blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Since October 7  I’ve been trying to be positive, to present a positive face to my fellow countrymen who are suffering so greatly.  I also try to preserve the privacy of my friends.  But today I broke down.  I looked into the eyes of my friend whose only son is in Gaza, and they were empty.  A similar emptiness I find in my friends who have had to leave their homes while the rockets destroy those very homes, and those whose families are hostages.  I try somehow to fill those eyes, but instead mine too are becoming blank.

empty eyes Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

As we drove up north today, through the same roads we’ve driven many times, I was amazed at how everything seems the same.  The Sea of Galilee is still as breathtaking as ever.  Tiberius looks as decrepit as it did to Mark Twain. p506.jpg (44K)

Nothing much ever happens there, it seems, and not much changes.  

It was only when I talked with the disheartened people displaced from their home for so long and left without a purpose, a framework, a hope, that I saw the change.  And it was so sad I haven’t been able to get over it all day.

 

 

the same country – jan 4, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

People talk about 200,000 refugees in Israel, but numbers never mean much to me.  Even when I see the tents of evacuees from the south covering the entire plaza between the courts, the library and the museum, it doesn’t mean as much to me as a single old friend caught in the dreadful situation.  

In this case it is a friend of almost 60 years who lives next to what was once called “the good fence” up north, but has been evacuated and has been living in hotels for the past three months because of rocketfire up north.  She is not only old – like me – but she has Parkinson’s and has undergone 2 cataract operations since her exile.  Her house in Metula is booklined but until now hasn’t been able to read, but now she has no books.  So we went up to Tiberias with 3 bags of books donated by a wonderful Tel Aviv friend and left her with no room to move in that small room with all that reading. 

What else is there to do?

  

refugees – Jan 4, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

This is one of those health days.  The morning was spent in the skin clinic in Ichilov where Ezi had some procedures done.  Afternoon at the Hygienists.  Amazing to me how well we are taken care of even in war time.  Even my friend who’s been evacuated from Metulla and is now in a hotel in Tiberius had cataract surgery in Jerusalem is now clamoring for some light reading.  I’m collecting books and will bring them to her from Tel Aviv in a day or two.  Yeah, we’re suffering, but we’re holding on.

 

 

skin deep – jan 2, 2024 Read Post »

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

Don’t you wish you could leave this year behind you?  Don’t you wish you could leave the last 4 years behind you?  

We never really celebrated on New Year’s Eve.  Years ago Canadian Radio, “As It Happens,” asked me to record what we were doing on New Year’s and Shlomzion suggested that we go to see the lion on Anonymous Alley get up and crawl to Bethlehem street, just like Yeats described the second coming: “What rough beast, it’s hour come round at last/ slouching to Bethlehem to be born?” 

Here’s the confused video:

 

But the beast did rise up, although for a short time – midnight brought us a few rockets on Tel Aviv.

Rena thought I was crazy to think there could be a possibility – but I pointed out the shelter as we sat waiting for the pizza.  And I made sure to be near safety – under the cover – when the clock struck.

 

new year’s eve – dec 31, 2023 Read Post »