israeli politics

four more days before the holidays and we spent so much of the day on the phone connecting with elderly people, isolated friends, relatives – and some of them we hope to actually see.

The loneliness of the elderly is impossible to believe.  Even in this country, where neighbors seem to know everything about each other, people die alone, unknown.  We ourselves should not be seeing our children, the unvaccinated grandchildren, but we cannot resist.  

september 2, 2021 – warning: holidays on the way Read Post »

israeli politics

so this friend tells me that the only habit he maintains is to clear his history every day on the search engine.  And we’ve got more important things to talk about so I skip over that.  And then I wake up in the middle of the night with that sentence, “clear history.”  All my life I’ve been trying to document history, to learn from history, maybe even to change history, but clear history? Nah.  I just finished an article on the way the little bit of history of my family and friends in the Holocaust keeps changing, that even my mother changed her official testimony about her sister’s fate when she discovered my uncle had abandoned her when the Nazis caught her on a mission in the forests.  She wiped out her sister’s married name from the records.  Both the original and the doctored versions are fascinating to me. 

So I looked at my google history – and I thought, if ever anyone is interested in how my mind works, it will be an amazing document.  But if you follow these pages you’ve got enough to do.

 

 

september 2, 2021 – clearing history Read Post »

israeli politics

I have not yet begun the new years’ plans.  Okay, I’ve made the chicken soup and the kreplach and baked a cake and bought most of the stuff I need – but I’ve got so many meals to cook for. Even when we’re invited out we are given responsibilities – a salad, a soup, a honey cake.  So Friday one meal, Saturday lunch – the kids that are busy with their in-laws for the holidays, Monday – dinner for the others, Tuesday – at friends.  After that we go back into relative lockdown until Yom Kippur. 

And what of the gifts?  Tomorrow is my day to skip in and out of strip malls and see what I can dig up.  We tried yesterday with some of the kids and it almost killed me.  And we found almost nothing in the shops.  They prefer online shopping anyhow.  Real life doesn’t interest them.  

Come to think of it, I prefer online as well.



september 1, 2021 -new years plans Read Post »

israeli politics

years ago, when I interviewed Shimon Peres, I was overwhelmed with his practicality about cooperation in the Middle East.  “It’s good for everyone – it has to happen” was the impression that stayed with me.  I don’t know if I am remembering accurately, but so what.

when i meet so many Arabs in the medical profession, in the world of retail, and all over I know he was right.

 

 

august 31, 2021 – can an understanding be achieved? Read Post »

israeli politics

Dizengoff Center – To me, it looks like we’re too late. There’s almost no selection of holiday clothes for kids, and the school gear has been well-picked over, we get the last of the erasers and compromise on the wrong kind of rulers and just a few notebooks that may have the wrong number of lines. Nobody seems enthusiastic about school. There is much enthusiasm about the neighborhood nursery school – the neighbors have hired a lawyer to get rid of it. Why? Because it creates a crazy traffic jam that blocks all the cars around here. Education has nothing to do with our excitement. We’ve actually forgotten about education and what it means. We’ve also forgotten about how holidays should be celebrated.

august 31, 2021 – back to school Read Post »

israeli politics

The tattooed woman who washes my hair was staring critically at my eyebrows and offering to reshape my entire look,  when I suddenly thought to ask her, “Have you been vaccinated?”  “No,” she answered, and leaned in more closely.  I was in bed with Corona for weeks – it was terrible. it changed my life.”  Then she went out for a break. Five minutes later there was a terrible commotion outside.  Apparently she accused someone of stealing in the store next door and everyone was angry with her.  “Don’t interfere with other people’s business, the hairdresser screamed at her. ”  “I have to do what’s right,” she answered.”  “Is that how your life was changed?”  “Yes.”

 

august 30, 2021 – ethics, corona, and the hairdresser Read Post »

israeli politics

As much as I believe in the existence of the State of Israel, at some point in the ’80s, when I began to understand that we were not using the west bank as a bargaining point, but were intent on keeping it, I felt I could no longer be a party to it, and vowed not to go there.  I remember an earlier conversation I had with Dan Ben Amotz, some time when I had separated from my first husband, about how our intentions were pure, and we are just waiting for the Palestinians to come around.  It was the first time in a long friendship when he looked at me with disdain and backed away.    That was the first time I think I questioned my beliefs.

Anyway, we found ourselves at the home of some wonderful people last night and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  Only at the end of the evening, when we went up to the roof and I recognized the lights of Ramallah, did I realize I had broken my promise – and it hadn’t ruined the evening at all.   

Politics on one side and pleasure on the other.

 

 

august 30, 2021 – crossing the line Read Post »

israeli politics

There are three places on the Yarkon River which mark where the British crossed over to conquer to Turks in December of 1917.  We have visited every marker, not just because it is so near but also because it is so important.

it changed history

august 28, 2021 – healt Read Post »