israeli politics

changing locks - 8.12.25

When I hear the families of the kidnapped, tortured people try to speak in the knesset, and I hear the people who prevent them from speaking, I amazed at how all the locks of the doors to logic, freedom, and morality have been changed.  The locks on the doors of the offices of the high court were changed today – as if something is higher than the law. higher than justice. 

correction!  I should have said the offices of the legal advisor,  the attorney general,

Gali Baharav-Miara.

And let me add how much I admire her, her steadfastness and her patience, in this matter

changing locks – 8.12.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

self-compensation - 8.11.25

What do you do when half the people you know are in Gaza, you’re still recovering from falling down the stairs on the way to the shelter, and your kids are lost without a summer framework because the camp has no where safe to take care of the kids?  

You spend all your savings on pleasure of course.  Restaurants, cars, trips. clothes, jewelry.  it is very pathetic. 

Because we did what was expected of us,  we voted, and then we began to demonstrate, we write, we scream, and continue to demonstrate.  And  nothing we do gives us any way to make a difference.  All that has happened is that our country has become empty – empty of the million possibilities we always felt – the potential to create, to change, to embrace.  

and now we have to begin to define ourselves again.

 

 

self-compensation – 8.11.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Bibi Addresses the Press -8.11.25

 

what is true what is a lie what is a wish what is taken to heart as true

this is the world of a thousand and one nights – bedtime stories 

to help us to sleep – and keep the fear of death at bay.  the way we consent

to put off the beheading

for one more night of excitement,

one night of existence.

 

tomorrow he will

pouf

disappear – a magician –

into a thin cloud of air.

Bibi addresses the press – 8.11.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

traveling - 8.10.25

that’s it – we’re going to New York and Boston in October, and I’m open to invitations for readings and/or lectures.  Mostly I want to sleep without fear and see family. but i also want to communicate something about the experience of Israelis.  in the past two years and before.

 

 

traveling – 8.10.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Do you know? - 8.9.25

“Do you know what is going on in Gaza?” A friend from abroad asked me today.  I don’t know what I said, but I bet not too many people really know.  The choice of what to show, the position of the cameras, the choice of who to film – everything reminds me of Goebbels and Reifenstaal making and censoring movies – the same teddy bear that appears in all the ruins – the chunky Hamas soldiers – Who is deciding what we think is going on in Gaza. 

Whatever is going on there, it isn’t good, and it isn’t going to bring peace and happiness to any of us. 

And that’s all we all really need.

 

do i know? – 8.9.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

richard III?

“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days, —
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

Is this our leader?  he doesnt talk to me.  he doesnt talk to anyone.  except foreign reporters.  And you think – here he’s planning an operation where at least 1000 boys will be killed – and he didn’t even ask us, didn’t even ask the mothers who are about to send their kids to war.  Is he a lover or a villain?  He’s certainly not a Samson, sacrificing himself to kill his enemy.  We tried revolting by not going to the army, but then when Gaza started massacreing and violating  … we came back in droves.

richard III? – 8.8.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

helplessness - 8.7.25

Everyone I speak with agrees with me.  The primary reaction to the failure of all our efforts to influence the actions of our government, of our enemies, of the environment, the heat – is helplessness.  All we can do is cultivate our gardens.  

One of the reasons I first fell in love with Israel was the sense that every individual can make a difference here.  When I was visiting as a student, I hitchhiked a lot around the country and met many different kinds of people.  One man who picked me up was an Arab doctor whose daughter sat in the back.  I don’t remember the entire conversation or even what he looked like, but I remember that he warned me that I couldn’t control every situation.  It was a warning about hitching rides and also my sense that this was a country much more complex than my sense of freedom and control warranted.

 

Helplessness Read Post »

israeli politics

heart clinic - 8.6.25

A European friend sent us a video of Gideon Levi talking about how Israelis think themselves superior to Arabs, and I sputtered to myself something about how all the pharmacists and at least a quarter of the doctors are Arabs, but I didn’t write her.  I didn’t write her about the physiotherapist who got me walking the day after my surgeries and encouraged me to the point that within months I was back to normal.  I didn’t write her about the tiny experience I had yesterday in the heart clinic with the turbaned secretary who seemed like a very typical haredit, but who laughed at my jokes.  Then a hijabed woman in a long dress with long sleeves entered the room and began talking to the secretary through the reception window. 

I waited for a scene. 

But after a few humorous pleasantries the Arab woman went into the secretary’s room and began using the phone.  “I’m calling from the heart clinic – you missed your appointment with me this afternoon, Mrs. Cohen, and I want to make sure all is okay with you.”

 

heart clinic Read Post »