israeli politics

Caught - 12.11.24

This afternoon was the first time I was really caught – alone, in my car, in a traffic jam, with no shelter nearby.  And it was no big deal.  Not compared to my friends, who were just landing and had to circle around in the air for part of an hour.  I’ll find out when they find their luggage and get in touch.

And certainly not compared to the guys in Nahariya who got wiped out.

For some reason I don’t see anything about this in the press abroad – over 200 rockets falling on urban areas, with the Arab villages the least protected and prepared – almost every day.

What the press abroad seems to be focussing on is the number of food trucks that arrive in Gaza every day.  We don’t talk about it much here.  One of the reasons is that we’re really really angry at the Gazans for celebrating every murder of Israelis there.  As much as I cannot bear that lack of sympathy, I understand it.  The Gazans started this war with a very bloody attack that did not endear them to us, they still bomb us whenever they can,  and are aligned with Hizballah who are clearly trying to kill me…

But you know all this.  

 

caught -12.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

very, very nervous - 11.12.24

We’re not working together right now.  So tired and overwhelmed, we’re not using our whole brains and the mental reserve we know we have.  I’m looking forward to a more straightforward government in charge.  Not only in Israel but around the world.  If only the European leaders clung to the values of their culture, they’d be in a better situation with the immigrants.  The problem is not the immigrants themselves so much as the lack of a clear framework.  Immigrants have to live by the same rules as the country they move to.    We too have to cling to our values, and not fall into thinking like our enemies.  

 

very, very nervous – 12.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Letters To Hostages - 11.19.24

There’s a new site where you can write letters to the kidnapped people in Gaza.  You can choose which hostage to write to and the letters will be delivered as soon as communication is possible.  It’s in Hebrew but you can deal with that if all you have to do is press the picture to express your thoughts and wishes.  The site is here

https://lettersofhope.netlify.app/

I tried to write, but then I broke down and cried at the uncertainty of their lives and their futures.  Can you do better? Can you make promises for what you will do to help them rehabilitate after such an horrifying experience?  Can you even ask how they are?  The connection to each one of them remains so powerful.  

And I cannot stop thinking how easy it would be to just return them to us and the fighting would stop.

(It would also mess up Bibi’s plans, wouldn’t it…)

 

 

Letters To Hostages – 11.10.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Amsterdam 9.11.24

We took a walk in Amsterdam this summer with a local guide.  A group of anonymoua tourists seeing the local sites.  After the usual red light district, to my surprise I found myself in what was the Jewish neighborhood before WWII.  The guide gave us a very sympathetic spiel on the Jewiah community and how they were betrayed during the war, and although he underplayed the facts he overplayed the sympathy to the Jews and the blame of the non-Jewish community.  I wondered if he knew we were Jewish –

amsterdam – 9.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Dutch Jews -9.11.24

This is much more information about what we were talking about yesterday.   David de Bruijn 

Last Night’s Pogrom in Amsterdam

Israeli soccer fans were ambushed, beaten, and pleaded with their assailants: “not Jewish, not Jewish.” I grew up in the Netherlands. I wasn’t surprised.

https://www.thefp.com/p/pogrom-amsterdam-antisemitism?utm_campaign=email-post&r=a7sj7&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

 

 

Dutch Jews – 9.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Amsterdam 1944, 2024 -8.11.24

I am just at the point in my research on Kurt Gerron where I’m chronicling how he was at first lauded when he escaped from the Nazis to Holland, and he created at least one film basic to Dutch culture but then was ostracized and given up together with all the Dutch Jews to the camps, t0 Westerbrook, to Thereisenstadt and finally to Auschwitz.  And last night was no different.  The jovial local population felt unable to defend the visitors to their land as they were chased and beaten. Even the police stood by as the the soccers fans from Israel were thrown into the canals.  

Amsterdam 1944, 2024 -8.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

shopping at Night - 7.11.24

I never go shopping – it’s always on line.  Who cares if they skip half of the list?  I can always make something out of what they bring me and blame the delivery boy for when it turns out bad.  

But this week I was too exhausted even to order properly, so I wound up with no vegetables to make for Friday night and appointments all morning and lunch time so no time to get to the supermarket.  

That’s how we found ourselves shopping on a thursday night.  The worst time to shop – because everyone is exhausted and anxious – because the sabbath is coming and all the stores in the neighborhood will be closed and maybe we’ll be bombed. 

Notice that the bomb is the least of our worried.  The stocking up for the sabbath is more complicated…

 

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