israeli politics

Most grandparents I know spend their vacation on the holidays babysitting.  They take their grandkids everywhere – plays, nature walks, rafting, museums, etc.  

We on the other hand, are dogsitting a very active and homesick dog.  The cat is angry.  The neighbors are angry. 

And all this is a wonderful distraction from the news.  Charlie will keep us busy until the weekend.

The weird advantage of this is that I really love dogs, and when we had our enormous dog long ago I composed an answer to a question about him that I had to wait years for someone to ask.  At last, the hairdresser came out with just the right questions.  “Where does he sleep?” “With us!” “What about the smell?” “He got used to it.” 

So we’ll have to fumigate the house when he leaves – before we pack for our vacation – but maybe someone will reward me by asking the right questions.  

april 19, 2022 – Dogsitting Read Post »

israeli politics

I quote my  child psychologist late mother-in-law over and over – “It all started when he hit me back…”  So we get stoned and we get the army in and they get beat up and then we … and then they shoot rockets and then we… 

The problem is we’ve got much less tolerance in general and I’m sure they have lost it as well…

 

 

april 18, 2022 – jerusalem Read Post »

israeli politics

As we were leaving our friends at the nearby cafe we passed other groups of people talking.  It was almost the same conversation we were having – about the violence today in Jerusalem.  But we had also been putting it in context.  Because of our different professions, we were also discussing a wider view of the society, the level of violence in the schools, in the families, in the courts, in the world of medicine, the sense of unequality in the society.  “And why aren’t you, with such a religious background, keeping kosher?”  “Because it’s being imposed on me.”  And today, Easter Sunday, Ramadan, Passover – even our religions are clashing.

In the world too.

 

April 17, 2022 – Cafe Talk Read Post »

israeli politics

Last night at last we went to the play we had to delay for months, “The Tank.” Ezi had read the book about the five different guys who in 1948 claimed they stopped the Syrian tank from attacking kibbutz Deganya and turned the war around.  It didn’t sound all that great to me, but the play was much more fascinating. 

(gotta go – will fill in later) (As you know I don’t reread and don’t erase so consider this a blip)

In any case, the play was about heroism, patriotism, the flaws in the history of the state and the need to overcome them.  The play ends with two Druze (or Arab) soldiers discussing the need to tell good stories, that will model our lives. 

For me, the play was uplifting, not only because of the acting, the singing, the directing, etc. but also because of its concern with ethics.  Ethics that we need to reconsider. 

 

 

april 17, 2022 – The Tank Read Post »

israeli politics

What’s on the news?  Some of my family have moved to alternate news – people who broadcast on the spot.   One is very right wing and he believes in his sources, another reads all around and seems to know everything but he must spend at leastc 12 hours a day gathering pieces here and there and comes to his own conclusions that are much broader based.  Me, I don’t know what to believe.  Here, for example, I feel the remoteness of some of the Arab student population, but this may be because I don’t have the opportunity to get to know them – I only know the students who work with me on advanced degrees or have become friends.  My major friends in the Arabic department have passed away, so I don’t even know what to make of what I see every week.  My conclusion:  No news means you’re hiding out.

But this Passover there are two centers of news in the country – One is the stone throwing from Al Aksa (in the effort to protect the third holy place from the explorations underneath for our first holy place) You tell me what should be done.  Sometimes my thought is we should get the Iranians to bomb both holy places.

The other news is that for this holiday 100,000 Israelis have taken their vacation to Sinai – the heartland of Isis – and are enjoying themselves immensely….

 

april 17, 2022 – what’s on the news Read Post »

israeli politics

I kept thinking about freedom during the whole seder, and we discussed Ukraine with great spirit as we drink glass after glass of the most amazing wine.  How Russia is being ruined and the whole face of Europe will change as they free themselves from importing gas. Oh what a raucous evening.  

But then, as always, I cannot sleep after wine, and I listened to the last book of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet.  All night I thought of the flesh pots of Egypt and how I would probably not have wanted to join the freedom-seekers in the desert, would have probably slipped away from the group and begged the nearest neighbor to take me on as a slave.  Freedom has a very high price, and I might be able to talk big (with some wine in me) but don’t seem to have the character for fighting for it.

 

 

april 16, 2022 – post-seder Read Post »

israeli politics

I don’t know why this year has been so hard to get ready for passover, but I suspect it has something to do with the sense of helplessness in the face of the destruction in the Ukraine.  One tiny example:  I managed to fill at least 15 bags with stuff for refugees from the Ukraine, only to be told that there is no more demand for bedding and clothing – not because there are no more people in need, but that there is no way to get to them.  There are countless other examples of helplessness, but I’m too exhausted to go through them and I am sure you too are experiencing that sense – about the environment, government, safety, the needs of others, the desire to give, to love, to help…. 

april 14, 2022 – getting ready Read Post »

israeli politics

a friend sent me a picture and reminded me of how much i always suffered through my mother’s famous gefilte fish, even as every one else absolutely loved every bite.  So I made it into a card…

 

 

 

Pretty much everything else my mother made was absolutely delicious to me – from her amazing soup with yoich, to her taiglach.  Of course on passover there was always her matzo meal cake.  My niece asked me for her recipes long ago and I’d forgotten them, but now I’m remembering and I’ll begin to post them soon.

april 13, 2022 – Read Post »