israeli politics

protesting - 4.10.26

Dear Sue

this came out a few days ago…

 

by

I want you to know
I’ve been following
your path, ever since
you first killed a rapist
and gave me the sense
of what justice costs.
I love how you face
all monsters, how
you defend innocents
with your powerful blue eyes.
I love even more
that you went without a bra
to demonstrate the nakedness
of your outrage, your empathy
with the cause of Palestine.
I know you are faithful,
true to justice,
and if you weren’t calling
for me to return to exile,
I know I’d be
standing beside you.
You taught me it was wrong
to be forced to stay silent
after my body was defiled
and I’ve never been silent since.

I miss you Sue, even though
there is no screenplay
to tell us how to make
an amazing solution,
one that people
will praise for generations,
one that doesn’t demand
driving ourselves off a cliff.

protesting – 4.10.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

voting in israel - 3.10.26

Does an Israeli who lives abroad have the right to vote in the coming election?  Not according to Israeli law – and all these years that’s what my friends who I see only in the US have told me.  If they don’t live under a certain government they have no right to choose the leaders.  

But this election is different.  in this election their own fates will be decided as well.  The fates of Israel and the Jewish people in the world.  The antisemitism that has grown up under this government is simply dangerous to the existence of Jews everywhere.  So I wasn’t surprised that most of the people I met tonight were on their way to  Israel for the elections.  Some who had almost lost their connections to the country of their birth and were firmly placed in their American lives suddenly decided that they had to be part of the decision.  Strange.

voting in israel – 3.10.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

Bono - 29.9.26

It started with “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in the nineteen eighties when he sang about “The Troubles” in Ireland

 “And it’s true we are immune

When fact is fiction and TV realityAnd today the millions cry (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)We eat and drink while tomorrow they die 

I 

I couldn’t believe this wonderful soul would last in the rock culture.  But every day I love him more.  He may be the only person in the world I don’t know that I want to meet, to shake his hand.

And everything he says about this country is so wise.  How is it that he manages to go his own way in a country where the soccer players wouldn’t even shake the hands of the Israelis when they were the winners.

How I love Ireland – their poetry, their souls – their music – 

but not their politics – not since WWI.


And now for a story a friend told me years ago.  She was sitting in a pub in Dublin and suddenly was shocked to recognize Bruce Springsteen sitting with another guy at a nearby table.  She couldn’t believe her eyes, waited until Bruce went to wash his hands and then approached the other fellow to ask if he wouldn’t mind taking her picture with Bruce.  He agreed and her dream came true.  She had a picture with Bruce.  She went to the counter to pay for her lunch, but the barman said, “It’s paid for, Love.  Bono took care of it.”

bono – 29.9.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

moon - 28.9.26

what a great restaurant Moon is.  it’s like Tel Aviv – they’re not going to tell you what the meaning of the menu is.  If you can’t figure it out, maybe you don’t belong in such a sophisticated place.  And since it’s on Bograshov, there’s no parking nearby, so if you can’t walk it, maybe you’re too old to hang out there.  

But the food is worth the challenges.  Try it – it’s right near Pinsker.  

And if you don’t know where that is, you should really be in Jerusalem.


Moon – 28.9.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

empty - 28.9.26

The residents of Tel Aviv have finally left their air conditioned homes and decided to go on vacation.  This has been a horrendous summer,  too hot to move and no where to go that isn’t dangerous.  But now we have become so desperate for vacation we have become willing to pay enormous prices to fly away for a few days.  Most don’t want to go too far.  Maybe just a quick trip to Greece, or a little cruise around the mediterranean – but away from the relentless news.

for me, it’s all about seeing family.  but i too feel the need for a quick break.


Empty – 28 Read Post »

israeli politics

demonstration again - 26.9.26

We’re back to demonstrations again – tonight it was in front of Yair Lapid’s house in order to promote unification of the opposition.  The members of the opposition parties met there to discuss unification, and we called for a return to the rules of the declaration of independence (which stresses equality of all citizens), a two term limit, a national inquiry into the catastrophe of oct 7….

some people chanted – but most of us didn’t even know the chant.  And the songs were stuff from the kindergarten of a generation ago.  

But the essential goal was united and single 

demonstration again – 26.9.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

the holidays here seems endless this year.  I, for one, have no patience for them.  Even though we had a wonderful holiday dinner with the family, there were no stars in the sky, and no sense of celebration. I guess seeing Netanyahu speak at the UN was the final downer.  i mean i agreed with every point he made, knowing he left out the points about his enormous errors in judgement which caused great suffering to his own people.  But our reasons for despising him are not related to what he did to the Gazan people.  They are more about how his mistakes allowed the Gazans to carry out the worst massacre since the Holocaust.  That massacre, and the massacre that promised to come, to destroy every one of the residents of Israel, was ameliorated only because of the people of Israel.  


hag sameach – again – 25.9.26 Read Post »

israeli politics

anything but the news – while i’m doing research on the Weimar period and the holocaust that ensued, I like to have the tv on in the background.  It used to be for news, to brighten up the atmosphere, or at least for some distraction.  

But now the news scares me much too much, and whatever I watch brings me back to the same subject I’m working on, so I’m trying out the most popular distraction in Israel – turkish soap operas.  if anything works, I’ll let you know.

what do i really watch?  the program where a bunch of autistic kids interview well-known personalities.  They do an amazing job of eliciting intimate details that the kids relate to and the intervieweees discover in themselves.  Connecting with others who are different and learning to empathize is incredibly comforting to me.

In the meantime we’re going out for drinks with the editors of my selected poems that’s coming out in a month or two (translated in Hebrew).  it still doesn’t have a cover, so if you have ideas I’d be happy to consider them.


    

Anything but the n Read Post »