israeli politics

at 6:30 in the morning Ezi was already out the door and on the way to the hospital.  I am not  allowed to accompany him since the COVID.  He’s going to get a serology test and then a final rituximab treatment and then a meeting with the hemotologist.  if he gets back early i’m going for a serological test and then if all is well, we’re going on a nature hike on tuesday.  it is a big day.  and all i can do is sit back and wait for the results.  It would be so wonderful if I could move this along, but in my passive state I am unable to do anything except wait.

february 7, 2021 – ezi’s final rituximab Read Post »

israeli politics

Everything about our politics is so terrible, but the accusations yesterday and the arguments over whether to open the lockdown or not – that was unbearable.  Here we are, citizens whose very lives are being determined by a bunch of criminals with only their careers on their minds,  and all we can do is just watch.  

And with 30 odd parties in the coming ele    on – a clear sign of inevitable division of the opposition – its pretty sure that Bibi will win again, and we’ll be back where we started, minus the millions cost of the process.  

There is always the story that when you have two Jews you get three opinions, but it is obvious that this is a sign of the inability to compromise, the unwillingness to let someone who has a small difference of opinion represent you.  I keep thinking that Zelicha, for example, who is a brilliant economist but will not win a seat on his own, could easily go over to Labor or Meretz, and maybe even Yair Lapid, but won’t.  Votes for him will be lost, and that will give an extra margin to Bibi.  The fact that Labor won’t compromise on its ideology is good for my soul, but if I were Meirav Michaeli I would make a deal with Meretz so that votes won’t be lost.

Why is the idea of united parties so important?  Because if you are missing the exact amount needed to add a single candidate, all the votes for that seat do not count at all.  So the more compromises the middle left can make, the more they can join up if only for the election, the better.  But we can do little to make that happen. 

So we played family trivia on zoom last night.  who’s in a league? who grew up where?  what’s his favorite hobby?  At least the kids should remember that they have family even if they can’t see them.

 

february 6, 2021 – politics and trivia Read Post »

israeli politics

Everybody in the country shops on Friday morning.  If I had a choice today I’d go to Baka Al Gharbia for meat, vegetables, kubbe, baklava – and maybe talk to the merchants, maybe meet some friends for a long coffee.  Or maybe go to the Shuk Hacarmel, watch Miri Aloni sing on the corner of the entrance, buy some gym clothes off a cart, grab some felafel…  But with the lockdown I settled for a nearby shopping square that is still considered a very high class place to buy.  it’s right between the apartment that Rabin used to live in and Shimon Peres’ place.  Not wealthy but celebrated.

Now it is crowded with exclusive food shops – bakeries, deli, choclatier, custom loungerie, and a celeb butcher.  Because everyone is masked and coated, it was hard to distinguish the famous from the common, but in any case the lines were so long to get into shops I contented myself with the butcher.  He is himself a big celeb and always seems to pick me out and give me preparation instructions in English.  (my accent is much more Yiddish than English so I don’t know how he guessed it)  I always feel extra special there even though i can’t imagine why.  

 

february 5, 2021 – friday morning Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

This is it, the final moments – we’re going to know who is going to run in the coming elections.  what teams, what political parties can combine with the others and whether the government will be a better one.  My favorite candidate is the guy who dropped out.  itzik Shmueli – the guy who was so devoted to the goal of helping win over the corona that he totally screwed up his political career. 

After him, I admire Benny Ganz terribly.  

But I’ll probably vote for Labor as always.  They look good – ideologically speaking.  And it’s a family tradition. 

 

february 4, 2021 – musical chairs begins Read Post »

israeli politics

in these times, not all communication is virtual.  sometimes there are physical things like mail.  and mail is not simple in these times.  Time was when you get a package from abroad, you’d have to go the central customs office to clear it. It was such a complicated affair that Ephraim Kishon invented a complicated board game called “A package has arrived.”  But things became more simple in recent years and before corona many packages arrive to our local grocer next door, who takes on the role of a distribution center.   he’s beginning to do that again, but our packages still go to the post office.  and the post office is a pain in the neck.  Takes forever and is not pleasant.

But sometimes we get packages from Amazon.  And it always happens that Ezi is on the balcony when he comes by.  The delivery man drives by, sees Ezi, and throws it up.  Ezi catches it, and it almost makes up for all the packages we had to go to the p.o. for.   

not quite.  

But sending out mail has been simplified.  You download the forms at home, fill them out, and then take them and the package to the P.O.

so send me my presents by amazon please….

 

february 3, 2021 – mail Read Post »

israeli politics

Frankel Institute Event Series: Stranger Still: Translating Contemporary Poetry from Israel/Palestine

Sabine Huynh and Karen Alkalay-Gut

In this installment of the “Stranger Still” series, we invite the poets and translators Sabine Huynh (French, English, Hebrew) and Karen Alkalay-Gut (English, Hebrew, Yiddish) to join us in a conversation about their experiences as multilingual poets in Israel and the role of translation in their work. They will read selections of their poems and translations, including their recent collaboration: Huynh’s French translation Alkalay-Gut’s collection of Holocaust poetry, Surviving Her Story/Survivre à son histoire.

Karen Alkalay-Gut was born in London on the last night of the V-1 flying bomb attacks and grew up in Rochester, New York, completing a PhD in 1975 at the University of Rochester. Since 1972 she has lived in Israel, raising a family, and is retired from teaching poetry at Tel Aviv University. She was the founding chair of the Israel Association of Writers in English, a position she held until 2014 and resumed in 2018. She was Vice Chair of the former Federation of Writers Unions in Israel and is currently a board member of the Yiddish Writers Association. She has written poetry for the cabaret ensemble Panic Ensemble, as well as wide-ranging essays and scholarly articles. Her poetry publications include the recent collections A Word in Edgewise (English), Derakhim le-ehov (Ways to Love, Hebrew), and Yerusha (Inheritance, Yiddish/Hebrew).

Sabine Huynh is a poet, translator and editor based in Tel Aviv. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the author of a dozen books (poetry, novel, short stories, essay, diary), and numerous translations (from the French, Hebrew and English). Her poetry collections include Kvar lo, which won France’s 2017 CoPo Poetry Prize, and Dans le tournant/Into the Turning, a bilingual English-French book co-authored with Amy Hollowell. Her first novel, La Mer et l’enfant, was shortlisted for the 2014 Emmanuel-Roblès Prize and for the 2013 Chambery’s First Novel Festival Prize. With Haggai Linik, she is the founding editor of the French-Hebrew literary translation magazine Peham. Her latest poetry collection Parler peau (« to speak skin ») was illustrated by Philippe Agostini and published last year by Æncrages & Co. Her French translation of the complete poetry of Anne Sexton is due out in 2021 with the feminist publishing house Editions des Femmes.
Huynh Photo Credit: Miriam Alster


Zoom Registration Link: https://umich.zoom.us/webinar/register/1216070911601/WN_IsQh-wJARNmcGBeqKf60Qg
Sabine Huynh and Karen Alkalay-Gut
Sabine Huynh and Karen Alkalay-Gut

event – february 16, 2021 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Paranoia is the new normal – at least for me.  When we see others on the street, we cross over to the other side.  We fear our children, and now even more than before because even though we’re on lockdown its only in theory – After all, children have to play with each other, shops have to open – even only through the back door, hairdressers seem to be going around to people’s homes.  All this makes life more difficult for those of us who remain vulnerable.

There is also a crazy mental isolation among the population.  In our walk today we met a number of neighbors our age who were without masks and big smiles on their faces.  “Aren’t we lucky?  We’re safe!” they said, as if the while thing is over.  it isn’t.  

january 30, 2021 – corona normal Read Post »

israeli politics

Why should I drive myself crazy over whether the lockdown continues or not?  I’m not going anywhere in any case until Ezi passes his serology somewhere in the second week of February.  And all my voting and campaigning hasn’t ever resulted in getting the government I wanted.  And sometimes I’ve discovered that I voted wrong, or campaigned for the wrong person.  I’m giving up.  Staying home and watching the dumbest series I can find.  

And trying to write wise or funny things.   

All right, I’ll admit it – I suddenly realized that I have been seeing the Labor Party all wrong for 50 years.  My family was devoted to the Labor Party because of its socialism, and the party today seems to follow in this basic theory. But the more I learn about the history of the factories here, the more I understand why there is such bad blood inherited between the haves and have-nots here.  

And I should have seen because I was in the middle of it.   When i came here in 1972 and didn’t get the job I was promised at the University of Tel Aviv, I went to meet a friend of a friend in the Histadrut, the workers’ union.  We met many times at Cafe Olga, where all the officials from Labor party had lunch.  And at last I was offered the position of cultural administrator.  

I was so totally unfit for the job, and maybe that was mutually understood, because I don’t remember ever getting something in writing.  But the fact that I had lunch with all these guys wearing white shirts and blue jackets and no tie means I too had ‘connections’ – probably through my father.   How did I not realize that the job offer was a sign of a corrupted system?  

or maybe the fact that there is no evidence of my job offer means he was just trying to get rid of his obligations by offering me a job I couldn’t take…

 

 

january 29, 2021 Read Post »