blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

I comfort myself by noting that I’m not the only one with an addled mind, so it’s not just from the covid that I keep mixing up directions in my computer, missing appointments and misunderstanding people’s feelings.  I mean even the Hamas leaders are at odds with each other.    

But one thing that was clear tonight in the poetry reading (that I had been initially invited to introduce my new book in Hebrew but then been forgotten about in the planning.  )  That people still love poetry in Hebrew and have returned to the holocaust, The trauma of this war seems so similar, it also addles our minds.  But never mind.  Perhaps tomorrow my reasoning will be more clear.

Addled Mind – Feb 3, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

The Times had a front page article on the war the world can’t see.  The header said that 26 press have been killed by Israel, and the large color photo documented a crowded funeral. A body encircled by people – about 50 mourners and at least 40 cameramen with PRESS on their backs documenting it. 

I don’t think a day has passed without articles in the Times about the tragedies in Gaza.   We don’t get as much access to photographs from Gaza – but then you don’t get much information about our refugees, mourners, displaced, hostages. 

Oh, wait, we don’t get information about hostages either.

 

 

the war we’re not seeing – feb 1, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry
Absence
 
“What are you looking for?”
we’d ask Mother, as she rummaged
a cupboard or a drawer or the phone book.
“My lost youth,” she’d answer
absent-mindedly, having forgotten
whatever had occupied her mind
when she first began to search.
The bombs, the soldiers, the streets
covered with bodies, the story of the children
smashed against the wall, her babies
washed down the drain in the bathtub in Danzig,
they were always
right there in the cupboard, the drawer,
the book next to the telephone.
 
 
http://www.minyanmag.com/karenalkalaygut.html
 
 
http://www.minyanmag.com/karenalkalaygut.html

international Holocaust Remembrance Day Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Have I mentioned that I have Covid?  Unlike Ezi, I have foregone a search for Paxlovid, and no one has mentioned it.  I haven’t even called my doctor.   Right now, I’m watching tv and seeing how the north of the country is faring in these days  – the north deserted, and those who remain live in terror.  And while the program goes on, the sirens go off.  the names of the northern towns are listed on the side of the television.  

Nothing like that to put a fevery cough into proportion.

 

Covid – Jan 27, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

The funding is being cut from UNRWA, and even though I know they were active participants even in the pillaging and murder on Oct 7, I regret the hunger that will result.  There is no justification in starvation of innocent people.  I’ve always said in these pages that UNRWA is a dangerous organization under the guise of a charity.  But we have to find an alternative way of supplying food and medicine to these people.  Are airdrops possible?

 

uNRWA -Jan 27, 2026 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

You have to read David Petreus’s book, Conflict.  I found it the most perceptive analysis of the history – and the future – of war.  I was on a zoom with him and for some reason the moderator called on me first and I gushed my appreciation.  Embarassing.  But everything he said was so on the mark… Like when he talked about the four points necessary for winning a war.

read the book.

 

 

book recommendation – Jan 26, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

So much happens here all the time – it’s hard to decide where to begin and what to include.  The South African complaint against Israel is the one that most captured my attention, but there are all kinds of convolutions and distortions that drive me mad.  For example – how many Gazans were killed in the war.  Who is counting?  Am I the only one who can’t figure out what the sources are? Am I the only one who wouldn’t rely on UNRW to tell the truth about how many teeth they have?  Am I the only one who thinks that the Gazans have responsibility of freeing the hostages?  Am I the only one who thinks that if they let the hostages go we’ll stop bombing them?  

I can’t even get an estimate of numbers and people.

 

news today – jan 26, 2024 Read Post »