excuses, excuses - 23.9.26
I may not be around much for a while – got to take care of a health situation and the details will bore you as much as they bore me. i’ll be around soon.
israeli politics
israeli politics
an old yom kippur poem -21.9.26
Yom kippur of non-believers
Next door my neighbor is preparing lunch
I hear each dish as it is placed on the table,
Each item removed from the refrigerator,
Each chair moved towards the food.
There are no other sounds except the crows
cawing their usual complaints,
So each human sin is clear, each washing machine,
Each peak at foreign news programs.
Where would we be without the believers,
Those who scurry back and forth from prayer,
Paler and paler as the day goes on,
Those for whom we try to keep a semblance
Of the silence of faith?
Last night in the streets
The children were running wild on their bicycles
As if there was no other day to show their skills
To their parents, their friends.
But it was more subdued than usual
With less bravado than the years before
As if the last war had finally broken
All pretense of freedom from identity.
israeli politics
yom kippur - 20.9.26
1973. the perfect quiet. shattered. forever. we stood in the street. where to go. men disappear. women and children crowd into a tiny shelter i didn’t know existed. It’s over, I thought. today i suddenly had the same feeling for a moment. so hatima tova means much more this year than ever.
yom kippur – 20.9.26 Read Post »
israeli politics
shabbat tshuva - 19.9.26
Shabbat tshuva – the sabbath of repentance – and i celebrated it by taking a friend to a craft exhibit in the Muza Museum. She was delighted and Ezi was clearly bored. It wasn’t the art he was expecting – it was conceptual, ironic, and craft-oriented. A crocheted decoupage medieval tapestry depicting knights in battle, a roman-like mosaic of a woman snapping a selfie, a pile of walls of tiny houses entitled “displacement.” The humor was all over, as well as the tragedies.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to make another widow laugh.
Shabbat tshuva – 19.9.26 Read Post »
israeli politics
elections - 17.09.26
Today my role in the elections of october 27 was decided – when and how I can help out to ensure the voting is democratic. It’s a very very small role, but I love the idea of responsibility. And you?
elections – 17.09.26 Read Post »
israeli politics
celebrations and anger - 17.9.26
first thing i heard in the morning was the discussion of today’s anniversary of the explosion of the beepers. The celebration in the voices of the little panel on the tv was apparent. “This operation will go down in history!” cheered the military historians. But after that there was no mention of beepers on tv. It was all about Netanyahu’s trial and the fact that the former attorney general, Mandelblit, had been called by the defence to testify. It is assumed that he’ll say that the police acted beyond his orders. So there was a celebration on the right. Then it was the turn of the left (and everyone I know) to vent savage indignation at the ‘settlements’ next to Arab villages in the north.
celebrations and anger – Read Post »
israeli politics
disappearing - 16.9.26
Sorry, I didn’t see the movie. and I didn’t interview soldiers about their orders so I don’t feel qualified to discuss Naza.
What my friends and I discussed today was ‘free will’ in Elizabeth Strout’s latest book, “The Things We Never Say,” and how much free will people have in today’s world. I was thinking about how I always felt safe and free in Israel when i first came. of course it was a delusion. But it was a sense of freedom.
Here is one incident I remember clearly. I was hitch hiking from Tiberias to Jerusalem and a man with his daughter picked me up on the road. As we drove we made small talk and suddenly he told me that is not a good idea for me to be hitchhiking around in Israel. Of course he was right. I don’t remember now at what point I realized he was Arab. But I have written about it at least once in these pages, it was the moment I realized I was taking my freedom way too far, that there are limitations we impose on ourselves as part of a dialogue with society.
But it has to be a reasonable society and there has to be a dialogue. And we have to know the rules. And sometimes we follow the rules for our own good.
Put this in the context of the movie.
disappearing – 16.9.26 Read Post »
israeli politics
We Really Need a Good Year - 13.9.26
Every since I’ve been in this country, the autumn has been full of surprises, most of them tragic. This year I am particularly on edge because I am aware of the past and terrified of the future. Yes, at any moment Iran could attack – and while I don’t like our behavior much either, I think of the clock that has long been in the center of Tehran that counts down the end of Israel.
And the holidays are particularly vulnerable.
At the same time the opportunity to see those we love and to have deep discoveries and discussions is amazing. Not the discoveries are always positive. Another friend has fallen into dementia and described to me what her life is now like, a friend who died in the past year left me her medications and through them I now understand what controlled her behavior.
I know I sound depressed, but I’m not – I’ve lived through another year in which I managed to survive a lot, and I know I can cope with a lot more.
But I really think we all deserve some good news, some happier friendships, some more love.
we really need a good year – 13.9.26 Read Post »