israeli politics

The high court has – unofficially – been eliminated already.  The two decisions made lately have been ignored – Deri is still unofficially, acting as a minister, keeping his position.  Bibi has been dealing with the court reforms even though it was decided he may not interfere with court reforms while he is under investigation.  So rules are not made to be followed.  I have been thinking that we are moving toward fascism, but it is worse than that – we’re on our way to total anarchy.

 

reform – Feb 3, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

We were sitting in a cafe in the shopping center talking about poetry when suddenly there was a big boom.  Everyone looked around, just a bit startled. and we went back to our poems.  It’s Tel Aviv, after all, and most of us aren’t even aware of the shower of rockets down south last night that sent all the people to the shelters within seconds, many for the entire night.  

It’s not surprising, then, that you don’t know about it.  It’s one of the things we don’t talk much about, the targeting of civilians in rocket attacks and/or terrorist incidents.  A stabbing here, a car-ramming there, a barrage of rockets – we on the left usually blame ourselves.  But it was the people on the right who elected a more aggressive government, and who expected results.  Me, I see times when our relationships improve, and it is worth working toward those times.

 

rockets – feb 2, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

When we made the lunch date in the morning the sun was shining, but by the time we met the kids at the restaurant the streets of Tel Aviv were flooded.  We’ve been needing rain badly but when it comes all at once, it just floods the streets and washes off the topsoil.

And the storm seemed so spastic and uncharacteristic of the weather here.  

But the food at Mateos was great – and we could see the street river from every angle as we sat there with our Sangria.

Rain – Feb 1m 2923 Read Post »

israeli politics

So much to talk about, but our electricity is going off and on and I don’t know where to begin.  

So I’ll begin with the excuse.  As we were leaving home today thunder and lightning struck at the same moment.   The electricity of course went off, but that was less of a problem for us than for our paranoid neighbor, the daughter of our late beloved holocaust graduate.  She has so little – and, she complains frequently – there are evil folk who break into her flat and steal her past.  She has becoming more and more violent in her accusations.  How could we ease her pain? 

To put it simply, we ran away to spend the afternoon buying odds and ends for our home.  When we came home it was getting dark, but the best I could do was to get together some candles for all of us in case the lights didn’t go back on.  I held back, fearing to give an unreliable person a possible dangerous weapon, but just in time, as I was thinking how to appease and not endanger the situation the lights went back on and Blinken appeared on tv.

In any event his talk would have moved me, but at that very moment I clung to every word he used to alleviate the situation – not to give any one the weapons to damage themselves and others while attempting to alleviate the situation, a situation in which we are threaten with darkness and need to share something of light.

 

 

 

blinken, electricity, so far… jan 31, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

Sorry, I can’t get politics out of my head right now.  And you’ve probably heard this little political story before, but it keeps coming back to me now.

I was incredibly happy to study at the University of Rochester, especially in my third and fourth years where, as part of an honors program, I got to take two seminars a week where we all wrote papers and discussed them in our privileged classes of about seven students, usually with a brilliant professor.  The attention I got personally changed my life.  One prof took it upon himself to aid my dyslexic writing, the secretary helped find me jobs that were nearby and not too demeaning so I could supplement my scholarship and keep my car for commuting.   And most of the professors enjoyed my quirky way of thinking.  I can only think of one antisemitic lady who never let me participate, and one aristocratic guy who frequented my father’s barber shop and seemed to think I didn’t have the class my fellow students had (and reminded the class of this publicly).  But they were isolated incidents.  Some of my happiest moments were in conversation with Hayden White or N.O.Brown – and in general, I felt very very privileged.

Until graduation when it was announced that Richard Nixon would speak.  I had had enough of Nixon in the previous elections when I rejoiced that he lost to JFK, and I happily joined the students opposed to his participation in our graduation.

The university countered our opposition by announcing that those boycotting the ceremony would not receive degrees; that threat worked.  We decided to attend and demonstrate our opposition by turning our chairs around when Nixon began his speech.  

To our surprise, however, the chairs on the lawn had been tied to each other, so movement was not possible.

I don’t remember the talk he gave, but this was the moment that brought Nixon back into politics and eventually the presidency.  And his election meant for me that silence was complicity and complicity was dangerous.

After the election, I moved to Israel where, I felt, individuals and their opinions could matter.

 

a little about me for a change – jan 30, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

One of the reasons I feel i have to be involved in whatever happens here is that everything makes a difference.   Even though the news is barely mentioning the fact today, I know that more than a hundred thousand people were involved in the demonstration last night.  Despite the sadness at the terrible shootings at people leaving synagogues yesterday after religious services, the demonstrators joined together.  We did not sing, but recited the words of Ehud Manor’s lament that we must have to protest when we see injustice – with a pained body, with a heavy heart, we have to register our objections.

WHAT IS OUR OBJECTION?  1. to the demotion of the high court to a rubber stamp for the knesset, erasing all checks and balances.  In the absence of a constitution, of a house of lords, or a congress, we have no means to balance the extreme laws being proposed by the government.   2.  to the racist laws proposed now with no possibility to be balanced in any way – excluding non-zionist voices to be heard 3. to the extreme religious laws being proposed, making this country into a theocracy 4. to the revamping of the education system that would impose a much greater emphasis on religious studies and a less emphasis on basic skills. 

My grandson is marching today against these measures.

Even if these marches will not change the government’s plans to  ensure the dismissal of Bibi’s criminal trial and overturn the laws against Deri’s acting as a cabinet member, it will open an opportunity to reverse this direction of giving the country over to the criminals.

to be counted – jan 29, 2023 Read Post »

israeli politics

I wept at the demonstration tonight.  Waving Israeli flags, we all wept as we sang, “I have no other country, even when the land is burning…”  

But we left very early – my back wouldn’t take more than a quick trip.  And when we got home we heard that there were Palestinian flags waved.

Since the demonstration we attended was about the changes proposed to weakening the high court, and nothing else, I was surprised that Palestinian flags were raised.  But even more I was surprised to hear that the great numbers of demonstrators weren’t mentioned.

demonstration – Jan 28, 2023 Read Post »