israeli politics

I finally put Dahn Ben Amotz’s strange story online herehttps://karenalkalay-gut.com/dohn-ben-amotz-buongiorno-valentina/

Dohn Ben Amotz – Buongiorno Valentina

Why is it important to me?  Because it was placed in a time of great crisis – when Jews are being helped out of Europe from the Holocaust – and it concentrates on an intimate erotic experience.  

I like that close-up.  Not always, but sometimes, in times of world crisis, an individual and his conscious-expanding experience has to be noted.

 

Dahn Ben Amotz – 24.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Mahler Again – 23.11.24

I often regret things i’ve written on these pages. But since I bound myself to sponteneity from the very beginning of this journal in 2001 I don’t allow myself to rewrite or even reread my writing unless I declare it in advance.  So I review my thoughts and analyze them and understand how i came to my mistakes.  And tonight I am figuring what I bothered me about Mahler.  

I fell in love with him when I heard my dearest friend, Mira Zakai, singing a piece of his second symphony – herehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxeTqo1hprE

Mira always made me feel that everything else was inferior to her.  No wonder Yehudi Menuhin chose her to sing Bach for the Pope.

and now I will stop writing about her or I will cry.

 

Mahler Again – 13.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

planning a day - 23.11.24

Here’s how I plan my day in Tel Aviv.  First, I figure out the chances of a rocket attack – where I’d like to go, what hours are usually safer, where I would stop on the way to hide if a rocket attack is signalled, and of course whether the destination has a safe area.  Then I forget it all and go where I feel like going.

Today we went to meet some friends on the beach – no protection whatsoever – and we stayed there for 3 hours.  That tells you something about Tel Aviv.

Not everything.

But it’s a start.

Now I’ve got to make up for two days of parting.

(By the way, there is no way you can’t enjoy yourself on the beach in Tel Aviv.  Especially if you don’t exert yourself.)

 

planning a day – 23.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

politics as my daily life - 22.11.24

Yesterday I wrote about politics as entertainment.  Then I looked at my day.  First thing I do every morning is look at the news.  If I’m too much in a rush, and run out, I listen to it in my car.  And then I see it in everything that happens to me.  First of all, the borders have been narrowed to almost nothing.  Not only that we don’t travel abroad but that we don’t travel within the country.  Ezi’s favorite hobby (after his car and his camera) is archeology, but we haven’t been to an archeological site in years – who wants to get bombed out of the century.  Second is guests.  Of course our kids come for dinner but the last time we had guests, my friend was shaking with fear that she would get bombed on the way home.   Took the taste out of the evening.  But the major change in my life is the overwhelming daily fear for the fate of the hostages.   Yes, yes, I have great pity for the people of Gaza – but if they let the hostages walk home it would all be over for them.  

All the evil attributed to us and our government must begin with this fact – we were attacked, and we are attacked every day.

So politics isn’t really entertainment for us –  

politics as my daily life – 22.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Politics as Entertainment - Etgar Keret - 21.11.24

I could only stay for a short while at Etgar Keret’s lecture at the university today, because I had an appointment to get a heart monitor, and then a bunch of other medical stuff.  But in the brief time I could sit there he really did my heart good.  The idea that stuck most in my head was the idea that life now is like marvel comics, with the unexpected impossible happening all the time, and the fact that we spend  so much time watching the news it has become our entertainment now.  That’s why we’d rather have an entertainer who lies than a suber truth teller.  So obvious and so true.

He looked as if he could talk for hours – and i could have listened – but the parking garage under the health clinic where I was supposed to get the monitor is so crowded I knew it would take me an hour to park.  

So I listened to the news on the radio.  The Hague was accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of genocide and issuing a warrant for their arrest.  

That’s crazy. A marvel comic.  No way to prove their innocence.  So many lies buried in Gaza.  Even how many people were killed.  No records, no bodies, just announcements.  The truth doesn’t matter.

It’s a good story.

 

 

t Read Post »

israeli politics

busy, busy, busy - 20.11.24

Most of us have been a bit catatonic for the past year.   Few people I know were able to function in any way except to support the return of the hostages and help the soldiers in any way they could,  Stories abound about old women cooking for the soldiers, kids knitting scarves, etc. etc. Volunteers in hospitals, volunteers helping students catch up while on leave. 

We suddenly find ourselves accompanying friends and partners on their errands –  just in case it is necessary to escape a rocket and help is needed.

This is not my life I’m talking about – it seems to be the life of many of the people I know.

But now we are at the point where we are beginning to make up the time lost – with friends, with work.  We are still not travelling – since it is dangerous and expensive – but we will find a way soon enough.

So I’m back to finishing the books that I was writing before this rotten war began.  Not that it is over, but I’m fed up.

 

busy busy busy – 20.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Tonight - 18.11.24

we picked Oren up at the airport, dropped him off at his flat, assured him that all was well, and went home. We walked in the door and I asked Ezi if he was sure it was going to be quiet tonight. Then I took off my clothes to take a shower and the sirens started. 

So much for our ability to figure out the enemy.  

tonight – 18.11.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

lebanon - 18.11.24

It used to be a given around here that Lebanon would be the second Arab country to make peace with us.  I always imagined sitting in a cafe in Beirut, chatting with some of the professors of the American University I’ve met along the way in conferences and parties.  Twenty years ago I imagined skiing among the cedars, and could smell the trees as I descended.  I knew women who were the epitome of taste and dreamt of shopping with them in the elegant shops there, dancing with them in the sophisticated night clubs.

That dream died a few years ago when I watched Nasrallah mocking us, and is only waking up now – when I hope again – that Lebanon is the second country.  First, I want Gaza to bring us the hostages.  That’s the most important dream I have now.

 

lebanon – 18.11.24 Read Post »