Tel Aviv Diary- September 2-6, 2019 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
September 2, 2019
Yes - school is a great institution - not necessarily for children. As William Blake once wrote: "Thank God, I never was sent to School/
To be Flogg’d into following the Stile of a Fool." I managed to make it through, but with great difficulty. i can't even pay attention to the news on television - i mean tonight it was clear that Ayub Kara, who fell out of Netanyahu's favor, was spilling his guts and his taped conversations onto channel 13 and they proved his attempts at intervention concerning news programs. But I wasn't surprised that the truth was being exposed about Bibi - i was more surprised that the accompanying feature was about honesty - following what happens to a dropped wallet in the street. it may have looked like an innocent inquiry into who returns a wallet and who keeps it, but then the conclusion was a bit skewed. Even though Israel is a little better than average in the world statistics on this, the fact that we weren't on top seemed to be blamed on crooked politicians who set a bad example. I don't think it's wrong, but i don't think these comments were suitable in the context. In any case, it occurred to me at that moment that we as parents and elders spend an inordinate amount of time pointing out to our kids what is dishonest about our leaders. September 5, 2019 So I disappeared. So I'm a poet not a writer. Nevertheless like at least 70% of the voting population I have been thinking about what to do. Today I heard (my former student) Yonit Levy ask the president if he was satisfied with the idea of new elections and he went on a bit of a doublespeak rant that concluded with the fact that since we don't have a written constitution it wasn't illegal, but we have many agreed-upon precedents and it wasn't acceptable for Bibi to make that call. And I added in my mind. So much money and time and worry have gone into these elections - surely someone should be held responsible. who knows how many poems i could have written while i sat here reading newspapers and watching television? One correction: We conducted an experiment and stopped our newspapers last month while keeping the online accounts. i discovered that for me i read only what i look for, not what is there. i don't know about anything that doesn't reinforce my opinion because it's so easy not to click on them. this may be one reason for the fact that people have become more opinionated in recent years. When "The Love of Clothes and Nakedness" was first published, 25 years ago, Orit Alkalay made a collage of readings. Here at last it has been posted on YouTube:
September 6, 2019 Why we met today at noon in an outdoor cafe i'll never understand. I was even the one who proposed the meeting. And I walked the whole way there - 10 minutes - and it was my unfavorite place - Ramat Aviv G. But when Asher said we could meet in Cafe Lavender instead of Landwer, I couldn't resist the wordplay. Asher's wife was optimistic about the elections, and it made me feel just a bit better about the place, but later I met with Yoel who told me it was a lost cause. He said that because of Barak and Peretz too many votes would be siphoned off from the left. "Vote for the big party," he said, and i shuddered to think that Itzik Shmueli will be out of office - he's one of the few people in the government interested in rights of seniors, rights of gays, etc. oh we really did not need these elections. oh, we really did not need these elections - i've been noticing how many of my friends have developed food sensitivities lately - and don't tell me its age. all ages are included in this one person survey.