my life in tel aviv Archives — Karen Alkalay Gut קרן אלקלעי גוט

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

recovering - 6.2.25

I’ve been cancelling stuff all week, gave concert tickets away, gave apologies to ladies tomorrow for late morning meeting, am about to give a tentative “no” to cholent on shabbat and have warned the dentist on sunday that recovery is conditional. Now I can concentrate on Gaza.

What madness is this?

We had been exiled from Gaza as well. We had been exiled from Israel and from many other places. How can we support exile?

If what is wanted is to rebuild Gaza for the sake of the people it can be done in pieces. if what is wanted is beachfront luxury…wow.

You may say that they deserve it, for the way it has been behaving for over a year and fourth months, and in the years past, the tragedy that has affected all this country. And indeed a desire for revenge is understandable. But I don’t think it adds to our sense of morality.

And I don’t believe the the rest of the world will accept it.

and, oh yes, i don’t think this announcement is going to help getting our hostages back.

recovering – 6.1.25 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

divestment: another look - 5.3.24

Watching the kids screaming divestment from Tel Aviv University makes me wonder if there is any awareness of the large percentage of Arab students who gain professions at this very university. I don’t think the students who learned from me want that university to disappear.

I may be wrong now…

I mean I went to visit some of my former students who were in mourning last week (stop me if you’ve heard this one – I loved that moment too much to forget it. The first thing they asked me, after a quick glance at each other, was about something that really troubled them all the years. “yes, I said, before the question got asked, “It was Coke.” I get asked that a lot. I used to come to class with a can of Coke every time, and from the way I behaved, it was clear to them that there was something else in that can…

I don’t think that’s a reason to divest from the university, though.

divestment Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel avivviet name resistance

what's the difference? - 4.30.24

I keep thinking about the difference between the protests against segregation or later against the Viet Nam war and the protests now.

They’re exactly the opposite. We were demonstrating for equality and peace and the protests now are fighting for war and genocide. They want to kill us. Not just soldiers, not just Israelis, but Jews.

Adam Rubin, the son of one of our leaders, Jerry Rubin, says it well:

“This is definitely not my dad’s antiwar protest”

In a way this is showing what Hamas really is, and it is on the way to destroying civilization.

what’s the difference? – 4.30.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel avivcatch phrases

from the river - 4.29.24

from the river to the sea

we can live in harmony…

from the river to the sea

we can live in unity

I can write rhymes as well as the next person. But I think it’s easier to write hate than love. Especially love and liberty that disguises hate and destruction.

why is everyone saying we have to use force to get the protesters to disperse? Why not just turn on the sprinklers? These are not violent protester who deserve to be banished from school. they need to be educated by intelligent professors – not the strange unqualified teachers who seem to have taken over the system.

Sorry to be ranting…

from the river – 4.29.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Drowning in Drones - 4.14.24

It was Star Wars at home last night. All around us we were diverting and dropping missiles, guarding us, guarding the Mosque of Omar, guarding everyone but the Bedouin in the desert who don’t have houses much less shelters. 330 rockets.

But this is a chess game and we made the opening move by killing a Palestinian terrorist in the Iranian embassy. So their response was to try to flatten our half of the chess board. We had the amazing fortune of friends like the US, Jordan, Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, France, etc. As they say in Hebrew – more luck than wisdom.

Thank goodness for Biden. And if we can build on his amazing help and organization, we can rearrange the order of the Middle East, create a Palestinian State. help alter the Iranian government, and make this entire area blossom.

Drowning in Drones – 4.14.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry

Gezer - 4.13.24

So sorry I can’t go to kibbutz Gezer today to see the exhibit with poems and pictures that include my own. Instead I am bedridden and kvetching.

But Ira was kind enough to send me the picture of the poem

that goes with a painting. You’ll have to go to the exihibit itself.

If Iran looks for me, it’ll find me under the covers.

Gezer – 4.13.24 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

rattling sabers over our heads.4.13.24

all exciting events are cancelled, not because of the threat of 100 drones and all kinds of missiles, but because of a UTI. I’m in bed and will finally get a chance to see Grays’ Anatomy or some such nonsense.

Am I going to get bombed? It won’t be the first time.

After all, I’m Jewish.

saber rattling Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? 4.12.24

Remember the hysteria that the Russians were going to nuke us in the US in the sixties? Well, here we are back again with the hysteria. I was out of it back then – too busy with my daily life. And I’m out of it again. Overtired of the threats and dangers. They come at us from all directions, and we get blamed for it no matter what we do.

And there is another dimension – I dream that I am walking behind my husband’s donkey that’s carrying a mattress, remembering how I used to sit with my friends on the seashore in the evening, and now weeping over my lost children. I identify with both sides and that neutralizes my terror.

Or maybe I’m just numb.

remember the Cuban Missile Crisis? 4.12.24 Read Post »