blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

While Sderot gets rockets every day, we in Tel Aviv have been free all week – until tonight.  But we were ready.  Today I was talking with friends who just refreshed the food they keep in the hall closet so they can grab the cooler on the way to the shelter.   

We met at the beach, after the years of Covid and the war had separated us, and the first thing they asked was whether we had a bomb-safe room.  We don’t.  Then we learned about their medicine kit, their food cooler, their coffee maker, the overnight case.  “It’s over,” I said. “We have to concentrate on helping the reconstruction of the concept of Israel.”  “Not yet,” he said, “We should first concentrate on finding a country that will take us in.”  

I laughed.

A few hours later the rockets were shot down over the south of the city as I was news-channel hopping and I saw how much we are hated around the world.  And I had nothing to laugh about.

   

yet more rockets – jan 8, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv,

Ezi thinks that they set the timers for the rockets in our neighborhood on the hour.  I think that if it true that the rockets in our neighborhood fall on the hour it is just because they’re in a rush to set the timers and run away.  

The frequent use of human shields is another sign to me that Hamas is trying to be very careful – of their own lives.  I am watching the filming from Jabalia on BBC – In Israel we can only see the catastrophe from above.  But what we see is an underground tunnel exploded and we can’t see the individuals from so far away.  These are the people who were warned again and again to leave the area and go to the south, but, the BBC says, some left and returned because conditions there were so bad.   Some had told foreign press that they had not been allowed to leave by Hamas.  When they did have choices, they were not good ones. 

I too feel I am at the front, but I feel I am being protected in every way possible.  The sirens, the shelters, the iron dome, the phone calls – all make me aware that there are major efforts made to protect me.  The people on the street at Jabalia make it clear to me that they are shields.  I pray for them – may Allah have mercy.

on the hour – nov 1, 2023 Read Post »