israeli politics

hunger - 7.28.25

It’s basically all we talked about all day.  All we wrote about.  “Is it possible,” a strange woman asked me in the health clinic., “that we are responsible for this?”  “Doesn’t matter.  Right now what matters is to stop greater tragedies,”  I found myself answering.  The fact that the world is blaming us isn’t the issue.  The issue is how do we alleviate the situation.  We’ve tried to distribute food and were overwhelmed by crowding masses.  What we didn’t do was set up closed-off allocation areas, so we control who gets in and at what rate.  And at a much earlier date.  It would have been so much easier if we had been able to work logically – but we’ve lost our heads.   

 

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israeli politics

morality - 7.28.25

I wonder if people in Germany tried to demonstrate against Hitler.  For us it seems we have not been able to prevent the mess this country has made in Gaza.  Nothing we do sways the government from its stupid activities.  Perhaps it is not our fault that there are Gazans starving but we are definitely responsible for righting the situation.  I am horrified by the fact that there are politicians who remind us how terrible it is to aid the enemy at a time of war, when we are the ones guarding the borders.  I remember the fields and orchards in Gaza, the bustling fruit and vegetable markets, the herds of goats and sheep.  They seem to be all gone now – and it doesn’t matter who started this round or who is keeping the food for private use.  All of us are guilty now.

 

 

Morality – 7.28.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

hunger - 7.25.25

Nothing makes sense.  Hamas is feasting in the tunnels, ready to fight until the last child dies of hunger – and people still support Hamas?

And this is our fault – that we’re not sufficiently feeding the people who keep trying to murder us?  

Of course I have no respect for this government, but I think it is in a stupid situation.

And one of the reasons is that we haven’t had the time to deal with our goals what with all the petty infighting we’re doing.

hunger – 7 Read Post »

israeli politics

art - 7.24.25

Lately, we’ve been going to galleries – openings of new shows, retrospectives, etc.  I haven’t been inspired by much, although I usually love art.  I usually blame myself, or Ezi, who whipped through an exhibit tonight faster than I’ve ever seen him go.  But it is the art as well – looking for a way to deal with the fresh hell we are served with every day.  

Today was particularly hard for me.  It was at the entrance to the Artists’ House that the news came that Witkoff declared Hamas uninterested in negotiations, and the talks would now stop.

what cares about art when hope for the hostages has just disappeared?  And what artist would dare hold a mirror to our dispair? 

 

art – 7.24.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Caves and cars - 7.23.25

Why we decided to leave all the work on our desks and drive to Beit Govrin I don’t know.  Maybe it was the idea of leaving our troubles behind, maybe it was the idea of escaping the heat in the caves…who knows.  We went.  

What we forgot was that the caves are cool and exciting  but getting to the caves means going through incredible heat.  Yet there is something incredibly inspiring in the caves. 

in many ways…

see?

The problem was getting home.  By the time we headed back it was a bit later and we got into a jam – which turned out to be the charadim blocking the highway.  They looked healthy and powerful enough to be great soldiers, but the draft they revile might endanger their way of life.  The problem is their way of life endangers our lives.

 

caves and cars – 7.23.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

A Sample from Survivors 7.21.25

Because so many of you have written that you bought the book, I was surprised that Amazon wrote me that they had zero sales.  So I went to facebook to see if anyone else wrote that they had the book, and discovered that Ira had been hinting to me to put a poem on facebook as a sample. and if people liked it they would buy the book.  Here’s the poem I chose:

Absence

 

“What are you looking for?”

we’d ask Mother, as she rummaged

a cupboard or a drawer or the phone book.

“My lost youth,” she’d answer

absent-mindedly, having forgotten

whatever had occupied her mind

when she first began to search.

 

The bombs, the soldiers, the streets

covered with bodies, the story of the children

smashed against the wall, her babies

washed down the drain in the bathtub in Danzig,

they were always

right there in the cupboard, the drawer,

the book next to the telephone.

 

The interesting background was that this was the last poem I wrote for this book, and I had in mind my grandchildren and all the children in this war who have indelibly been scarred.  It was the first time I realized how much my mother had been through. 

A Sample from Survivors Read Post »