Karen Alkalay-Gut
February 28, 2019
Imagine knowing that all the information you get with which you make decisions that control your life has been fed to you by someone who isn't even thinking about your best interests. imagine thinking it all the time but only now having the proof given to you suddenly. i am sure i am not alone in feeling my world is upside down in this country.
but life seems to be going along as usual. i started out trying to do some shopping at the grocers but as soon as i walked in, some guy walked in and called out to the owner, "So what do you think? Your guy is accused of real crimes!" and the grocer responded with a twinkle in his eyes, "As a defence lawyer you know that everyone is innocent until proven guilty!" And then we went on complaining about the prices. "How would the prime minister know about this?" I asked. "He doesn't have a credit card - he doesn't even own a wallet."
March 1, 2019
Did you see Benny Gantz speak - to Bibi - as if he were a misbehaving schoolboy, who should go home until he can concentrate on his studies?" No wonder Ezi wakes up in the middle of the night and reads the news from his phone. We've got 14000 Hizbullah rockets trained on us that have been souped up by Iran, and we're fooling around with whether Bibi bribed and was bribed all over the place. Come on -we've known it for years. Let's take care of our country.
the more i think about it, when i heard the accusations read on the radio, i myself was ashamed for him. you'd have to be a sociopath to not hide when you've been accused of such things.
Everyone, however, says he will be re-elected.
the other day i was going to write about a ju jitsu lesson i was at, but i think i conked out before i did it - Mostly 8 year olds - learning how to fell an other. the problem was these kids had been brought up in Tel Aviv and had learned kindness and respect and didn't seem to know how to be agressive. so the class was beautifully choreographed and wonderfully rehearsed - but they'll never make it on the battlefield. somehow i loved it.
March came in like a lion. we are great counters here and love to measure how much rain has fallen this winter, but you can see it for yourself if you just look out the window. there is green here like never before - plants are growing that i haven't seen in years. it's as though the earth is just waiting for an opportunity to renew itself, to give away the secrets of history.
March 3, 2019
I made an appointment at the post office to take care of three different matters this morning. They were all important. 1. to get an official acknowledgment from a post office for the non-profit government office that the IAWE didn't make more that 300000 shekel this year. (that in itself demanded the signature of another officer and the stamp of a lawyer) 2. to send a letter to the income tax that they haven't updated our status properly yet 3. to pick up a stupid registered letter from a member who sent a tiny check. i was confident that the whole thing would take me the usual ten minutes because i had an appointment. but the machine didn't accept my entry. i kept trying over and over until i gave up and got into the regular postoffice line. the post office was crowded, especially because it was sunday morning - just after the sabbath - and there is so much to take care of. i wouldn't have gone today but the last two times i went their computer was down and it was too close to the deadline for these official letters. And then I realized that I had made the appointment in the wrong post office. So i waited. listened to the Russian clerk scream in broken English to the French immigrant trying to fill out forms, to the complaints of a well-known man trying to pick up a package for his wife - while the baby he was holding screamed, to the multilingual kvetches of all the customers about the lack of sufficient clerks, etc. etc. I even found a place to sit down. finally my number was called and i got to a clerk i have known for decades. i was so happy to see a friendly face i was almost unable to function. and when it turned out he could take care of all three missions i had, i almost kissed him. it took an hour and i made it to the doctor appointment just in time. i was worried that the doctor would take my blood pressure after all this and it would be in the sky, so i emphasized that there was a long queue outside waiting for me, and it worked. i got out in minutes. This may not seem like a wise thing to do to you, but if he had started fooling around with my medication i would have gone totally mad.
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