Last Saturday I woke up to sirens at around 6:30 in the morning and rushed to the building shelter. Here we go again, I thought, preparing myself for another round of fighting until there was a ceasefire. But it quickly became clear that there would be no ceasefire in the near future. I turned on the news and was shocked by the images of Hamas terrorists in the streets of Sderot and Ofakim - how did they get there? And where was the army?? The news reporters seemed just as shocked and confused as it slowly became clear that Hamas was taking control of several Kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope. I will never forget when the news reporter took a breath and said that there were 22 dead, among them civilians. At the time, a few hours after the attack, the number felt incredibly high and although they said that the number of casualties would rise, I don't think anyone imagined that it would reach 1,300 and still counting. I learned that there were very graphic videos going around of kidnapped soldiers and civilians but I refused to watch them, not sure what was real and what wasn't, it all felt too surreal. When I met my neighbors at the bomb shelter again in the evening, I realized that this was the darkest day in Israel's history and nothing would ever be the same.
The following days were a blur, on Sunday my social media feed was flooded with countless images of murdered or missing kibbutz residents and young people who had attended the Supernova rave turned massacre, their friends and relatives frantically searching for any information. On Monday the obituaries started and haven't stopped, too many of my friends know people who were murdered. In the next few days, the extent of the massacres in the kibbutzim became clear, Be'eri lost 10% of its population, 108 people, including children and infants. Yesterday was spent reading moving accounts of survivors and unexpected heroes. If you are able to access it, please take the time to read Nir Gontarz's account of how his 23-year-old son survived the Supernova rave massacre, and was eventually rescued by retired major-general Yair Golan, just one of many rescues made by Golan last Saturday. In an ideal world Golan, a former Meretz MK, would be in the cabinet making decisions that will affect our country's future, instead of those who are currently in government and barely governing.
I had always found Full Trunk's hit 'As a stone' to be very soothing, a song to help you calm down. I saw the song in a new light after Gal Nisman explained its meaning in an episode of 'One Song' a few years ago. While it's purposely not stated clearly, the lyrics are about Nisman's struggles with PTSD, which he became aware of during a round of rocket attacks by his home in the Gaza envelope. Nisman said that the song was about his healing process from the moment he lost his close friend during a military operation in Gaza. After a lot of work, he was able to go back to being himself, though of course not the same as he was before. Nisman, who still resides in the Gaza envelope, shared on his Instagram a few days ago "...They murdered here, body and soul, an entire community of friends, families and acquaintances, desecrated the women and children, kidnapped, slaughtered and burned everything that breathed, and looted everything they could." Nisman thanked the security forces and the kitot konenut (volunteer defense forces made up of kibbutz residents) who 'are fighting with insane bravery and ferocity against these subhuman monsters'.
Stay safe Gal, and thank you for sharing your beautiful music with us.
Slowly I'm facing all the things I left behind.
All, all I ever tried was just to find a way to ease my mind.
I had a feeling I might make an appearance here again, especially if current events here were being covered extensively in the international press, but I never imagined it would be under these circumstances when the country is (still) under the threat of leaving democracy.
I published my last post before the November 1 elections, but it was already clear that either we were going into another election cycle or Netanyahu's camp would win, probably by a slim majority. I voted for Meretz yet again, quite reluctantly to be honest, and hoped for the best. The right's landslide victory caught me off-guard but wasn't too surprising - not just Netanyahu's Likud victory (32 seats) but also the meteoric rise of the Religious Zionist party (14 seats), not to mention the Orthodox parties' very high showing (17 together for both Shas and United Torah Judaism).
On the left, the situation was catastrophic and felt like the result of every possible mistake. After much debate, Meretz and Labour decided to run separately, which resulted in Labour's poor showing of 4 seats and Meretz's elimination from the Knesset. Mathematically, the numbers between both camps were almost equal, we just didn't play the game right, mainly due to inflated egos. After I had gone through my five stages of grief, which included a lot of crying and macaroni and cheese, I decided that maybe it was for the best. This was indeed Netanyahu's most right-wing government yet, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad? Maybe after years of election turmoil, we needed to give the stage to one side. Maybe with fewer ideological disagreements, Netanyahu's far-right government would provide some stability and quiet for the next four years, and we could finally get on with our lives, even if it wasn't the government I voted for.
All of this wishful thinking disappeared on January 4th, when Yariv Levin, the newly appointed Justice Minister, presented his extreme judicial overhaul with a calm demeanor and a chilling tone noting that this was just the 'first phase'. A short overview of the proposed plans is presented here.
It's important to mention that while for most of the left-leaning public, these judicial suggestions for reform seemed to have come out of thin air (and very conveniently while Netanyahu is standing trial), there has been discontent for quite some time on the right that Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak's sweeping judicial changes in the 90s gave too much power to the judicial court. However, this was certainly not part of Netanyahu's campaign and from many conversations with right-leaning friends and family members, they believe that while a change is certainly needed to 'correct' the current situation, most agree that the proposed plan is too extreme and will give far too much power to the coalition. But not everyone wanted to take part in a nuanced debate. Some wanted to stand by Netanyahu no matter what, while others demanded an urgent stop of any legislation and to go back to the previous situation, which they were completely okay with. The swelling protest movement rose from the latter camp.
As a secular woman, I am a minority in the current coalition. The suggested judicial overhaul means that I will no longer be able to rely on the Supreme Court to protect my rights and I will be completely dependent on the coalition majority. And yet, for a long time, I supported the protests from afar. The protests always seemed too loud and crowded for me, and I didn't think it would make such a difference if I was there or not. When there were protests on work days, I was considerate of coworkers who took the day off or took a break to join the mid-day protests at Azrieli, but I tried to work as usual. There was also a point when I thought there was room for compromise, which was being thwarted by the opposition's demand to completely halt the legislation. Surely there would be a true 'softening' of the legislation and not the minor one proposed by the coalition, right?
But last Saturday something changed. As we were heading into the final week of rulings before the Knesset break, I really had no idea what the country would look like by the end of the week. Netanyahu had made it clear in his speech on Thursday night that he would go forward with the second and third readings, making any changes irreversible, and this was enough to get me out of the house and join my mom, aunt, and sister in Kaplan. I mainly went to feel less alone, and also less hopeless, as I heard the speeches made by Yuval Noah Harari and Tzipi Livni, and sang 'Hatikva', the Israeli anthem, with the rest of the crowd, estimated to be the largest turnout since the protests began. While we were there, we received a notification that Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, had called for a pause in the legislation, citing security concerns. This was soon followed by a notification saying that Itamar Ben-Gvir called for Gallant to be fired. 'Yeah right, as if that will happen' I thought. Netanyahu might publically scold Gallant, but he would never fire him, given the delicate security situation we're in. But less than 24 hours later, he sent shockwaves throughout the country when he did fire him, leading to an eruption of spontaneous protests, with thousands of demonstrators taking over the main Ayalon highway for most of the night. By the next day, it was clear that there was a shift and something had changed. Strikes were announced and it felt like the whole country was shutting down. I went with friends to the daytime protests at Kaplan, and there was a constant gathering of demonstrators carrying Israeli flags, who all stopped by for a while with no clear end in sight. In the evening, Netanyahu gave his long-delayed speech, making sure to praise the right-wing demonstrations in support of the reform and scold the protesters against the reform, going so far as to compare us to the 'bad mother' in Solomon's tale who is willing to tear the country apart. Netanyahu announced a one-month pause in the legislation, and we were left feeling like after a forced ceasefire right in the middle of a military operation.
There's a sense that the gun is already loaded and one small flare-up is enough for the coalition to reconvene and pass the legislation, they just need a few hours and it's done. This is why the protests are continuing, though I assume they will be at a much smaller scale since there is less of a sense of urgency. To make matters more stressful, the pro-reform protestors have gained momentum (with the strong support of the coalition) and while most of the right-wing protesters are non-violent, there is a small but vocal group looking to wreak havoc and cause violence, targeted towards the anti-reform protestors. On Thursday night they chased down a journalist and it's become clear that there is no grown-up in charge to restrain any violence.
For a long time, I've had some trouble with the prominent display of the Israel flag in the weeks leading up to Independence Day. It's been custom for drivers to put a small flag on their windows and for people to put up the flag outside their homes, in addition to the flags set up by the municipalities in the streets. Something about it always made me feel uncomfortable, and it felt like an unneeded show of force. Yes, we are celebrating our rightful independence but do we really need to be so boastful about it? During the anti-Netanyahu protests, the right-wing pro-Netanyahu protestors waved the Israeli flag to show that they are true patriots, as opposed to the black flag movement, and carrying the Israeli flag was seen as a nationalistic image. But this changed completely during the anti-reform protests, in which demonstrators reclaimed the flag. I couldn't help but tear up a bit when I saw the wave of Israeli flags flying defiantly in the wind, despite everything. Carrying the flag became a way to show that this was our country too, and we have every right to fight for it because we really have no other country. This is our messed-up, dysfunctional, and complicated home, but it's ours, and on the eve of our 75th year, we're still working things out.
There is a better quality of this performance by Gali Atari and Korin Elal here, but I love this version, shot by demonstrator Ido Ivry, which really captures the feeling of being in the middle of the protest, surrounded by Israelis of all ages who just want to live in a democratic society.
Well, after an unexpectedly long hiatus, I'm back for one last post. I've had a lot of fun keeping this up over the past 12(!) years and forcing myself to discover new music beyond the playlist hits, while along the way interacting with lovely people from across the globe. I might eventually decide to take a closer look at the musical gems from the past decade once more time has passed, or to dig deeper into tunes from other periods, as I have occasionally done, but for now, I'll leave you with Gon Ben Ari and Zulat Choir, taken from the stellar album 'Yesh'.
♥
Between the evenings in high school
In the suburb which you've already repressed
Making muscles against the madness
In the toke gym
Drunken light from Babylon
Lit in the street at night
An endless hole in the phone
Scroll down, down, down
How many signals can I give you
Until you will finally look
How the river overflows the rock
Every button turns on miracles
And was there water
When you entered up to the knees
They didn't open in front of you
For you to come in
Israel
They reinvent you every night
Who in the chill, who in the bumps of the road
Israel
A voice that has no body or mouth still prays
Through Arsim chanting at school:
"Here not here here here
Here not here here here
Here not here
Here not here here here"
Together
How many operations will we carry out
So that the border of "who am I"
Will feel stable enough for a moment
And for a moment, you'll breathe
I know, you love
But let's try tonight
To not talk about anything
Except for the future
Israel
They reinvent you every night
Who in the shade, who in the sun's indulgence
Israel
A voice that escaped from a synagogue is still splitting
Maroon 5 performed here earlier this week (much to the delight of the 16-year-old in me) and it was quite a whirlwind, highlighted by Adam Levine inviting the singer Coral Bismith to perform onstage after seeing her sing "Sunday Morning" from his hotel room facing the Tel Aviv promenade. What a story! I think the humorous account Hapshuta put it best with this post:
"Walla I don't understand how Adam Levine just got on a plane and flew to another country.
Honey, you're already settled in.
You have a Jewish name and also a six-pack and those are already two criteria for the right of return sweetie
I thought in your next story we'll see I'm making Aliyah
In a month a trip across Israel as part of Birthright, in a year a feature in the weekend news on Adam Levine's journey from a singer to a lone soldier, and now I just feel betrayed
I feel like you wrote to me 'you're the only country that I'm speaking to'
And then you just moved on to the next country I don't know let's say Poland
And probably there you'll also shout Good Evening Warsaw and you'll invite a Polish busker to sing with you and you'll share stories of Polish women and then you'll also leave them for the next country because once a cheater always a cheater
Now I know what you meant in One More Night you scoundrel
My heart is broken
Only good news"
We love you Adam and thank you for introducing us to the wonderful Coral Bismuth, whose recent single Lava just entered the coveted Galgalaz playlist. As a post I came across explained, "As people call her, Coral Bismuth, "Sunflower girl," is a street performer. For years, Coral has been performing on the streets with one mission - spreading good in the world. She has her spot on the boardwalk and has a beautiful setup for her instruments and swag. What caught my attention was not just her voice but the sunflowers. Next to the sunflower pot, there is a sign "Take and give as much as you can; if you can not give, feel free to take!"
♥
Such a strange situation, a balcony here across the street
A dried banana tree, I went for a walk
I said "hi" to the window I just created here
His smile is cute, okay I'm going up to him
You're so beautiful that it's hard for me to describe
You're as beautiful as the sunset on white sand with Bon Iver in the background
You're as beautiful as water flowing like white in the clouds you're beautiful
Like a charcoal lamp in a poet's dark room
It's hard for me to describe
Like lava in the heart of the earth
Or like the most beautiful sound in all the wilderness
You're a sophisticated chord on the piano
A beautiful flower that hides and improvises
Such a strange situation, I got lost
I was spinning in the kitchen when you offered me a dance
Even ancient energy loses control
Changes consciousness, come to bed now
In the heart of the earth
The most beautiful sound in all the wilderness
You're a sophisticated chord on the piano
A beautiful flower that hides and improvises
A total of three dates, you ran away pretty quickly
I fell hard
Fuck, what a mess
Suddenly my heart opened, after years and years inside the dusty body
Cut
You came with a pink shirt written on it Tonight
What was I thinking? That we'll go sailing tomorrow?
So-called romantic, living in my house
You ruined my vibe
But what will I do that you're so beautiful that it's hard for me to describe
You're as beautiful as the sunset on white sand with Bon Iver in the background
You're as beautiful as water flowing like white in the clouds you're beautiful
Like a charcoal lamp in a poet's dark room
It's hard for me to describe
Like lava in the heart of the earth
Or like the most beautiful sound in all the wilderness
