It is Tuesday and the weather is warm and balmy in Tel Aviv. I nearly had pizza last night. Then I remembered: I just ate half a pizza two days ago in Jerusalem.
Maybe I take a week off pizza?
("Bardak" means mess in Russian. I know it not from Russian but from Hebrew slang as a noun and verb: chaos, mess, disarray, turmoil -- Thanks Dad!)
I have written 900+ words today, and need a break. Like the blogger I have become I slept until noon (11 if you’re counting). Brunch and then writing. Pulling my hair out. Time for a beach break.
Living where I do, that means: Swimming trunks and flip flops. No towel. Just a water bottle (cause that is my key ring). The beach is sixty feet away. A few guys brought chairs and sit around a cooler. Officially, the beach is closed. Lifeguard stations locked up (the lack of their loudspeakers is nice). The crowd on the beach is thin. Maybe half a dozen are in the water. The tide is out. Surf is calm.
Jump in and walk out to where it is deep enough to swim. The water is perfect. A few fish. One nibbles me. Afterward the beach showers blast -- with no one using them the pressure is strong.
Dogs Life
I didn't have my phone, so can't show you the cute, big poodle making the rounds of beach visitors. Off leash, owner fifteen feet away. He visits every person and group. He has the "party poodle" look and is trimmed close. Except for his head which is grown out and tied in a ponytail.
Not sure I have ever seen a happier dog or a more secure dog-owner attachment.
And that is it. Out of the house half an hour and get twenty minutes in the water. The popping I hear is matkot.
45 miles to the south of me the popping is not a game. The Israeli Army is in the middle of Gaza.
The battle in Gaza right now is in full tilt. Bad news for all.
Seen
The tattoo parlor around the corner from my place was open Sunday night! Someone was on the table being worked on! (Sometimes when I walk by in the evening the guy asks in Hebrew: "Would you like a tattoo?") Coffee shop next door still closed. Yoga classes are on a reduced schedule. Attendance is thin. A comment this morning "Jaffa is abandoned" -- meaning many have left town due to being within rocket range.
Hotels and homes are full of displaced Israelis. Over 250,000 are internally displaced. A surprising number of Israelis have fled abroad (including the son of Dear Leader Netanyahu).
Heard
Jerusalem had a Red Alert yesterday afternoon (I wasn't there for it). Tel Aviv was quiet, until around ten PM. Was out walking. The siren was in a distant neighborhood. Everyone went running for a shelter. I went between two buildings. A woman who chose the same changed her mind and ran off to find "better."
There were three booms. Not close.
Public shelters are more visible. There are newly posted signs. The doors are always open. They show up now on Google Maps. (There are plenty of parts of town where there is no shelter nearby. Like where I live. No shelters. Old building that has nothing.)
Observed
Prisoners/Hostages
An Israeli taken hostage on October 7 was freed by the Israeli military yesterday. My Hebrew teacher, not a relation or connected to her in any (visible) way, and does not post anything about news, ever, posted to the classroom chat:
One of ours is back home
Noted
Even Barak Obama's piece failed to acknowledge the existence of Israeli hostages.
There is a Jewish and Israeli sensitivity to captives that may be invisible outside the Jewish community. To begin at the beginning:
Statements by leaders and organizations that fail to acknowledge three elements, are experienced by the Jewish world as hostile:
a) A violent attack against thousands of civilians.
b) Barbaric brutality against young and old, in their towns and homes.
c) Hundreds taken hostage.
Prisoners/Hostages II
Did you know that every day, for three weeks already, the count of hostages grows? As the dead are identified (a slow process given the number of dead and the disfigurement of many), that is correlated with missing persons reports. This aspect grows more severe with time.
Jewish sensitivity to captives is ancient. I go so far as to say that it is a defining feature of Jewishness. In Tzarist Russia, the Russian Army took quotas of boys every year from each Jewish towns. For 25 year stints. The Talmud discusses obligatory contributions to redeem captives. There is a prayer in the Jewish prayer book for freeing captives.
There is a underlying concern that Israeli captives will be forgotten.
Prisoners/Hostages III
The concern is not empty. Gaza itself is a kind of forgotten place. The people and property. Until 1967 it was part of Egypt. In recent decades an important source of labor to the Israeli economy. (In the weeks prior to the war the Israeli government was considering an increase in the number of work permits.)
When thinking/talking about Gaza, here are two ways antisemitism surfaces:
First
Count how many times you have heard: "Israel and Egypt need to ease the plight of Gaza."
We all have the same answer: Zero.
When something can be fairly framed by adding one word ("Egypt") yet is never framed that way, you can figure out what that means.
Second
The other is UNWRA. I am not going to unpack the tragedy-that-is-UNWRA here. Two angles:
1) The mess that is Gaza today can be seen as a direct result of 70 years of UNWRA. Yes, UNWRA does a lot of good (a lot). But they also, by their mission, create a deep culture of dependence and allow destructive activity (one small example: Prevalent hate speech their schools.)
2) UNWRA itself is a kind of prison. Yes, Gaza has been referred for decades as an "open air prison." You can see the fences, the controls on entry. Harder to see, unless you are a Palestinian who wants to leave: If you have received material support from UNWRA your ability to settle elsewhere is materially constrained. What does that mean? Why would an organization, UNWRA, be a problem for those it helps? Because immigration is messy. Many who would immigrate to Europe (or Canada or wherever) have no organization to help them. A Palestinian has help from UNWRA? Mechanisms of immigration and refugee status often say: Go back to UNWRA. (Raf discovered this as part of his research into how people immigrate to Europe and a recent conversation with a lawyer who worked in refugee matters.)
3) Arabic language interview with Hamas: The interviewer asks senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk: When you built 500 km of tunnels in Gaza, why didn't you build bomb shelters for civilians?
Abu Marzouk answers: The tunnels are for us (Hamas - AA). The citizens in the Gaza Strip are the responsibility of the United Nations....
Yeah, that was three not two.
Coping
From a friend: Sometimes poetry is what is needed. Here is David Whyte. He is keeping me sane.
Electric Cars
So I write about em yesterday... and a few hours later find myself in a parking garage with a row of charging spots, and can show you in person....
Relief Area
This area is getting harder to fill. So much of it is calls for Bibi to resign. Comedians putting up content that there just isn’t a comedic “there there.” So this area, at least today, is thin. I am doing what I can….
Alef
Bet
I mentioned FUP yesterday. My Mother seconds the endorsement: "I'm so very glad you have FUP with you, and I am NOT being sarcastic. Fundamentals are fundamentals, after all !"
Quality laughs.
The washing machine is washing. Cinemateque Tel Aviv is closed (open in Jerusalem). I am walking to Jaffa for dinner.
Raf
(Thank you A.K. and S.K. for content and A.K. for feedback.)