israeli politics

We wake up to the news that our response to the shelling of the area in the south a few days ago has finally begun.  The emphasis in our news is on the killing of some of the instigators of the attack on Israel – 3 Jihad leaders.  

I don’t know how many Israelis wake up to the news – but even those with incredibly busy mornings of getting kids ready for school and getting themselves ready for work, taking out the dog, and making breakfast with lunch to go, even they have one ear on the news.    

Will they have to pack their bags and get ready to clear the area because an attack is about the occur, maybe even a war?  Will they have to move into their shelters?  Our seemingly easy, methodical lives are so tentative.

 

 

arrow and shield – may 9, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Despite the immediate political crisis, and the letters I keep getting from friends asking everyone else what we should do, I’m taking a break from politics and binging on series.  I didn’t even go to a lecture that had nothing to do with politics because it may have had some connection to reality.  I have already concocted in my mind the perfect government that would replace the chaos we’re in – a government that includes the Zionist-religious parties, the Arab representatives, Gantz and Lapid – but I handpicked the people I want involved, and our party-election system would not allow it.  For example, I’d like Zipi Livni involved, and she doesn’t have a party so can’t run.  This means I need to change the election system in order to have an election that would make sense.  

Better make vacation plans, right?  We’re going to NY next week and seeing friends.  

 

break from politics – may 8, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

When I first came to Israel I was overwhelmed by the masses that crowded into the concert hall for classical music.  This is a cultured society like I’ve never seen before, even though I grew up in the Rochester Philharmonic. 

Well, the audience is the same.  I mean exactly the same people.  Tonight I met Bettine Amir, who is 92 and still wearing heels, and a few other people I remember from way back then.  

The hall is still full, and there are lots of young people dotted in the seats where the older ones listening from a much higher balcony, but it doesn’t feel as if it is part of our culture.

I miss the smell of camphor emitting from the fur coats…

 

 

philharmonic – May 7, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

I fear we’re not going to make it tonight.  There is just a bit too much effort involved in getting there and being involved in a mass crowd, even though it is incredibly polite.  Last night someone said it is like a scout rally.  We walk through the masses, muttering our excuses, and everyone adapts, incorporates, and accommodates us, as they accommodate each other.   Hundreds and thousands of people, and the street is clean afterward.  No one drops their trash, rarely loses a hat, and never drops a cigarette.  

And it’s not a social event.  Although I sometimes spy a long-lost friend, they disappear in the crowd before we get to embrace.  People don’t stand around talking about their jobs – they are pretty much focused on the task at hand.

And now that I have described it, how could I not go tonight?

 

demonstration – May 6, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Reflections – on Friday night we talk politics like good friends.  The differences among us are minor and tactical, the worry is universal.  Teenagers talk sex, and the adolescents are wide-eyed.  We avoid profound and practical subjects -bad for digestion.  And in the morning I realize it’s just about bonding and the escape from bonding enabled by cell phones.  It is an important event nevertheless, and I’m not quite too old to carry it off.

Ezi will probably sleep through shabbat, though.

 

friday night dinner – May 6, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Because the heat wave we’ve been having is not unusual for this time of year, and it is often accompanied by a great deal of dust, I’m really grateful that I have a cleaner who gets rid of the dust, even though she left all the windows open today when she left.  

I’ve had household help since I first came here in 1972.  Then it was a Tunisian lady who was forced into marriage at the age of 14.  It was rumored in the neighborhood that she murdered her husband by spraying his food with DDT every day.  Her language was basically Arabic but she knew enough Hebrew to confuse my new immigrant knowledge of the language.  It took me years to figure out that “banelim” were the panels on the lower edges of the walls.  I cannot remember why she left but I still smell the vineagar she poured on her head every morning before work. 

There have been others in the meantime but it is only a dozen years or so since it became compulsory to pay insurance, social security and retirement benefits every two months, and the salary has increased exponentially.  My cleaner now, an intelligent Ukrainian woman long married to an Israeli man, does not pay taxes, however.  Nor does she speak Hebrew.  Nor does she pay any attention to the “banelim.”

If you want to hear about the other ladies you’ll have to ask. 

 

cleaners – may 4, 2023 ] Read Post »

israeli politics

The morning after the bombing I stand on the stage of the dressmaker, as if I’m the only one on earth, as she narrows the skirt I bought on Amazon so it doesn’t look as dumpy, and nips in the waist to show what I have never had, and I am a goddess.  The girl after me is having a skimpy wedding dress altered.  And I  remembered what a Czech soldier answered when I asked him why the girls in Prague wear such short skirts in the cold.  “Because the men are so drunk they need as much as you can give them to notice you.”  And we’re maybe that way too.   So we have to get sexier and sexier to be noticed.  To continue the species…

Nah, it’s the opposite here – the more danger, the hornier people get.  The transparency of the wedding gown is going to make this wedding that much more distracting.

I think I need a new bathing suit.

dressmaker -may 4, 2023 Read Post »