Tel Aviv Diary -June 20-4, 2019 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
June 20, 2019
Joy Harjo is one of the most interesting poets I have read, and the fact that she was chosen to be poet laureate of the United States has given me a new enthusiasm for the genre. Congratulations to the United States for that. And that's all. I have a terror of the fact that both for the US and Iran war is a good idea, and we're the ones who are going to get it.
But no one else was talking about that this evening. Some of the dinner guests talked politics, but the guy with the loudest voice said that there is no one that can replace Bibi. I think there were other voices - mostly pressing the idea of a unity government and voicing the impossibility of the hope. But what does it matter since we are going to get blown up by Iran anyway? Nevertheless we' live as though all is normal - even optimistic. We may laugh about Trump's new town in the Golan Heights, Trump Heights, but this is serious I got interrupted by friday night dinner with the kids - usually i love going out to the beach and having dinner at Blue, but this time it was a nightmare. the waiter was sweet but the food, when it arrived for some of us, was cold, boring, and it arrived in intervals of at least fifteen minutes, and while one family was almost finished with dinner, the other arrived. one bunch went swimming before the other arrived. in the end everyone left dissatisfied. June 22, 2019 I would never have thought of going to the film on Dov Chanin, especially not after visiting the Haifa Museum's exhibit on Fake News, but my nephew bought us all tickets and it turned out to be the best thing possible.
I don't know if there is an English version, or the progress of a Communist politician in Israel and his attempts to further the concept of equality would interest any one who doesn't speak Hebrew. But it is important to know that there exists a man who has been tirelessly working, and has succeeded in many small but significant ways. Of course the documentary film is just a bit fake if only because filming demands selection, but there are facts that back every step of Chanin's career. And the new movement he is creating Standing Together may be skewed to the 'left' but may also be the best direction for Israel to take.
Tomorrow I'll talk about Fake News.
June 24, 2019 I know I wrote last night about fake news but obviously forgot to save it. So here it is - or was - or will be. Today Liberman said that Bibi was going to be making a government with the Arabs and the Haradi. It was most likely a ploy - a use of fake news for strategic purposes, to raise a little distrust dust - but it's like using the same weapon his enemy uses against him. I mean Bibi has been working with the silent assent of the Arab and Haredi politicians for years, but no one talks about it. So it isn't 'truly' fake news, But what I had written yesterday was the story of my aunt Chasia, who hat the age of 14 was sent from Oshmane to Voranova, to tell of the massacre. The Germans had entered Oshmane on June 25, 1941 and, according to an article in the memorial book a few hundred men "disappeared" a few weeks later. Then on July 25, they took 700 men "to the vicinity of Bartel" where they were murdered -- so what Chasia told the Jews of Voranova was correct -- and her arrival back in Voranova was probably in the first or second week of August 1941 . But the people of Oshmane thought that Chasia was a child and exaggerating, and they paid for believing it was fake news with their lives.