blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

We seem to live on TV.  Maybe since the beginning of Covid, but certainly since the war.  Of course we see family and friends, and we manage a concert, a play or two, a museum, a beach, but the real intimacy is with television.  Lately it’s been interviews with hostages that were released, in horror and anticipation of the release of the other hostages.  Their stories disturb my sleep even more than the rockets over tel aviv that have stopped for now.  Even more than the anticipation of Hizballah rockets that are much more powerful and dangerous than the ones we’ve managed to avoid in the last months.  

And to add to all the confinement and discomfort, my covid doesn’t want to leave me.  I am still barely functioning and although I’m handling the reading on words of war on wednesday – somehow – I’m not doing anything with energy.  

No wonder my friends have given up on me.

 

life on tV – feb 4, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

I comfort myself by noting that I’m not the only one with an addled mind, so it’s not just from the covid that I keep mixing up directions in my computer, missing appointments and misunderstanding people’s feelings.  I mean even the Hamas leaders are at odds with each other.    

But one thing that was clear tonight in the poetry reading (that I had been initially invited to introduce my new book in Hebrew but then been forgotten about in the planning.  )  That people still love poetry in Hebrew and have returned to the holocaust, The trauma of this war seems so similar, it also addles our minds.  But never mind.  Perhaps tomorrow my reasoning will be more clear.

Addled Mind – Feb 3, 2024 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

The Times had a front page article on the war the world can’t see.  The header said that 26 press have been killed by Israel, and the large color photo documented a crowded funeral. A body encircled by people – about 50 mourners and at least 40 cameramen with PRESS on their backs documenting it. 

I don’t think a day has passed without articles in the Times about the tragedies in Gaza.   We don’t get as much access to photographs from Gaza – but then you don’t get much information about our refugees, mourners, displaced, hostages. 

Oh, wait, we don’t get information about hostages either.

 

 

the war we’re not seeing – feb 1, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

so much depends on who’s telling you what you’re seeing.  Israeli TV and NBC saw the footage below as a daring move to prevent a mass terrorist attack:

while CNN and the Guardian saw it as an illegal disguise and mistaken invasion.  CNN talked about the illegality of impersonating medical personnel, and the questionability of the victims’ guilt while Israeli news primarily discussed the heroism of the combined efforts and the need for quick action and care to prevent a mass invasion and ensure no innocent casualties.

Me, i thought the make-up insufficient and the costumes flimsy.

 

how you see it – Jan 31, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

because a publisher asked me for a youthful photo and I had nothing better to do, being so-o-o stuck in bed, I pestered Ezi until he found a photo of me.                                       

It’s probably the best photo of me ever.  There was a photographer, in a studio at Sibleys, and although I was thrilled with the dress (whose was it, I wonder) I was so nervous about going into a strange room with a strange man, I started to cry.  So he gave me this little basket to hold, and it made all the difference.

 

 

 

photo – jan 30 Read Post »

israeli politics

Dilemma: 12 rockets just went over Tel Aviv, and I have COVID.  My neighbor next door is immune-deficient and I can’t even go out into the hall, even with a mask, without endangering him.  So although there were no sirens in our neighborhood, I have to consider the situation.  Do I stay inside and endanger myself or do I rush out and endanger myself?  I think I’ll stand in the hall like the late Rivka Bassman told me a few years ago in the last bunch of rockets we got.

rockets and covid – jan 29, 2024 Read Post »

israeli politics

As soon as I heard the verdict of the International Court of Justice last week and heard the vote of 15-2 against Israel, I knew it had to be a woman .  Who else could stand up to 15 men and vote with the old Israeli man? 

So I started looking her up and, even though I have fever and been reduced to watching Polish movies on Netflix, the little jibes against her were all too apparent.  For example, although all the bios on her say she’s been serving in the world court since 2012, Al Jazira says 2021.  And of course the Ugandan government distanced themselves from her and said her opinion was her own.  But everything she was supremely logical and simple and clear. “South Africa has not demonstrated, even on a prima facie basis, that the acts allegedly committed by Israel … were committed with the necessary genocidal intent and … are capable of falling within the scope of the Genocide Convention.”   She was not only voted against the charges but she was clearly deciding the charges had no basis.  

What is true is that our politicians said we’ve got to wipe Hamas out, and while I hated their rhetoric, Hamas has as the only point in their constitution their duty to wipe us out. As much as I dislike all our politicians’ rhetoric, this response seems to be a totally reasonable one.

I’d like to see Justice Sebutinde go far in this world.  Maybe she can straighten us all out.

 

 

Julia Sebutinde – jan 28, 2024 Read Post »