israeli politics

One of the reasons I feel i have to be involved in whatever happens here is that everything makes a difference.   Even though the news is barely mentioning the fact today, I know that more than a hundred thousand people were involved in the demonstration last night.  Despite the sadness at the terrible shootings at people leaving synagogues yesterday after religious services, the demonstrators joined together.  We did not sing, but recited the words of Ehud Manor’s lament that we must have to protest when we see injustice – with a pained body, with a heavy heart, we have to register our objections.

WHAT IS OUR OBJECTION?  1. to the demotion of the high court to a rubber stamp for the knesset, erasing all checks and balances.  In the absence of a constitution, of a house of lords, or a congress, we have no means to balance the extreme laws being proposed by the government.   2.  to the racist laws proposed now with no possibility to be balanced in any way – excluding non-zionist voices to be heard 3. to the extreme religious laws being proposed, making this country into a theocracy 4. to the revamping of the education system that would impose a much greater emphasis on religious studies and a less emphasis on basic skills. 

My grandson is marching today against these measures.

Even if these marches will not change the government’s plans to  ensure the dismissal of Bibi’s criminal trial and overturn the laws against Deri’s acting as a cabinet member, it will open an opportunity to reverse this direction of giving the country over to the criminals.

to be counted – jan 29, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

I wept at the demonstration tonight.  Waving Israeli flags, we all wept as we sang, “I have no other country, even when the land is burning…”  

But we left very early – my back wouldn’t take more than a quick trip.  And when we got home we heard that there were Palestinian flags waved.

Since the demonstration we attended was about the changes proposed to weakening the high court, and nothing else, I was surprised that Palestinian flags were raised.  But even more I was surprised to hear that the great numbers of demonstrators weren’t mentioned.

demonstration – Jan 28, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

We wake to a second shooting, so the sounds of sirens everywhere, just as we are trying to figure out how to get to the demonstration in Tel Aviv tonight.  

The little kids aren’t going, for that I’m grateful, but their reasons I don’t know.  I think one set of kids are playing safe, but the other set are in a movie and that’s going to take all day.  So life goes on even when things are smarmy.

My friends, old and sick as they are, are demonstrating, no matter what happens.  It’s kind of strange -all week we fight for health – doctors, tests, exercise, more doctors, plans – and then we risk everything to demonstrate for a viable society. 

Why is it a risk?  Because the route is risky – we walk far, are bumped and pushed (of course by accident) and then walk back the long way to wherever we manage to park, with no idea what the traffic will be.

   

 

another attack – Jan 28, 202 Read Post »

israeli politics

Their Tattoos

At the annual picnic of the New Immigrants Society

in the park shelters at Ontario Lake Beach,

while all the children went to swim

I disguised my fear of water and assuaged my boredom

by concentrating on organizing the numbers

exposed to the sun on the refugees’ arms

into some kind of arithmetical sequence.

I knew enough to be discreet,

counting the history of their agonies,

without looking directly at the tattoos.

But their arms were bare, exposed,

as they sat telling indiscreet tales

around the samovar and the hill of sugar

and they had nothing to hide

from one another.

Now I cannot remember

a single cipher

except the number 1

that looked so much more fundamental

than what we learned in math class.

this poem first appeared in Minyan Magazine

http://www.minyanmag.com/karenalkalaygut.html

holocaust day – jan 27, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

It was obvious that there would be a great cost.  When the army went into Jenin and killed all those people who were purported to be on the verge of a massive terrorist attack the other night, it was clear that someone on the other side would feel obligated to commit an attack on Israel if only to prove that the attack in Jenin was fruitless.  But to kill people leaving prayers on a Friday night – that was just a bit more than even I bargained for.  

I don’t even know who was killed, whether any of my friends or relatives was among the 8 victims.  The details haven’t been released – and I will not comment on the concept of revenge, except to refer you to Muhammed Taha Ali’s poem, “Revenge.” 

revenge – jan 27, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

They are everywhere.  Yesterday I was getting a disk drive replaced in Herzlia and the high-tech people were marching.  Today we went down the street and there were hundreds at a student demonstration, and I’m sure there were other demonstrations that I didn’t get stuck in traffic for.  A friend wrote me that the New Israel Fund is backing the demonstrations but I think it is important to emphasize that these are grass roots gatherings.  And it’s not about left or right.  It is about democracy and the visible manipulations of sociopathic individuals. 

I must admit, I never minded in the old days that there were restrictions on shabbat.  It didn’t really bother me that there was no public transportation and the stores were closed.  But now, when it is imposed, and new laws are being proposed to make bathing in public areas gender-specific and other nonsense that has nothing to do with religion, I really have a hunger for a ham sandwich on a Saturday train.  Nothing like an arbitrary rule to make me anarchic.

 

demonstrations plus – jan 26, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Every little new law forbidding one thing or another gives me appetite to ‘sin’.  I’ve never thought of bringing in leavened bread to the hospital when visiting someone on Passover, but suddenly I have an incredible urge to bake a cake for anyone hospitalized on the holidays.  On the other hand, when my grandson was born, on the fast day of the 9th of Av, my daughter had nothing to eat and we were sent home for our dinner.  It was a big mistake – she should have given birth in those hours when we weren’t there, but no one paid attention until it became an emergency.  Religion should never enter into health considerations.

theocracy here we come – jan 24, 2023 Read Post »