israeli politics

According to the CDC Ezi is allowed to leave his quarantine tomorrow. 

According to the doctor he needs 2 negative tests and then the doctor will write a letter which will allow us to make a reservation to fly after 10 days.

According to the CDC I need to take a pcr test tomorrow because I probably had covid before Ezi got it, which will show up positive when I take a pcr test in order to leave.

According to my count I’ve got enough meds until Friday.

According to my jeans I’ve been eating too much.

According to my stomach I need more food

may 18, 2022 – according to Read Post »

israeli politics

Every where I go in New York I see Jewish names – clinics, museums, libraries.  It doesn’t look like the Jews have replaced anyone – but have enabled many others.

At the same time, I remember as a doctoral candidate being warned that I would be taking the place of a man – indicating that women were replacing men, taking their jobs.  This replacement theory is not new – it’s more violent and even more senseless than before.  

In Israel we are seeing it work all the time – minority populations have been far more visible in recent years in significant positions and it has only expanded possibilities, not reduced them. 

The idea of replacement – that I first heard about in the Charlottesville event in 2017 – is an attempt to return a sense of self-importance to people who feel deprived of their rights.  I don’t doubt their deprivation – the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, doesn’t guarentee the achievement of that happiness..  It dangles that happiness in front of people and when it doesn’t happen, it feels like the promise was broken….

 

may 17, 2022 – the great replacement theory Read Post »

israeli politics

Here’s the only news I care about at the moment – Ezi is still testing positive (despite the paxlovid) and by my calculations there is no way we can get home before Monday.  And that’s an optimistic estimate. 

Fortunately, for the first week we had a friend pushing food on us, and I slowly learned about local deliveries.  Now my cousin arranged food deliveries for sick people – glatt kosher.  

And it really is nice to isolate from the world and do nothing if that’s all we need to get better.

But now I am beginning to understand why Jews are lowering their profiles… maybe I’ll expand on that sometime soon.

 

 

 

 

 

may 17, 2022 – positive is negative Read Post »

israeli politics

Because these days are the anniversaries of numerous massacres in towns in Lithuania and Belarus, i spent too much time on zoom today and have passed on one of my favorite towns, Zhedtl.  My aunt, who lived in Zhedtl but joined the partisans when she escaped the camp where the Nazis imprisoned the Jewish inhabitants, was killed in the forests.  I have long tried to find someone who knew her, or could identify her, but she faded into anonymity and that hurts me as much as her loss.  

So I went to the memorial for Lida, where I know there is no one who remembers my family and everyone wants to tell about their own family.  And at the end, this guy comes on who acquired a bunch of files of photographs, lists, and a variety of information that would be very basic to tracing all of our families. He didn’t know where to place these files – and has been sitting on them for 5 years.  I was left speechless.

 

 

may 16, 2022 – memorials Read Post »

israeli politics

you keep asking me about the journalist – and i don’t know anything much from here.  but here are some guidelines.

  1. why were there Israeli soldiers in Jenin if we aren’t there?  They were going after a terrorist or two.
  2. why did they need to go into a place controlled by the palestine Authorities? Because they Palestinians have been enabling terrorists from Jenin throughout the past years.
  3. whose guns killed the journalist?  Both sides have the same guns.  Israel doesn’t have access to the bullet so they can’t tell, but Israeli army bullets are clearly marked.  So if we got the bullets we’d know.
  4. why did we interfere with the funeral? We’re frustrated and play into their hands.  idiots.  

may 15, 2022 – The Journalist Read Post »

israeli politics

It took almost all day to get the answer, but as expected, I’m negative.  To get the answer in writing, however, I need to go back there and fill out another set of forms.  Ezi too, needs more tests and more forms and more doctors.  and now we don’t have a reservation because who knows when we’ll be able to get back.  

kvetch kvetch kvetch.  i still have a pile of work to do and this isolation is a great opportunity.

 

 

May 14, 2022 – covid conundrum Read Post »

israeli politics

Ezi tested positive today.  I’ve been testing all week because I was coughing and sneezing and kvetching just a little more than usual.  But yesterday Ezi started feeling lousy, slept more than usual, and listened a little less to my kvetches.  So I demanded proof of his health, and was shocked that he was actually more ill than me.  

So surprised that it took me a little while to figure out who to ask for help.  An old friend sent a car for us to go to NY Presbyterian where he had long ago matched Ezi up with a hemotologist.  

That was fun – a tiny emergency ward with pleasant and efficient staff.  Ezi got medication – paxovid –  I got tested, and we’re experiencing New York to the fullest.

So far so good.  

 

may 14, 2022 – testing positive Read Post »

israeli politics

I have to admit that I wrote a whole long retraction of my last post just now – and I erased it by fooling with it too much.  I can’t remember the complications of my argument about how modern art is reinventing what art is .  Let me just add that politics is important in contemporary art but we’ve got to be careful not to confuse the two.  Just because something is forceful and well made doesn’t mean it’s true.

may 13, 2022 – grandma Read Post »