Hebrew first?

Whereas at the airport I focused on the Arabic and not the Hebrew words, now that I have been "home" three days, it is the Hebrew of the television reporters that is my focus rather than the Arabic on the Arabic programs.

yerida-- not so fast II

I have taken from Israel and not given to Israel. And thus I should stay and teach to pay off some of my debt.

yerida- not so fast

I have two priorities in the holy land. Big toe and yerida.

Seeing my parents last night brought home how difficult it will be to leave them. Which throws a spanner into the spokes of my plan to descend. No clarity on descent the big toe idea lacks its clarity and purpose and becomes mingled with all of me and not just my big toe.

back in the ussr

Back in the USSR

Interesting. my flight landing minutes before sunset on a friday was the perfect arrival to Israel for me, establishing it for the moment as my place and not the place of my parents. it's tough being passive aggressive at 55.

no one will look back at november 2010, so far, and proclaim it as a turning point for Israel. I wouldn't say that Israel is no worse for the wear, but it is all gradual.

arabic written on the signs was the real welcome. was that an arab sitting next to me on the taxi ride to jerusalem? i didn't wish to disturb the silence with "b'tichki arabi?" another lost opportunity.

i entangled myself in some minor arguing on mondoweiss beginning a few days before my flight back, thus enabling a gradual retox.

I saw Gideon Levy speak, but the building and the audience of fifty on 76th and Amsterdam was more significant than anything he had to say. I must say that Israel bashers raise the feathers of my back. (The bookseller accompanying Amy Goodman with his on cue laughter at anti Israel jokes was particularly galling.)

arguing nationalism on mondoweiss

no one is yet aware of this blog.
not even me.

i am currently arguing nationalism on mondoweiss and I escaped here as a refuge.

status quo

The status quo on the West Bank is not sustainable: the Palestinians have no rights. If Israel had conducted an immaculate occupation: one without settlements, the lack of rights would probably have been less egregious and certainly the justification of "security" would be more reasonable and not dispelled by the charge of "land grab".

The "Geneva Accord" reached by Yossi Beilin and Yaser Abed Rabbo in Geneva December 2003 represents a "realistic" agreement of partition. Palestinians who advocate ignoring this "accord" because it does not redress the injustice of 1948 have my sympathies. There was much suffering by the Palestinians before 67 and those who wish to address it cannot be denied their day in the public court. But never before or since have higher ups in the Israeli elite and in the PLO ruling party put their signature to an agreement and so "realism" dictates that we should look to the nearest bridge to cross the river towards a better future and this is that bridge.

My support for Israel is almost automatic: lacking a time machine to assess dangers and possibilities I give Israel the benefit of the doubt, backing up their skepticism regarding the infeasibility of a one state solution.

As far as those who prefer different borders than those agreed upon by Beilin and Abed Rabbo, I cannot prove the justice of "my" set of borders rather than your own, only to the fact that Beilin and Abed Rabbo have signed onto the one set of borders and not on the borders that you have in mind.

yonahred the wondering jew

a name is given to us at birth. we are also born into our last names and we find out a lot more about that when school starts.

yonah was the name my father gave me. red is the color of my hair. (when i was younger it was red, now it's brown.)

i was not the first to discover this wondering wandering type of association. the jews have wandered and some continue to wander and wondering has its sound of wandering from idea to idea. this isn't wonder as in wonderful and awed, but wondering- searching.