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Tel Aviv Diary May 28 - June 2, 2018 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

Tel Aviv Diary --May 28-June 2, 2018 Karen Alkalay-Gut

May 28, 2018

Shooting in Sderot, no one hurt but no one is going to sleep tonight.

It is about time I admitted it, I watch "the good fight" twice each week. And I'm taking my political evidence from what Dianne Lockhart does. That's how badly I need a role model.

three hours until Oren lands - will write from the airport

May 29, 2018

The battle continues all day - one more tunnel destroyed. when you think of 10 tunnels - miles of cement - How can a hungry people sink all the donations given to them in order to build tunnels? we think about escaping the news of the escalation with a tv program, but the warnings of rocket attacks all over the towns along the border flash on the screen - seek shelter. there is no escape. there were more rockets today from Gaza than there has been in the past four years. we keep saying, 'this doesn't have to escalate to war' but it is escalating. If those rockets actually kill someone there will be no way out of war, and those hungry, determined people will suffer more. And so will we. Revenge always works that way.

May 30-1, 2018

Back to thinking about myself.

sometimes I have problems too you know.

nothing like the Gazan leaders who say death and life are the same thing.

Although the people in Gaza with whom i have come in contact seem to love life as much as i do.

here's a bit of a moral conundrum unconnected with the military situation: Haim Ramon, who was once extremely involved in politics and even served as minister of the interior for a while, but back about 12 years ago he frenched kissed a girl who complained about it. He served six months of public service for this crime and has kept a bit of a low profile since. But he was asked to lecture at the university and now some students are complaining that he should not be able to teach. Although it was clearly ruled that Ramon is "not to be seen as a sex offender" it's seen as a feminist cause.

Me I can't see it that way. In fact I'm a bit offended. it's like kids are so vulnerable they can't even deal with the prospect of someone who has made errors in the past.

I mean that with so many murders of women in this country and with so much sexual abuse, we should be concentrating more than that.

June 1, 2018

I agreed to go on the tour of Arieh Sharon's buildings because his architectural planning determined the sociology of a generation. He was the guy who decided that cities should be built all around the country - Kiryat Gat, Yokneam, etc. (He wasn't a part of the decision to send newcomers to these cities without the proper schools and other institutions. He fascinates me because I used to meet his wife in my mother-in-law's living room all the time, sitting on the sofa and bragging about her son, Eldar. It seemed to me that she had a genius husband and a genius son but had nothing to say about herself and never asked anyone else anything about themselves.

Anyway we went around to buildings in Tel Aviv we are all familiar with - the hospital, the medical building at the university, the exhibit about him at the museum. All were concerned with using the light and breeze to best advantage while creating easily maneuverable rooms and public spaces. in all of them is the hint of the concept of togetherness and social responsibility. But the site that fascinated me the most is one i have probably written about here in the past. Throughout the city are these blocks of three story buildings that close off an inner courtyard - the public space for the block - the local park. As we sat in one of the gardens surrounded by smallish apartments, listening to the talk about the we-ness of this space, I watched a woman hanging out the carpets to dry on her portable clothes lines, a yoga class, people exercising their dogs, cats chasing birds, an art class. This is the way we should be living, I kept thinking - with lots of space outside - safe for children to play, safe to old people to sit in the sun, safe for animals to run around. Orit once wanted to buy an apartment in a complex like this, and I was fascinated with the idea. But we didn't have enough money to make it work then, and I have regretted it ever since. Okay, there was no elevator and no room for one and the apartment was 60 meters - considered large in those days but much smaller than what she has now and needs. But it's so like an urban kibbutz...

June 2, 2018

While I was contemplating the joy of having the youngest grandchildren unclutch her hands from the side of the pool and actually swim, albeit in a manner that would not keep her above water without her wings, two kids on tv (ages 5 and 8),were discussing their experiences under constant shelling this week, and the news came on that the shelling has begun again after only 3 days. "It seems that every rocket that falls hits a nursery," said the comic in the program after. both 5 and 8 kids expressed their concern for the children in Gaza (whose government has built tunnels instead of bomb shelters for the nurseries that seem not to exist there.

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