israeli politics

comparisons - 8.9.24

Because one of the panels I’m on in the poetry festival next week is about a writer in the holocaust, I’ve been reading a lot about holocaust porno – and the comparison is inevitable – the way everybody becomes evil in this situation, even the victims.  That point has to remain central in all our minds all the time in times like these.

But I was thinking of something else today.  The doctor who was supposed to be fixing something in my skin kept me waiting for an hour, even though I had been injected with something to dull the pain two hours before.  But when he arrived, and began to work on me, he could not be his usual charming self.  Instead he had to talk about how young men had to have drastic plastic surgery and how much of a waste it was.  I realized how he had been working on some soldier whose face had been blown up and my silly little mark had no significance to him.  or to me either anymore.

 

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israeli politics

love and fear - 8.18.24

First, the love part.  Tonight is Tu-B’Av.  It’s the equivalent of Valentine’s Day in practice although the background is much more significant.  Anyway we went to buy a ring,  And I told the lady I was looking for something modest and flat because I don’t wear rings.  But after much consideration I wound up picking out a grotesquely large and ostentatious piece – that I love.  Why? 1. Ezi liked it too 2. It has many layers and looks something like the countless emotions we have every day in the war we’re going through. 3. It was made by a brother and sister named Rosenstein – my maiden name.  You will see me wearing it on days when I really need support.

We also went to the beach which was amazing as usual.  We looked back at the full moon and there was something so eternal about warm emotions.  Even though my day was not at all productive and pretty nasty, I got all mushy about my friend, who, like me, gets intimidated by powerful women.

Fear: Hizballah showed the filming of its vast tunnels – big enough for rocket carriers, complex enough to really erase us.  Why are they showing their ‘secret weapon’ to us now?  To intimidate us further?  I would think they would not show us anything until they used it – unless they too are scared – of us.  So we’re playing big time chicken.

love and fear – 8.18.24 Read Post »

israeli politics

Bella Bryks-Klein, z"l

A woman who was always there – for laughing, for celebrating, for weeping. Even the last time I saw her she taught me a lesson about overcoming shyness in the service of honoring others.  She was a mensch.

 

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israeli politics

Maskit and more - 8.17.24

While Hizballah is showing us the videos of all their tunnels and their massive weaponry and raining down their usual 50 odd rockets on the north, I am chattering with my friend (now 10 months in exile) about our college days and how we now understand what we were experiencing.  Then Ezi and I go out to the exhibit of Maskit

Ezi has a long history of the fashion house of Maskit

since the chief designer was a deep friend of Ezi’s parents and even I managed to meet with her long ago.  As a gesture that brought me into the family, Ezi’s mother bought me a famed desert coat then.  How wonderful to see the coat in the museum now, a symbol of the effort to incorporate the new immigrants and the immediate environment into our lives.

 

 

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israeli politics

Gallery Hopping - 8.15.24

Rachel and Barbara persuaded me to join them in their weekly gallery-hopping visits tonight.  I used to go all the time, but forgot about it since covid.  So this was a surprising experience to see all this wonderful art – much of which relates to the present situation.  So many wonderful people, doing so many wonderful things.  I came home elated.

And then I saw the news – that Jatt was attacked by settlers tonight, burning cars, doing damage.  

And I remembered the things I’ve been reading about the Holocaust chronicler,  Katzenik, the guy who fainted when he was giving testimony against Eichmann.  He later explained that he looked into Eichmann’s eyes and thought – he could be me.  I could be Eichmann.

Regular people can do wonderful things, and terrible things.

 

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israeli politics

fish - 8.14.24

Once again I’m in the skin clinic waiting room while Ezi anticipates a MOHs test.  It isn’t a life-threatening situation but it takes a while as they analyze each layer they remove for cancerous cells, so I busy us with the fish.  It takes a while to make friends and to figure out what they are doing.

After a conversation we realize they are digging into the gravel, moving it to another side of the tank, and making a nest for eggs.

This lesson for survival and development was my restitution from my friends’ negativity yesterday.  

Oh, and Ezi’s MOHs test was okay – one layer of squamous cells and he was released.

fish – 8.14.24 Read Post »