israeli politics

Sometimes you don’t know where it comes from.  You’re talking to someone, maybe about something simple, like poetry, or something more challenging, like war – and it transmutes into a volcano, then a bull charging directly at you.  I was talking to a Russian friend about shopping, and I happened to mention that whenever I get nervous about self-preservation I over-buy at the supermarket.  Like many people are doing in the Ukraine.  

And that’s when the volcano erupted.  How we in the west don’t understand Putin and how he is having the time of his life scaring us.  But there’s nothing to worry about.  Zelensky anyway is just a comedian, a puppet for the West who is making a fortune selling outdated weapons to poor Ukraine.

She moved quickly on to a criticism of  the world leaders in the West – blind colonialists, war mongerers…

In the best of times I hate arguing – I prefer working out a situation through dialogue after a presentation of facts.  But I just wanted to get out of there.   The worst part of the meeting was not even the possibility of war but the terrible emotions that blocked the possibility of dialogue.

  

february 20, 2022 – tension Read Post »

israeli politics

Because my brother mentioned Oifn Pripizhok in the middle of a rather glum talk and I went to look it up, I came across this version of oifn pripichok and couldn’t stop crying.  The video connects it to the holocaust even though the connection isn’t logical.  But there are more verses and they do indicate the same direction.

So i searched for a song that would make me feel better – and looked up Martha Schlamme’s Oifen eiven – over the hearth – that describes a girl sitting on the shelf above the fireplace, sewing. A boy comes by and pulls on the thread, and she pulls him up.  The song ends with both of them on the shelf above the hearth – and nobody is pulling or sewing.  There are lots of songs in Yiddish about lovers, but they are forgotten.  Like “Margaritkelach” which is about a one-night stand – well, a single- afternoon stand.

 

 

 

february 19, 2022 -yiddish songs Read Post »

israeli politics

The SIBO test took all morning yesterday, but at 11 p.m. the doctor sent the results with the antibiotics to be taken intensively for 2 weeks.  Today I began the treatment for an infection in my small intestine and I can already see that I’ve got a busy 2 weeks ahead.  3 pills a day with intervals of 4 probiotics. I’ll be busy and lonely, because I’m going to have to spend most of my time in the bathroom.  

Now this will be a problem if I’m going to have to go down to the shelter like my friends in Safed had to do today.  My neighbors will suffer.  

WHAT WAR? you ask?  Let’s see, we started yesterday with a rocket we shot at on the border and today another drone got shot down.  As my mother-in-law used to say about the kindergartener’s defense, “it all started when he hit me back.”  I’m sure the instability in the rest of the world is encouraging the bellicose atmosphere here.  

In any case from my experience, citizens must be in perfect health before an attack.  And with a good stock of accessible medications.  

The medication that Ezi has been following, Evushield, has just been approved for distribution in Israel, and he will finally be given the kind of immunization that works.  Of course, his doctors have not yet been informed about it yet, but we’ve informed them and we’ll be sure to be the first.

So good health and peace for this sabbath!

 

february 18, 2022 – getting Well for the war Read Post »

israeli politics

Because Alicia Ostriker and I have had many adventures together and I was remembering them during our interview yesterday (video to come soon) today I looked for some pictures of our past and found our visit to Naim Araidi.  

Naim meant so much to me, and the photos so warm, I had to share them with you.

Why did he mean so much to me?  Because he was working so hard to bring people together, and every moment I spent with him I believed that human beings can transcend the religious, cultural, and social differences they have.  His loss – 7 years ago – left a gap in the cultural world we have not overcome.

In addition to countless poems of his I translated, I interviewed him in, Jerusalem Review, no 8. 2015, 210-12.

Notice I am the one trying to hang on to him – he was trying to keep up the religious imperative of no touching.  I only realized it now when I saw this photo.

 

february 17, 2022 – yesterday Read Post »

israeli politics

I was about to write an old friend, who now sees me as a leftist enemy, that I forgive him, But I knew it would only ignite him even further – I knew it would make him think I’m playing holier-than-thou and he’d hate me even more.  This is all because I invited my long-time friend, Alicia Ostriker, to speak with me about her long career in poetry.  

If I forgive him for repeatedly trying to make me look and feel like a traitor, who would I not forgive?  

And that leads me to the question of what forgiveness is.  I have so many enemies – some who would be happy to kill me, some who I have wronged, some who are simply resentful that I exist.  If I did not forgive the soldiers who smashed my cousins against the wall of their house, if I did not forgive the Nazis who made my mother’s life so dangerous she aborted two children with her own hands, if I did not forgive the guy who blew up my friend in the middle of the street – how could I live?  What kind of life would I have?

 

february 15, 2022 – forgiveness Read Post »

israeli politics

we live on the Syrian-African Rift. This is no surprise to anyone who lives here, because newspapers have been screaming warnings for years – like here.

Cities have been destroyed in the past, but today, when my friend was asked to move because her house was in danger, it hit home.  We have recently spent hours with engineers examining every crack in our building (at my request) to evaluate the necessity of strengthening the foundations of our construction – and were informed that we’re not in a very dangerous area, so we can stay here.  This helped me to sleep that night and many nights after.  But my friend is even older than we are, and the thought of leaving the house they have raised the children and grandchildren is terrifying.  

We’ve already mentioned tsunamis in our neighborhood, and earthquakes too – but now we also have the possibility of total instability with Hizballah, Russia, etc., there’s nothing to hold on to

february 14, 2022 – earthquake Read Post »

israeli politics

Usually I don’t mind when someone who lives in another country complains I’m not loyal enough because I question the government or believe in friendship with all neighbors, but today some guy really got me angry when he criticized my choice of friends and I let this barrage emerge.  it’s not quite a poem, but…it’s a bit of me.

 

Figures of Zionism

 

Lets start with the financial records –

I pay thirty percent of my salary to the government

if we include VAT, which is on everything, even the berries

I can’t afford.  And then
we give another few percent to charity,

mostly cancer and culture.
I don’t mind any of it.

I don’t even consider what I would have made

if I had continued working in the U.S.A.  or even

if I had brought my husband to earn a fortune there.

 

I do think of my kids –

spending their good years in the army –

when my American friends

were sending their offspring to good schools.

I think of the weekends of laundry

wondering how to get out those stains

of mud and blood and terrifying sweat.

I think of my sons-in-law and my nephews

and how they disappear for days into places

we can only read about weeks later,

my one-eyed husband assigned to spot rockets,

while his family shivered in shelters.

I think of my college friend, living alone on the border,

with her books in the safe room to keep her mind off

what she could do with her walker if someone came in.

I think of how I injured my back running down to the shelter

with a child in my arms and another holding on.

I think of my widowed friends, the gaps in all of our lives,

and I wonder who can say I have not committed to this
country.

it may be i can take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning, and maybe I can sleep without running to the shelter, because it was just said we took out the 16 rocket launchers that were aimed at us.  i imagine that if it is 16 launchers there are 2 guys to a launcher and all of them have families that will be mourning tonight.  

So how can I sleep with all those people mourning? 

it may be i can take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning, and maybe I can sleep without running to the shelter, because it was just said we took out the 16 rocket launchers that were aimed at us.  i imagine that if it is 16 launchers there are 2 guys to a launcher and all of them have families that will be mourning tonight.  

So how can I sleep with all those people mourning? 

february 13, 2022 – figures Read Post »