Tel Aviv Diary - April 4-8 2011 - Karen Alkalay-Gut


The little op ed item in the Washington Post the other day is making endless waves in our country, but only in one direction. I'll bet few people have read Goldstone's letter, which doesn't say all that much except that Israel didn't cooperate when he was gathering information but made a thorough inquiry after that proves that some of his conclusions were wrong, and that Hamas didn't cooperate afterward, didn't accept or implement criticism. Which goes to prove only that we take criticism seriously.

But, as Emily Dickinson once wrote "How fine it is to talk! How wonderful the news is! Not Bismark, but ourselves."

The rain came last evening with wondrous thunder and lightning. I went to sleep feeling comfortable. We not only have rain but Shusha is growing deaf and so doesn't keep me awake all night. She's well over 15 years old and there are times I think she will get a heart attack over some simple natural phenomena, like another dog sniffing her. So her deafness may be keeping her alive. Hmmm, perhaps I'm still talking about politics.

News has no memory.

April 6, 201`

Nine years ago and a few days I began this blog - it was before the word blog was invented but the idea was clear - a wave of the future. But it was created in a sense to preserve the present. If only because I didn't think we were going to last very long. Now I remember that when I was born my father didn't think we were going to make it through. "It's too dangerous," he said when my mother told him they had to go to this hospital, "Wait until morning."

On way home tonight we slowed down for a police check. It looked pretty serious but it didn't take any time - they were looking for someone specific, not a carful of women. But the automatic fear awoke in me - what if I did something wrong, what if they recognize me for the criminal I am, what if they see I'm Jewish, what if....

April 7, 2011While the school bus was still smoking from the Hamas anti-tank missile, a teenager fighting for his life, while the Israeli planes were bombing the sites in Gaza where the rockets were coming from, we were watching Romeo and Juliet at the Cameri. A wonderful contemporary Hebrew translation, the adaptation was wonderful and surprising accurate and devoid of political statement - until the end. The play ends with the death of the lovers, and not with the peace between the family Shakespeare put in. You can imagine what that gap did to us, who were discussing the way out of war throughout the intermission.

April 8, 2011

My periodontist worked on me long and hard today - and i spent the better part of the day recovering from it. But Moti Geldman got us out in the evening and we went to Gootcha on Ibn Gvirol for dinner. It turned out to be an okay place - good food, fast and polite service, reasonable prices. Except for the noise it was fine. I don't know why people need such loud music, but I'm not the only one complaining and it does no good in Tel Aviv.

And just in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the latest version on the passover story

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