israeli politics

I know I try to write about Tel Aviv as much as possible, but now we’ve been in the US for weeks, enjoying some of our relatives – sadly postponing others, uncertain whether to contact friends, uncomfortable about going to plays or concerts, not well enough to go to my high school reunion, just barely strong enough to drag ourselves to museums, and enjoying almost every minute of it.  

Normally I try to do readings and interact with others – friends and poets – as much as possible.  And it would have been really nice to do that.  But we have pretty much isolated ourselves and are interacting with portraits, multi-media and sketches.  I mean the noble introverted expressions of Hans Holbein’s subjects, the vital red of Matisse, the effective inclusive politics of  Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme’s complex project May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth. 

What I see in the museums is what I see on the streets, in the news, with my friends, and inside of me:  a total confusion of ethics, aesthetics, guilt, and pretension.  If we can only acknowledge this confusion, we may be able to get beyond it to a new morality and more useful and pleasing standards.  

may 12, 2022 – museums Read Post »

israeli politics

something so obvious.   Usually I brush off accusations of colonialism against Zionist – it seems too ridiculous to me to argue about.  But when some of my family and friends in the states bring this up – I find it impossible to ignore.  There are some people who are indiginous to this part of the middle east – we see it every day even in the ground under our feet.  The israelites were here thousands of years ago.  That’s a fact.  So were other peoples.  But as Abraham told his nephew – there’s room enough for all of us.

may 12, 2022 – colonialism Read Post »

israeli politics

My brother keeps telling me I should be writing down the bits and pieces of biography I have of my parents – if only because he wants to write a family history and never heard many of the stories I remember clearly.  But as you know, I also have a strange imagination and may have dusted the stories with my own weird twists.  Take the story I heard many times about my mother’s capture by gypsies.  She said she was playing with her friends in the clearing by the forest and a man came by and gave all the children apples – except her.  When she asked for her apple, he invited her to come along with him and he would give it to her.  That evening my grandfather came to the camp to ransom her.  Her face was smeared with mud to disguise her coloring and her ears had been pierced with gold earrings.  Yesterday my brother asked me, “Did she get to keep the earrings?”  I assumed so because otherwise the hole would close up, and then he trapped me, “Who paid for the earrings?”  And the hole in my story was revealed.  Maybe she didn’t get to keep the earrings.  Maybe they N ow really pierce her earrings.  Maybe she made up the story (as my grandchildren assert).  

I know the impossibility of determining truth – as a scholar, as a daughter, as a person.  How do we do it on the grander scale – in politics, for instance, especially when everything is so far away and the information so incomplete.  Even in Israel.  

may 10, 2022 – Read Post »

israeli politics

We’ve been debating this since 11th grade, with Mr Benjamin.  Is it something created to do what people need or what they want?  If 70%of the people in the US are pro-abortion but 30% believe it is immoral, what is the government supposed to do?  If Vaccines will save the society but just enough people violate that social norn to render the law ineffective is the government supposed to enforce it somehow?   for the benefit of society?  

Throughout this neighborhood there are signs posted recommending masks.  They are on windows to stored that have closed their doors.  As if the laws recommending masks have destroyed the society.  

may 9, 2022 – what is government for? Read Post »

israeli politics

I’ve been cold since we arrived in the US and I haven’t been able to warm up properly.  I’ve tested negative three times but am more and more wiped out, even though I’m coughing less and less.  Every time I try to write in these pages I seem to lose my focus.  Can it be also because every day what I read about Israel disappoints me more and more?   I don’t know if it’s a question of distorted news or a distorted lens.  But when I’m in Israel I seem to feel more informed and more forgiving as a result.  From here it doesn’t look so good and the press much less informed.

 

 

 

may 8, 2022 – fighting Read Post »

israeli politics

I found myself saying something today that I would not have believed would come from me.  My religious neice was explaining how some religious scholars receive and how it was like a grant for research.  No no, I interrupted, it is much more – it is a spiritual imperative!  it’s point is to raise the spiritual level of our culture. 

may 8, 2022 – study bible Read Post »

israeli politics

three men axed to death, and 3 more critically injured in a park today.  Hamas is happy but I’m appalled that this devastation isn’t mentioned anywhere in the news here.  Of course the news that overwhelms the US is the leak from the Supreme Court illegalizing abortion.

In my book the lives of people who have been born are much more significant than those unborn.  As far as I know Jewish law sees life as beginning at birth.  

But once life begins, it is holy, and murder is a terrible sin.

 

 

may 6, 2022 – read the news Read Post »