israeli politics

 it’s an incredibly crowded place, with graves of many streets in Tel Aviv – or at least the people they were named after.  And after an amazing lunch at Moon Sushi Bar, Ezi wanted to visit his grandparents and relatives in the nearby cemetery.  

It was getting dark, and I was afraid we would be locked in, but we went first to the grave of Ezi’s aunt, who died at the age of 18 from meningitis, then to his father’s parents, and finally to his mother’s parents.  We visited the great heroes of this country, from H.N. Bialik to Dvora Baron to Arik Einstein, and left before the sunset.  

It is not only Ezi’s history that is buried here but also the history of Jews all over the world.  The memorials to towns destroyed in the Holocaust, the suicides of those who survived, and only as we were leaving did I see the memorials to all those who died as a result of the exile of Jews from Tel Aviv in the early years of the city.  

Somewhere I have a recording of a radio program I did with Ziv Yonatan long ago where he interviewed me in this cemetery.  It was fascinating to me then, and it remains a fascinating place.

trumpeldor cemetery – dec 7, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

As we raced to finalize our arrangements for our granddaughter’s birthday, we passed the study center surrounded by black-hatted men who looked away as I passed, and then made our purchases at the bakery and the pharmacy where the salesmen and pharmacists spoke Arabic to each other.  And as we were leaving, I whispered to Ezi, “you realize we’re a minority wherever we go…”

I had just left the hairdresser where the guy replacing my hairdresser who needed a vacation spoke mostly German and English.  And now I too look a bit German. 

So, since someone asked me the point of this discussion, it is that Hebrew speakers are becoming a minority.  That whole big fight for Hebrew from the beginning of the twentieth century that killed Yiddish seems to be in danger of being lost.  And the worst part is that the Yiddish spoken is dirty and limited and garbled.  It’s the Yiddish you learn on duolingo.  If it were the complex and intellectual Yiddish like Lithuanian Yiddish it wouldn’t be so bad.  The Arabic spoken here, on the other hand, is something we can learn from.

minority – Dec 6, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

There is no doubt he’s the most popular poet in this country, even though there is a controversy about his style.   Anyway we had a zoom with him tonight and it was so sweet – so colorful, so Iraqi, such a great insight into Israeli society.

The only problem was that somehow we screwed up the advertising – somehow we had a small audience.  We usually have 70 odd people and tonight was 25,  I’ll have to screen the recording of the zoom first.

Here’s the last poem of his I’ve translated.  

Daisy

 

The autumn of flesh is the hardest of Falls.

When the almost-green eyes shed leaves,

The arm is a bending branch,

The leg a shaky trunk.

In a season like this, words are disguised as beasts,

And roars hide themselves in the throat.

 

The woman I’m writing about is

My mother.

If I had Arabic ink in my pen,

I would call her Scheherazade.

If I knew how to draw crowns,

She’d be a queen,

And in the courtyard of her palace

You could hear

The rustle of sands she sweeps

From the piles of strife.

 

But even now, when her gait is rough,

and the teeth of winter bite at her feet,

you can feel how much hunger there had been

in the fingers that wove the reddest of carpets

which on now she treads slowly

the remains of her days.

 

 

 

Translated from the Hebrew by Karen Alkalay-Gut

ronny sommek – dec 4, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

Today’s Chapter of the week describes Jacob in the desert talking to God.  And if you think about it, the only time God appears it’s when someone is alone – usually in the desert.  I think right now if I were alone in the desert I’d  invent God to travel along with me and stave off the bandits and other marauders. 

 

 

desert breeds monotheists – Dec 3, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

I keep going back to Benny Gantz.  Last night when I saw him on the otherwise unbearable talk show of Ophira and Berko when everyone talks over each other, his was the only voice we could hear.  Yuval Harari, who is a psychiatrist and very wise, had to give up because they wouldn’t let him finish a sentence.  What he was saying was that the level of crime and violence was primarily caused by the fact that our leaders are criminal and violent.  Something I might have said on these pages.  

But Gantz was given a separate section and there was no one to interrupt him except the interviewers.  And Berco began with an attack – that Gantz hadn’t managed to return the bodies of Israeli soldiers in Gaza.  Even though he must have known that this attack was meant to disarm him, Gantz candidly admitted his failure, as well as his efforts.  He then went on to discuss his fear of the new government and delineate the reasons why it is simply dangerous.  

By behaving with clarity and dignity, he managed to transform the coarse, aggressive, and anarchic interviewers into polite conversationalists.   

benny gantz – dec 3, 2022 Read Post »

israeli politics

This week’s politics reminded me of the old joke.  This guy’s organ turned black, and he went from doctor to doctor who all told him he would have to have surgery to cut off the organ.  Finally he went to consult with an old Chinese physician, who examined him carefully and said, “The western doctors told you to cut it off, no? ”  the guy leaned forward in hope and nodded.  The physician nodded wisely, and added,  “No need to cut it off.  It will fall off by itself.”

 

warning inappropriate Joke – Dec 2, 2022 Read Post »