blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Even though we know how wonderful the gradual release from tension is, we know that we’ll be back to war soon and that Sinwar has some good tricks up his sleeve to drive us mad again. 

We had a wonderful lunch with our cousins and all of them are in complete control of their lives.  They know what they are doing and what the implications are, and it is a pleasure to feel the certainty that the rest of us don’t feel at all.  

It is so tempting to believe that all this horror is a passing event, and that the hatred of Israel that has emerged in the past two months is a passing fantasy, and that we will once again sit on our balconies and sip coffee.  

But I don’t believe it.

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temporary stay of execution – Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv,

There is such a difference between what I know and what I see on the foreign TV channels.  The first time I watched a few hostages moving from Hamas to the Red Cross, the mother and daughter waved goodbye to the captors, and it was clear to all that it was staged, that the only way they could not damage the chances of the hostages they were leaving behind was to behave as they were told.  

Today as I was watching the French news, I saw that the “Hamas Fighters” gave us 13 hostages yesterday and it was a wonderful occasion.  Of course no one mentioned that we released almost 100 terrorist prisoners in exchange,  that most of them will return to East Jerusalem and go back to work.   And of course there’s the 200 trucks of food and fuel we sent in today.

Jonathan Pollard has said that the families of the kidnapped people should have been jailed so they wouldn’t get in the way of the negotiations.  But I wouldn’t have had the heart. Would you?  That’s why I – along with hundreds of thousands of Israelis – walk around with a necklace that looks like dogtags and says “bring them back”

here are my dogtags

it may be our greatest weakness before Hamas.  We just can’t bear it.  

Why, you say, don’t we feel that way about the people of Gaza?  We do, or, we would if we weren’t so scared and disgusted with what they’ve done.


Waving to captors – nov 26, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Since yesterday I’ve been receiving letters from people who haven’t spoken to me personally in years.  They’re not the usual letters of sympathy for the tense situation – they’re criticisms of our weakness, not support for our strength.  The idea is that they’re worried about us and want us to be powerful, like in biblical times.  Unfortunately most of us have developed into more humane and more emotionally vulnerable people, and we count each human life as if it is the world …. Dont ‘ask what we see enemies lives as – we’re not idiots.

 

what they say – nov 25, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Even though the freeing of 13 hostages doesn’t mean much except that we’re not like King David who freed all of his enemy’s hostages at once, there was a special feeling of elation at dinner tonight.  First of all some of the hostages were actually released, secondly, the likelihood of rockets was diminished for the evening.  

So it was like a party.  A break from the war.  

A call from a friend reminded me that the war is still terrifying –  her son is in Gaza and there is no phone connection.  But the hostages seem to look all right – so far.  

 

hostages – nov 24, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

Once – long ago – I entered a train in the Paris Metro with a few others from home, and as I sat down, two things happened: a woman said something to me in Hebrew and a woman in a hijab with a big bag sat down next to me.  She began shouting at me while she put her hand in her bag, and I kept silent.  She began in French but when I didn’t react she began a version of German and Arabic.  I understood all the curses in all the languages but my eyes were focussed on her hand in her bag.  Finally I said to her in French that I didn’t know what she was saying  but I understood that she was angry with me.  We began talking and of course I lied about where I was from and how much I knew, and we became friends after 4 stops.  

But I have my eye on that hand now.  And I really believe she had a very long and sharp knife.  And Hamas does too – all over the world.                 

 

waiting game – nov 23, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv,

Its one of the worst things that can happen to a person after they’ve been raped – that you’re not believed.  That’s why I’m so shocked and really appalled by the reaction of the international women’s organizations.  Here are a few articles:

Women believe rape allegations from other women – with one exception (ynetnews.com)

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjhumxb4t?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=internal

 

I wasn’t going to talk about it either, because the subject is physically painful to me, but when I looked it up on Google, there was almost nothing outside of Israel.  Little girls, old ladies, and all the women in between were raped in their beds or while they were at a party and murdered, sometimes in reverse order, documented by the rapists themselves and we don’t even talk about it.  What amazing hypocrisy! 

Someone is shutting them up.

It’s like I was told at college that if I reported it, the fraternity would bring dozens of boys to swear that I did it for a living.  

So I shut up.

 

 

 

 

after rape – nov 22, 2023 Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

I was watching the long rows of refugees from Gaza city trudging down south to an uncertain future,  carrying all they own. 

Then I remembered.  My parents were refugees.  They managed to get out of the international city of Danzig where they had been refugees from Lithuania for 4 years – and arrived in England the night before Hitler’s invasion of Poland.  Their visas were temporary, and from the moment they arrived, their sponsors were looking for a way to get them out of England.  That’s why I grew up in America. 

But my parents never would have been able to return to their homes.  The whole neighborhood was bulldozed. We found new homes in America, and I never thought of myself as a refugees.  Even though the only clothes I had were in a tiny bag, and what I wore was a jumpsuit made down from British army blankets. 

I hope these people have intact homes to go back to when this is over.  But I have said goodbye to a number of homes and entered bare rooms and started over again and again, and apart from a few neuroses, managed.

 

 

 

refugees – nov 21, 2023 Read Post »