Tel Aviv Diary - December 29, 2012-January 2, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
December 29, 2012
I seem to have erased a couple of days, and at my most profound too. Drat!
Nevertheless, we press on. In the past three days I have been part of three extended conversations on who we are going to vote for. We even discussed Sharon Moldavi's volunteering in Meretz and Oren's Ahmed Tibi solution. But no one can see the possibility of replacing Bibi. It occurred to me that he is the solution - together with all the leftist parties that need to be strenthened - Yair Lapid, Tsipi Livni, Shelly. Maybe they can form a coalition that could actually enact some of the solutions Bibi proposes once in a while.
We Went to see the photography exhibit at the Land of Israel Museum today called Local Testimony". Boy was it depressing. Some beautiful pictures but most had gruesome or ironic scenes and I walked out sad. So we went home and I read Sayed Kashua's weekly piece in Haaretz to get some comic relief, but it was even more sad. Everything is so much a matter of how you look at it. I don't think local testimonies achieved a balance in any way of life in 2011-2. And I don't think I'm blindly optimistic. I think we need to rethink the way we look at things. And before the election! December 30, 2012 The Trojan Women opened at the Cameri Theater last night. It is a Japanese, Israeli and Arabic production in three languages and amazingly synchronized so that the three languages on the stage seemed to be as one and the tragedy of women suffering in war universal. My only problem was a surfeit of tragedy that day. I couldn't take all that suffering. But it was a personal problem, not that of the theater. And remember, Euripides gave us no catharsis in the play - just as in life. December 31, 2012 In this last day of the year, different sounds seem to be coming from the country - the charges against Leiberman, the possibility of cutting the sentence of Anat Kam, the new studies that most people in this country want a two state solution, the conciliatory judgement of Hanin Zoabi, and President Peres' support of Abu Mazan as a partner for peace. All these are allowing me to continue a tiny bit of hope. The most important thing is to keep channels open, and Ahmed Tibi's recent explosions during interviews that he is doing Israel a favor by participating in the government (which is true but not in the tone he uses), worry me that he is at the end of his patience, and without people like him we won't be able to progress. January 1, 2013 New year, same old problems. We spent the evening with old friends and suddenly realized that we have been not only been telling the same stories for lo these many years but we've also been saying similar things about politics. I found myself voicing an old outdated optimism - that the left will come together when they see they have done better in the elections than they anticipated. The surveys are all wrong, I said, because when they make phone surveys people from the left hang up. And more people are upset about Bibi's self-satisfied fear and repression then dare say out loud. And, as always, I was ignored. January 2, 2013 So far, so good.