israeli politics

virtue signalling - 13-2-25

I almost got caught up in it today – virtue signalling.  like I’m doing more for the hostages that you are.  I’m more against the government than you are.  I’m more virtuous than you are.  

Almost.

Okay – no jewellery.  that makes sense.  no dressing up. (who would feel like getting all gussied up when there are starving people next door. 

But I stopped learning Arabic after Oct 7 – just couldn’t hear the language, couldn’t even think about a celebratory dinner (and I don’t mean the Gazans who have been looking well-fed for a while now). 

 

I don’t even mean demonstrating.  Unless there is real danger involved and not just joining up with old friends.

So I’m still sick, Ezi just had a cancerous growth removed from his head, and I don’t have anything left – so when some left wing politician called me, I couldn’t support him.  

It doesn’t make me feel good.

 

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israeli politics

tense times

As much as I would like to lie in bed and eat chocolate covered cherries, as much as I would like to be a narcissist, these are not the times for it. I don’t just mean politics – Of course I am incapable of demonstrating now, and I am determined not to comment on US politics, but I am also committed to endeavoring to ease the situation of all those in a panic about the situation.  This is the worst time we’ve been going through since October 7, and people are losing their strength.  If you know any Israelis, get in touch – if just to say you care.  

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israeli politics

tough times

Of course the terrible political situation has helped to reduce my resistance to disease.  

I’ve got so much wrong with me I haven’t been able to demonstrate or even watch the news since Saturday’s big trade of 180 healthy terrorists waiting to go back to work and 3 emaciated men who have suffered terrible personal tragedies and will need many months before they can function as participants in society again.  

And now we’re on the brink of war again.

It looks to me like Trump is planning to fight in Gaza until the last Israeli.  

But the break from media I took for 2 days was enough for me to recover enough to get back into the fray.

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israeli politics

slowly recovering - 10.2.25

slowly recovering. And, as Balzac wrote , “On ne saurait dire a’ quel point un homme, seul dans son lit et malade, devient personnel” or, in free jewish translation, “you have no idea how a person, alone and sick in bed, gets to be narcissistic.”  Very free translation.  

So I’m not alone.  So I’m not in bed all the time … Who would do the dishes if I stayed in bed? Especially since Ezi is sick in bed as well.

So this entry is all about me and my kvetches:

The same guy delivers my stuff from the supermarket.  Today he was very late.  “It’s raining,” he stammers in Hebrew as he hands me wet paper bags.  I add the empties to the pile of recyclables that has collected over the past 2 weeks.  Kids bring medicines, and quickly leave.  But the phone calls, the zooms, the whatsapps – wow.  Total salvation.

Now that it’s almost okay, I’m evaluating how much the support of others helped me get past the worst.  They aren’t the people who read this, so I’m not using this platform to thank them.  I’m using it to remind people that support makes a difference in survival.

 

slow but recover – 10.2.2 Read Post »

israeli politics

wordless - 8.2.25

I was unable to speak almost all day, not only because I’m still weak and coughing, but because the vision of the malnourished men reminded me of men I had met as a small child.  

I’d really like to go back to talking about life in Tel Aviv and forget about politics.  I need to go back to cafes and gossip.  i swear, the first thing i do when i get well is go to see people who will talk to me.

 

wordless – 8.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

“let this be a lesson to you!” –

"Let This Be a Lesson to You - 8.2.25

 “Hurry Up!”

It is, of course, Hamas’ message us.  Hurry up, you see what we can do.”

But I have seen people in that situation recover from such torture, starvation, and hatred.

We must overcome our emotional reaction and behave rationally.

 

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israeli politics

musselmen return - 8.2.25

The three hostages returned today, looking like the people who came out of Auschwitz.  We need to see the comparison.  

And we need to treat this survivors with even more care than the survivors of Auschwitz.

 

 

musselmen return – 8.2.25 Read Post »

israeli politics

recovering2 -7.8.25

seriously, I never knew a flu like this.  my fever is now down, and I am beginning to be bored with doing nothing.  We’ve been binge watching Clarkson’s Farm (that British reality star) all day and now we’ve got to the part where he’s sold his sheep and his cattle and he’s raising pigs.  This may seem like a harmless series to watch when we’re waiting for 3 captives to be returned to us, but it brought me back to my father, who managed to get out of Danzig on the eve of the war, and on agricultural visas he went to raise pigs in England.  i don’t know how long the stint lasted but he was somehow comforted by them.  the fact that they would come to his window in the morning to ask to be fed must have brought him such comfort after being treated like an animal on the streets of Danzig and before that, Lida.  

And it got me to thinking about how one gets to be dehumanized, how the captives could be treated like animals and murdered without a thought.  It is not because the Gazans aren’t human beings, but because they were taught that we are not human.  

How do you convince someone that you are indeed human when they are convinced you are not?  

recovering2 – 7.8.25 Read Post »