July 19, 2017
The streets of Tel Aviv were empty tonight. No, not because of the demonstrations against metal detectors on Temple Mount. It was Radiohead. And on my way back at 9 p.m. I passed by the park where they were playing and there was no traffic there.Everyone was in the park. We've had so many stars playing here this year and the audiences are enormous.
And grateful.
It was a day of driving grandchildren around. Don't ask.
July 20, 2017
What I don't get about Islam - or Judaism for that matter - is how you know you're doing God's will. I mean I know Islam is about submission to Allah. And we Jews always talk about 'walking in the ways of the Lord.' So why is there such a conflict at Temple Mount? Metal detectors - the conflict over whether they should be allowed or not - are going to start a bloody war tomorrow. And this is a religious site for Jews and Moslems alike. Wouldn't you think that the Divinity would frown on that?
July 21, 2017
boy did i shop today at the Diaspora Museum. I've been avoiding religious items lately when it comes to gifts but I like stuff that is about Israel and Hebrew. So I passed up all the cantorial CD's and hamsas and went for Ethiopian notebooks, local flower games, etc. I'm hoping i got the gifts right for the birthday boy.
But as long as we're on the subject of religious objects, WTF? what is the Museum of the Bible in Washington going to be about? It's something else i want to watch closely. Religion should be a matter of spirituality, not material things.
July 22, 2017
What a strange conversation we had last night with a friend. I am so sure that we have incited a war by not discussing the situation with the Wakfa and deciding together. My friend answered that we should not mollycoddle them, that they are the ones who are violent, and their violence created the need for detectors, and she's right too. But maybe the question should be who is smarter not who is right.
We spent the evening on the beach - thought we would go swimming but wound up drinking instead.
July 23, 2017
We watch the country going down the tubes and are helpless.
I think of King Henry IV's advice to his son on his death bed. He tells him to go for foreign wars so his domestic sins will be forgotten. This seems to be connected to the provocations we've been creating in the past few days:
.
God knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
I met this crown; and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head.
To thee it shall descend with bitter quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation;
For all the soil of the achievement goes
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand,
And I had many living to upbraid
My gain of it by their assistances;
Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears
Thou see'st with peril I have answered;
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument: and now my death
Changes the mode; for what in me was purchased,
Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
So thou the garland wear'st successively.
Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
By whose fell working I was first advanced
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displaced: which to avoid,
I cut them off; and had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land,
Lest rest and lying still might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days.
More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
How I came by the crown, O God forgive;
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
Oh that Shakespeare - Henry's advice is still taken.
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