So everyone has a deadline, and I have to sign off on all of them. doctoral candidates have extended their extensions as far as they can, and now everything has to be approved. Then there’s a whole bunch of programs to arrange, birthday parties to celebrate, And we’re going to Zichron tomorrow to celebrate Ezi’s birthday. and then back home to continue the celebration for the weekend.

So I’m ignoring the politics. It’s messy and dirty, and there isn’t enough soap to help clean it up. It’s a pleasure to be ignorant.

I even had coffee with one of my students this afternoon in my favorite square. She grew up there in the old days, when Peres and Rabin lived, and Naomi Shemer down the street and felt very wistful of the good old days – and I pointed out that Efraim Kishon’s son and Aharoni now have shops here next to each other, and there were local celebrities all around us. That’s because it is simple in this country to stand out, to become famous, to become influential. And I suddenly felt terrible that I was trying to be uninvolved. We all have a responsibbility to be active here, to be involved.