Tel Aviv Diary January 12-16, 2018 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

Tel Aviv Diary - January 12-16, 2018 Karen Alkalay-Gut

January 12, 2018

Sayyed Kashua returned to the pages of Haaretz for one reason - to condemn the series "Fauda" for not depicting the conflict realistically and not depicting the lives of Arabs under the occupation in all its aspects. It seems to me that he left his intelligence behind when he left this country. The name Fauda means chaos. and the series is not about the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews but about the chaos in the lives of everyone who lives within the conflict. It is not as extreme but this chaos is in all our lives.

If you have a premium membership in Haaretz you can see it here, but it is not his best writing. It's too bad he's not living here.

I know this country is too small for most people. Especially great ones. I suppose its a good nursery for the big world.

January 13, 2018

At another one of Zelda Harris' remarkable brunches this morning, after Yitzchak Herzog had left, a microphone was connected to my belt and Linda and I were asked about how this gathering had affected us. I looked around the small group gathered around in her living room and I found myself saying that Zelda, who is in her eighties, was giving me hope - hope that people can do something now to change the world. Even though so much has been lost, still each one of us can do something. Something small but something.

January 14, 2018

So my Hebrew editor of the Yiddish book called me last night to say that the diacritical marks in the book are all wrong and that only Rappaport can save me in time. Rappaport lives way out in a Moshav - half an hour ride - so i got Ezi to go with me late-evening and we found the address. Well approximately. Ezi sat in the car while i went from house to house asking people who were ready for bed where Rappaport lived. Eventually I found his house and his wife took the manuscript at the door. We got home and fell into bed. And in the morning, in the middle of exercise, Rappaport called to tell me it was ready. So we drove back there and picked up the paper. there were few corrections but now we had to put them into the text. Only my desktop can put diacritical marks into a text. But I have no more energy for that. The worst part is that when i read the Hebrew, I really hate the poems. I used to love them.

January 16, 2018

Last night I felt it necessary to attend the launch of arc 25 that was arranged for the IAWE by an organization called Jerusalism. I thought it necessary because I'm the only one who has the books and it was clear that people would want to buy copies at a book launch. It was a pleasant surprise - lots of people I didn't know. lots of poems i'd never heard of. but we had to leave at 9 because we had an Orthopedists appointment for Ezi in Ashdod at 8 in the morning. That was a lot of travelling and by the time we returned we were finished. The results: Ezi was allowed to remove his boot and now only has to figure out what kind of physiotherapy is needed. That will be tomorrow.

Can you imagine how upset Abbas must have been when he cursed the Americans with "May your house be destroyed?" What despair. And in such a cool voice. no point in even trying.