Karen Alkalay-Gut
october 16, 2018
so here's the schedule for the week: Sunday at 8 p.m. in Jerusalem - 12 Hebron Rd evening for Michael Kagan - i read too/Monday 7:30 - Beit Acum, Hangar Tel Aviv Port - evening for Schulamit Hava Halevi - i host/ Thursday 7:00 p.m. Beit Leyvik - evening for Rivka Bassman - I speak/ Thursday 8:00 p.m. Little Prince Cafe - Reading.
So Bibi embarrassed himself today by complaining to a woman in the audience who was criticizing his medical policies with a comment "You're boring us." I heard this while Ezi was complaining about the numerous accidents in building sites that have become common - the people in charge should take responsibilities, that contractors should have to answer for every accident on their site. And of course I put them both together. People in charge should take responsibility. If the hospitals in Israel are below par it's the fault of the minister of health, who does not even accept the office of minister in an official capacity because his rabbi doesn't believe in the state of Israel. and that is the fault of the prime minister. but we bore him.
October 17, 2018
i always think of Beer Sheva as a kind of safe city. i mean, who wants to bomb Beer Sheva? what's there? And yet this morning a rocket damaged a house badly. i think the top part worse - the bedrooms - i wonder where the people were. and then we bombed the hell out of Gaza - rocket factories and installations they say. one person killed. I understand that our closing off of all the tunnels that were planned to invade Israel has frustrated the Hamas terribly and they are looking for a way to get to us no matter how self-destructive it might be. and every gesture we make to ease their situation is rejected or countered with violence. but there has to be a way to turn this around - to make a win-win situation.
I spent today trying to put together the shreds of the writers' association. my lawyer friend, who pushed me to get back into the game, has once again left the country, and i'm stuck with making phone calls i cannot bear. Strange, I can talk to my own accountants easily, because they're friends, but the accountants we got stuck with from the previous chair always are impossible to find, and when i get them on the line they're irritated that i didn't do something they forgot to ask me to do. why do i bother i'll never know.
And now I saw the mother who dragged her 3 children out of bed down to the shelter just in time to have the house collapse on top of them. the house is totally destroyed and i am sure the family will never get over this shock.
October 18, 2018
The other rocket fell in the sea near Tel Aviv. And apparently the whole thing was a mistake caused by the weather - that news bothers me worse than a purposeful attack. i mean if they are not in control of their weapons and a thunderstorm can set off a war, we're in trouble.
my iphone went crazy today and drove me crazy as well. events suddenly appeared on different times, my passwords didn't work, phone numbers went away... no wonder i lost control of myself. i don't even know how and when i can fix it.
someone referred to me as a known leftist. guess what. i was surprised.
October 19, 2018
I stood in line for a coke in Ikea for the longest time. I'd left the others to go for a coke because I was really feeling like Ikea was way too much for me. I'd gotten to the point where there was only one woman in front of me when another woman cut in and demanded to be served. The woman in front of me was as distressed as I was and began berating her for being impolite, improper, inconsiderate. I too pitched in, but even more politely than the other woman. And then she turned away from the counter, looked us in the eye, and said, "You bore me."
October 20, 2018
as the memorial for Yitzchak Rabin draws closer I think every year is worse. Maybe we just like to think something good could have happened but i know we would never have believed 23 years ago that we would have all these years of a PM who went in the opposite direction. There are times I know I've made up my history, that I've remembered some things that never happened and forget things that were basic to my life. Still, it hurts to think of it.
Who is your television connected to? a few years ago we switched to YES, and a little while ago I began to grumble that it wasn't perfect. So Ezi switched to Cellcom, which is so much cheaper and includes the internet. since then I have hated watching anything - feeling like it IS what everyone accuses it of. It may have many of the same programs, but I can't find them amid the total junk
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