israeli politics

The changes in our lives have become apparent, violence is in all the executive behavior around the world, it is as if no one is watching – from the behavior of the individual in  governments, to the individual on the roads, to the individuals at home.  

Now that the epidemic is beginning to wind down, we have to remember the warning of Thomas Hobbes about the reason we joi n together in government:  because we endanger ourselves on our own, and our lives become, as Hobbes notes: solitary poor nasty brutish and short.

january 19, 2022 – solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short Read Post »

israeli politics

I don’t know about you people but around here we’ve lost all sense of orientation – what test when and how accurate and where do you put the negative sibling when the other is positive – and should we have worn a mask when the delivery man dropped off a package.  We’ve lost count of how many people have tested positive.  Ezi has just had a serology test and I’m breathless waiting to see if he has antibodies.  And then do antibodies count?   Who knows anything?

As I was saying to the dentist on the three-minute break during my root canal today,  we’ve lost our sense of community.  ” Yes,”  she said – repeating what she told me last week: “When I watch movies on TV I get upset when I see people kissing.  Where are their masks”

And like last week, my time was up before I could respond to her.  So – here’s the answer:  We have to be so suspicious of others, we can’t listen to each other.  We’ve learned to listen only to ourselves.  Other people are just dangerous so we drive into them, scream at them, blame them… The entire concept of society has been broken.

I am sure we’re on the way out of this epidemic…

 

 

january 18, 2022 – testing Read Post »

israeli politics

The tree that seemed dead weeks ago, suddenly began to blossom, today on Tu B’ Shvat. And I wanted to go out to the newly re-opened grocery.  But just for a second I couldn’t remember what I had to take with me.  A gas mask, a surgical mask – all the wars, all the history of survival for the past 50 years came back to me in one second.  The Tu b’Shvat during the ‘73 war, where I was the only driver in the neighborhood and spent all my time chauffeuring the other women and children, bringing class notes to my soldier-students on reserve duty.  But on Tu B’Shvat my neighbors and I took the children to the field to plant trees.  And the Gulf War when we spent our time getting everything ready for six p.m. when the rockets would start falling – and we carried our gas masks with us everywhere we went during the day.  All this came back to me for a moment as I stopped at the door, wondering what I had forgotten. 

And that’s what I’d forgotten.  That everything blossoms again.  Like they say in Yiddish, “Az men lebt, derlebt men.”  If you live, you live through.

 

(p.s. In case you don’t know about the Gulf War in Israel, check this out.

and in case you want to see how it felt, here’s my book on it: Love And War

January 17, 2020 – Tu B’Shvat again Read Post »

israeli politics

This was my tree in my study, and this is what’s left.

Because the plot is city property, they uproot everything we plant, and now have neglected the plot.  

Because this is the holiday of trees, I am particularly pained by this sight.

 

 

january 17, 2022 – TuBishvat Read Post »

israeli politics

The Jordan River is looking pretty good now that it is filling up with water, but this rain that comes down with such force in other places may just be rinsing the topsoil away.   Or what’s left of it.  Still, maybe the rains can wash away some of our sins.  

And as far as our government is concerned I have my hopes that Benny Gantz is around when the rain clears up and we begin again.

 

 

january 16, 2022 – topsoil Read Post »

israeli politics

It was announced as the coldest day of the year so I took down my New York Winter Coat from the top shelf, unpacked it, put it on, looked in the mirror, laughed, took it off and went back to my usual Israeli winter gear. 

That and an umbrella were plenty for this weather.  Even though the tv showed flooding all over, I barely saw a puddle.  There were rivers that had been dry for years and boats in the streets of Petach Tikva, but in our neighborhood, it was a regular rainy day.   

It’s pretty amazing how in this tiny country there are so many different climates, and they can change from day to day.

Maybe that’s why our politics and our moods are so unpredictable.

 

january 16, 2022 – coldest day of the year Read Post »