getting better – 6.9.25 Read Post »
we are reading the biography of Haim Pesner, and especially his experiences just before the holocaust, and it is amazing how united the people were – even those of completely antithetical opinions about Israel. And it reminds me that the thing I’ve been longing for is the idea of working together. Talking together, making decisions together, operating together, helping each other. It is evident in individual groups here, but I need it to be universal. I don’t want to hear bickering, nasty arguments on social media, and/or the constant discussion on television. We need to support each other as much as possible.
And one of my theories is that the national arguments affect individual relations. parental, marital, neighborgood, etc. etc. etc.
I want to say Happy Eid el-Adha, Kul Am Wantum Bekheir, but in these times it doesn’t look like Abraham was prevented from killing Ishmael or Isaac. It looks like he killed both of his sons and the ram as well.
what a mess
happy holiday – 6.5.2025 Read Post »
I fell asleep before i finished posting this last week, and suddenly it turned up on my screen. Even though it breaks the law of ‘writing to the moment’ i thought you’d like to see it:
Half asleep, I found myself watching “High Noon,” the 1952 film with Gary Cooper and . “Why am I watching this instead of going to sleep, when any moment a Houti rocket may send me to the shelter and if I don’t sleep while I can, I’ll be too exhausted to make my exit in time?” I had been mulling over the success of the Houtis in cancelling many flights to Israel just by writing letters threatening world-wide attacks to the airline companies flying to Israel, and decided to take a break by going to old movies.
But there they were, the same excuses of the citizens who refused to join the sheriff in defending their town – the defenses that the sheriff isn’t perfect, that the problem isn’t theirs, that business will suffer, that they will be endangering themselves. Grace Kelley plays the Quaker bride who is only convinced at the end of the film that her intervention is necessary to save the life her love.
My beloved high-school history teacher, a Quaker himself, once told us that at a meeting the participants sat silent, not responding to an issue, until one old man stood up and in his frail voice said “Two skeletons were in a closet. For centuries they stood silent. Suddenly one turned to the other and said, “You know, if we had any guts we’d get out of here.”
I remembered that remark when I thought of the terrible implications of a country threatening international airlines – after their successful bout of indiscriminating attacks on shipping.
This is a day of pure celebration and we are doing only what we want to do. But first we have to watch the news, and then I have to look up when I was last in touch with Judy Weinstein before she was murdered on Oct 7. The bodies of her and her husband were brought home today after information was ‘volunteered’ from a captured Hamas soldier. And then I have to make sure I get my shopping delivered tomorrow morning so we can make a family lunch for Ezi on Saturday. And then we can get dressed and go out to celebrate.
ezi’s birthday – 6.5.25 Read Post »
Tonight the alarm caught us as we left a local restaurant – for a moment i couldn’t figure out where to hide, it took me a few seconds before i figured out where to take our guests from abroad, because the celebrants at the restaurant were drinking and didn’t even listen to the sirens. They were busy singing “Sana Hilwe” in Arabic. But we found a shelter on our own, crowded with revellers, stayed there the required 10 minutes, and suddenly didn’t feel like taking a stroll in the park.
After a long day at Tel Aviv cafes and restaurants, we found ourselves exhausted, but the new system of early warning made the predictable missile bearable.
I must explain – in the morning we met with the family of the man whose father saved the lives of my parents – at the gorgeous cafe of their grandson – Nomene – on 54 Allenby – a noble, restored building from the ’40s. “My mother used to take me here when I was a little boy!”
There were all kinds of connections, memories, great stories – but no food, so we picked up some grandchildren for lunch at Mateo’s on Bograshov.
All that sitting and eating. too much escape….
siren tonight – 6.2.25 Read Post »
Every year we spend the night of Shvuot with friends. We used to discuss the Bible but have gotten tired of it in recent years, and talk more about recipes and politics. Tonight we had a missile warning around 4:30 in the afternoon and were a bit discombobulated about getting into a holiday spirit on time. The Houtis seem to know exactly when we’re vulnerable, and although they favor any hour of the night, they also aim for times when the kids are off to school, or when we are having weekly family dinners, or on holidays.
As a friend from the US pointed out to me when I told him that this holiday was celebrating the giving of the torah, there is a law about not killing. He was being subtle because we have been friends for 6o odd years, but I understood that I’m being blamed for murder, and I have been doing what I can to change the situation, as have all the other people I know, but we are in a corner. completely.
