israeli politics

Picture our evening:  we shower, get into bed.

And the sirens go off, and we run to the shelter.  And the only people who join us are our next door neighbor and the kids from upstairs.  No one else has the energy to run down all those steps.  So there are 4 adults and 5 students.  We hear the rockets and know they fell nearby, and some of the students are shaky, scared. 

We wait a quarter of an hour and go upstairs and the sirens go off again.  And one adult is fed up and doesn’t come down.  The five students, however, are young and very fast.  One has remembered my suggestion to bring Rummicub and we begin to play.  They are playing in Arabic and translating themselves to Hebrew for me.  I am totally unfocused but what the hell – we play.  And the time has passed when we could have gone upstairs but we haven’t finished the game.  Finally, I came in second to last and let them go home.  Let’s hope that was it for the night.  

may 11, 2021 – rockets! Read Post »

israeli politics

I know, I know, you’re checking in to see what the simple citizen thinks of all the rockets being fired on Ashkelon, Ashdod, Jerusalem, and of course, the whole area near Gaza.  And guess what, we don’t like it.  Today, on the Israel Trail (where we walked at least 12 miles in the hot sun to see all kinds of ruins of civilizations built on civilizations destroyed), most of the people with whom I spoke blamed Bibi’s policies in Jerusalem, but I think there are a lot of other answers as well, including the fact that we nurtured Hamas and ignored Fatach and Mohammed Abass, and that we didn’t do anything to help curb the violence and crime in Arab towns.   

But you’re asking if I’m scared, and why I’m going out on the Israel trail when there are rockets all over.  Okay, I’m scared.  I do believe rockets will fall on Tel Aviv and I’ll be in danger.  We have a shelter in the basement of our building, and I am always ready – but I’m more worried about children, grandchildren, and how they will all be affected.  15 months of lockdown was more than enough to screw them up.

so why was I wandering along to the source of the Yarkon river today?  because it was out of rocket range.  and it was beautiful.     

 

it kind of puts things into proportion.

 

may 11, 2021 – chaos 3 Read Post »

israeli politics

sometimes it is good to remember happier days – my love for this poem has continued for seventy years.  And it always makes me cry.  I had to accept the challenge and try to translate it to Hebrew.  Even if you don’t know Hebrew you can feel my emotion.

may 10, 2021 – new colossus Read Post »

israeli politics

Don’t tell me I am the only one who is sure this terrible violence in Jerusalem is not fueled by our prime minister and the minister of justice.  Don’t tell me that we could be handling this completely differently.  Violence like this is the only way the transfer of power can be interrupted.  

Don’t tell me we should be parading Israeli flags in East Jerusalem today to ensure a good neighbor policy.  

and furthermore – one thing about women is that they learn from their bodies to count ahead.  Today Yair was going to go to the president and present the government.  But he can’t get it together because the Arab party Ra’am can’t commit in this atmosphere so the government can not be completed and presented.  Now if the unrest continues for 24 days, when Lapid’s mandate finishes, Bibi can start all over again.

may 10, 2021 – chaos 2 Read Post »

poetry

AT HOME

Some people hire gardeners to care for their house plants.

They see them as decorations to suit their interior design.

And indeed the flowers and plants enhance my regard

For the residents and their superb taste in gardeners.

I don’t have anything like a green thumb, and sometimes

They die on me, those plants, just at the time

When I thought I had done everything right by them.

Yesterday I separated a plant (whose name I don’t know

But I know she’s female) from her children.  We relocated

The children outside to a place where the air conditioner drips

From the neighbors’ apartments into the ground.  I hope

They won’t be homesick.  The mother seems lonely

So I sit by her and talk, and I’ve given her a name – Shirley.

I hope it helps because I really want her to blossom again.

 

may 10, 2021 – house plant Read Post »

blog, my life in tel aviv,

The tree in front of our living room window suffered a lot in the past years – all these guys who work for the municipality got the wrong information and cut off the wrong branch, then a tractor plowed into it, and then it started flowering and shedding leaves at the same time.  I never thought it would live through the heat waves we’ve been having, the rainstorms, the manhandling, but today I suddenly noticed it has grown much taller, and almost reaches my window.  It is as if it knows I love it, and it wants to please me so much it will adapt to all the circumstances, all the punishments it’s been enduring.

Our window flowers and plants, however, are not doing as well.   I can almost hear them saying “I don’t have to take this abuse,” as they disappear overnight.  We were getting enormous quantities of cherry tomatoes for months, but now there is nothing left.  Peppers too.  And all the stuff we replanted from the garden at the entrance of our building rebelled as well.  Even though we kept the plants in the shade, the unusually hot desert winds and the changes from day to day don’t agree with them.

or maybe they are just echoing what is in my heart.

 

may 9, 2021 – heat waves and window plants Read Post »