guarantees of human rights) does not require any special procedure or any special majority in the Knesset and so could be manipulatively used by government as a tool to preempt judicial review.
This looming confrontation between government and the court goes far beyond possible contempt of court. It puts in question the very foundations of Israeli constitutional democracy. It has already been emphasized repeatedly by political and legal commentators that Israel has weak protection for its democracy, as the executive and parliament are under direct control of the governing coalition and hence the judiciary is the sole independent branch with the power to review governmental decisions. This makes Israeli democracy uniquely vulnerable.
The threatened defiance of the Supreme Court expressed by Netanyahu suggests that no means are inconceivable in his lust to secure for himself and his government absolute constitutional power.
The scenario which unfolds – should the Supreme Court declare the law on reasonableness nullified and should the government openly declare it will not abide by such a decision – is without precedent. A declaration of governmental defiance will, in itself, prompt conceptually a constitutional crisis. But it is not easy to predict the way in which the resulting constitutional crisis will unfold. The most likely development would be that the government would test the waters by taking a decision which would fall within previous Supreme Court’s decisions of what is considered “unreasonable” such as appointing Deri to a ministerial post.
This could be followed by a court decision determining the invalidity of the appointment. If the government then persisted in maintaining the appointment, this might become a basis for prosecution of responsible ministers for contempt of court. However, such a prosecution would be subject to claims of parliamentary immunity. And then it’s an open book as to which measures could be taken by various watchdog institutions of Israeli democracy.
What is clear is that should the government be allowed to openly defy the Supreme Court, the institutional basis of the Israeli constitution would be autocracy and not democracy.
Frances Raday is the president of the Concord Research Center for Integration of International Law in Israel, The Haim Striks School of Law, College of Management; Professor of Law, Emerita, Hebrew University; Honorary Professor, University College, London; and Special Rapporteur, UN Human Rights Council, Expert Group on Discrimination against Women.
absurd – sept 12, 2023 Read Post »
This is Ezi’s mother, who posed for an ad about using canned goods in the time of rationing. It made the papers this weekend again in a celebration of Lilian Kornfeld’s cookbook of Israeli Cookery, that was published over sixty years ago and is still available on Amazon.
Ezi’s mother didn’t use canned goods, though. She was Israeli born and Ezi grew up on soups from native herbs and vegetables, breaded fish and rice desserts.
I know the anniversary of an old cook book isn’t news, but she was a great person.
like mother used to make – sept 11, 2023 Read Post »
Ionesco’s play about the disintegration of order and the reconciliation with death was very slightly altered by the Cameri to be a portrait of Bibi as a leader who refuses to die after the had caused the deconstruction of his kingdom. Last month someone got up from the audience to protest this treason, but our audience was very positive. Although I didn’t stay for the reception because I thought I had left my glasses at Orit’s and I was terrified that I might have lost them on the street somewhere, I could feel the positive vibrations about the play throughout.
My glasses turned up. Left them wrapped up in the shawl I was going to wear in the air conditioning.
But I had a feeling that my uneasiness might have been caused by something else. And then I remembered an unpublished poem of mine on the subject:
Commencement, 1966
New York Times: ROCHESTER, April 14–Students and faculty at the University of Rochester have begun a drive to prevent former Vice President Richard M. Nixon from receiving an honorary degree when he delivers the university’s commencement address.
So Parish is asleep on the couch
and Steve is dancing with Friar’s wife-to-be
and me I am on the side taking pictures,
and feeling out of place, I head for home.
But dissatisfied and incomplete I go out again
to a party from my Shakespeare seminar
in a bar on Genesee Street
(In the apartment above that same bar
Mark and Gary and I used to read
Ionesco together and drink Leibfraumilch
and I had no idea the two of them
were beginning to fall in love.)
And it is a dreamy mid-summer’s eve
and I wind up kissing John Glossup
who would probably rather be kissing
Jennifer who he would soon marry
but she had already finished the year before
and we were a week away from graduation
and she was already teaching in Toronto.
And suddenly when Richard Nixon is speaking
at the ceremony we were not permitted to avoid
and my chair is tied to the graduate’s next to me
and my diploma is locked on the stage
pending acquiescence, it hits me
that the world I thought I knew would end not
with the all’s well that ends well of Shakespeare,
but the absurdist nonsense
of the play where nothing is resolved
and chairs fly off the stage, The Bald Soprano.
exit the king – sept 10, 2023 Read Post »
