israeli politics

no words - 23.2.25

I kept getting letters yesterday about the Bibas family – emails, whatsapp, messages, even phone calls – all saying “No Words.”  No words meaning the experience is beyond words.  But I don’t want to blame it on ‘savagery’ or ‘indoctrination’ – I want to start talking about how this should not happen again.  How can we all learn to prevent the idea of cold-blooded murder being sanctified?  How do we learn to sanctify all human life? Ramadan is coming up this weekend – how can we help make it a holy holiday for all human beings?  I don’t mean it has to be holy in the sense of the world following islam.  I mean it has to be holy in the sense of all of us respecting each other’s sanctity.  

I don’t want more words, but actions.  I want people to learn and discuss the fact that when we forgot that people are people we stop becoming people ourselves.

 

 

no words – 23.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

cholent - 22.2.25

cholent relaxes the mind – that must be another reason it’s a sabbath requirement. Even my grandchildren ate it.  And we went to rest after lunch, even though the dishes were strewn all over the kitchen.  

do you need the recipe?

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israeli politics

one more minute, one more step - 22.2.25

The greatest show on earth – we can’t take our eyes off the tv, but we’re not at the square where the families wait for the captives.  So we’re cooking.  But all kinds of fancy salads and soup and kubbe to go with the cholent.  The kids probably won’t eat the complicated food, not the cholent, not the haminados, not the cabbage, but the shnitzel is the backup.  Strawberries for dessert. Sandkuchen for the old people, like Ezi.

Once the rest of the captives are home, we can begin to return to life. le’chaim.

 

  

one more minute, one more step – 22.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

collective grief - 21.2.25

Everything has been contributing to the sense of living in an isolated society facing terrible odds, monstrous enemies, and few allies.  So many of us know the names of every hostage and their families, and their grief is felt as if it is our own.  This morning at the grocers the conversation flew to the identification of the bodies of the Bibas children. 

I was the only one who couldn’t participate – Suddenly I pictured my aunt, who saw her two babies bashed against a wall.  It was not that I didn’t identify with all the people in the store, but that a different dimension was exposed.  We’re reminded that we’ve been through this before, and we thought we had returned home to a safe place.  The grief is multidimensional – and pretty unique.

 My aunt, Malcah, became a partisan and was killed during a mission.

Collective Grief – 21.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

Can't Stay Away - 20.2.25

It started this morning.  I promised I would not be another of the victims of Hamas psychological manipulation and I would not watch their events.  

But the grocer shoved his phone at me – “see, these monsters!” and I glimpsed the macabre ceremony as it was taking place.  By the time I came home, Ezi was chuckling over the fact that the coffins had been locked and the wrong keys were sent.  

So I gave up and began watching the horror of the families of the hostages waiting for the news.

As much as I said I would not be manipulated, I let myself mourn with the others.  There was no alternative.

We gave up even on eggs benedict because our stomachs were so upset.  Even though I ate a pint of ice cream, nothing was working. 

I’m a part of the grieving and there is no way to protect myself from it.

 

 

 

i can’t stay away- 20.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

her face - 2.20.25

Her face has been haunting for 503 nights.  Her realization that her boys and she will die, that she can do nothing to protect them.  It is the face of the nation.  And today their bodies will be returned.  

Of course they were human shields.  Of course no one would murder them directly.  

Of course they will remain in our hearts forever.

I personally will not watch the ceremonies.  I will watch the sudden rain that makes me think the sky is weeping for them.  And then I will do something ridiculous – go out for eggs benedict or buy a lacy tablecloth.  There will be the rest of my life to mourn them – when something positive is done that will diminish the pain.


her face – 20.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

breathe - 19.2.25

Sometimes it is necessary to breathe in deeply, and then breathe out – not only to get rid of the shocks of the day, but to get ready to get through the of tomorrow.

Today was a day to breathe in.  We went through the hostage tents and then the museum. 

 

https://www.tamuseum.org.il/en/exhibition/ronen-zien-walking/

but just a bit insular.  thinking inward.

not happy.  

Even the lunch at Pastel didn’t help me breathe out, get ready for tomorrow’s tragedies – the bodies of hostages.

I think I will try to escape for a few hours.

 

breathe – Read Post »

israeli politics

jewish writing - 18.2.25

This is a terrible admission.  Don’t read if you want to feel good things about me.

Here it is:  I’m sick of Jewish Writing.  50 years ago a friend of mine laughed at the entries he was getting for an English publication in Israel.  “It’s all about the shadow of grandmother’s candles on the wailing wall!”  I remember saying to him that I had come to Israel to be normal, to live my life without having to think about being Jewish all the time.  

But in the last few years the issue of Judaism invades every aspect of life.  I just bought superkosher butter because it is cheaper, and I know that all the superkosher foods are cheaper.  But I can’t bring myself to go to superkosher neighborhoods to cut my expenses.  I’d rather spend my afternoon in the Russian supermarkets because they remind me more of my youth, even though the pig’s knuckles are a bit problematic. 

And I’m really tired of tv programs about Hassidic families that are very cute. 

 

 

jewish writing – Read Post »