Tel Aviv Diary May 12-16, 2008 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

May 12, 2008

Whatever you say about the difficulty of my diary system, and its inaccessibility, you must admit that the five-day page indicates the belief in a future, albeit short-termed. It suits my view of the world, and the politics of this country - a day by day planning. Nothing long range.

last night i thought i felt the bed moving. It was probably the dog under the bed, scratching. But half asleep as I was, I was sure it was an earthquake. "It's finally hit," I thought, "The Syrian African Rift is widening, and we'll be swallowed into the earth." A fitting biblical ending to the whole middle east crisis. The survivors will have no choice but to make peace." I woke up and the world was still 'whole.'

May 13, 2008

is bit of shmaltz today in hematology and paste it here as I wrote it:

I’m doing something I haven’t done before – I writing my blog offline. I took my computer to the hospital today to ‘document’ a regular morning in the hematology ward, but forget there’s no open access to internet. That’s all that’s missing around here. The armchairs in the treatment are full of people connected to their transfusions or chemotherapy and since I get in the way of the nurses, I retire to the waiting room, where a large screen television entertains the overprotective chaperones. My daughter has gone up to the 10th floor to bring the CHOP-R, the magic mix of ziplocked chemo in a paper bag, as I usually do and I am just babysitting. There is another baby carriage other with a sleeping child here, as if this was just a regular airport lounge. The social worker spots me and comes over to sit down, although we have finished the paperwork with her for national insurance, and asks me how I’m doing. She does this every time, whether she needs to or not. I kvetch here and there as is my heritage, although never about the hospital, which overwhelms me with a sense of comfort whenever I enter. “It’s hard to work blah blah blah,” and she smiles and says, “You’re amazing,” and gets up. “If you were in the States, my friend says on the phone, “you would be getting regular counseling, not this ten-minute back-patting.” “It’s all I need,” I answer. “We’re getting everything we could possibly get.” Let’s just hope it works.

May 14, 2008

I may not be going anywhere interesting, but you can go visit my friends and neighborhood on this site. Just see some regular places, homes, etc. in Tel Aviv.

One of my favorite painters in Zvi Maierovich, so I'm happy they have a new site with his works:here. I have had a work of his for the past 40 years and always enjoy looking at it.

New York – This month, Hollywood’s best and brightest will be saluting Israel in celebration of its 60th Anniversary. They will be featured on billboards in Times Square, sending personalized video greetings to Israel on this historic anniversary. The celebrities include: Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Brooke Shields, Kirk & Michael Douglas, Dakota Fanning, Sir Ben Kingsley, and many more. The celebrity greetings will run in 30 second clips each hour, every day, throughout the month of May, at the Reuters building located at 3 Times Square.

Ashkelon - a souped-up Katyusha (called a Grad) just fell in a shopping center injuring 11 people. Just to keep things interesting for the Peres party. Just to show all of us whose in charge. Since it fell in a children's health clinic the injured are mostly women and children. But that's the way we do it around here. They bomb civilians, we retaliate by bombing terrorists, they bomb more civilians.

Where did they get those rockets, you ask? From the same wonderful folks who brought us Hizballah.

May 15, 2008

I can't think of anything to say today - Bush said it all.

May 16, 2008

It was only in the evening last night that I got an answer to the question I was asking all day, "Where are the Arab students?" I guess I was just not paying attention, involved as I am in obtaining the right medication at the right time and stuff like that. But yesterday was not only Student Day, it was Nakba. There can't be any way the Jewish Israelis would feel positive about this day of mourning for the creation of the state of Israel, but it could not be considered a sensitive decision to have a student celebration on a day of mourning. While I think most people were - like me - ignorant of the date, we should have known, and picked a more neutral day.

Strange situation, isn't it? We should be sensitive to the fact that they are mourning our national celebration? But this is a strange place.

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