Passover

 Tomorrow evening is Pesach - most people will be sitting down for the seder with their families. This Pesach is without joy, without hope.  The angel of death has touched almost everyone.  How can we celebrate the holiday of freedom when the hostages are still underground.  The war rages on, in Gaza, in the north, Iran joined in, we survived then retaliated. This is not nearly over - but we don't even know what over means, or will mean. Once again foreign airlines have abandoned us.  It is almost impossible to describe the pall which hangs over the middle east - the anxiety, the depression, the fear, the sense of futility, of grim resignation.

This is a very short entry to wish everyone Hag Herut - A holiday of freedom.

That is my very first geranium which I planted last week. It opened for me this morning.

Follow up from yesterday's post

 Tonight I went to the protest in Tel Aviv. On my walk home from the bus stop, my sister called "have you heard the news?" We are on full alert - no school tomorrow, events have been cancelled, Jordan has closed their airspace, drones have been sent from Iran. They take 9 hours to get here, so there will only be alarms when they get really close.  They think they will go for military installations first.  Hezbollah may fire rockets from  Lebanon and that is a far shorter distance.  The army spokesman and all the top brass are telling us to listen to commands from the municipalities. They keep assuring us they have ways of defending us. What the hell else can they say? America and Biden at the helm are on full alert.

If nothiing else, Iran has won a psychological war - to say this is nervewracking is the mildest and most stupid thing I can say. I was nearly killed tonight in Tel Aviv by a young woman cyclist who went through the red light - I was crossing on green, and she stopped just seconds from running me over. "Sorry" she said. At least that.  Everyone's nerves are shattered.

What I am now going to do is have a cup of camomile tea and I am going to bed.  I do have a backpack ready, and we still have 90 seconds to get to the shelters.  That is quite a long time.

Prayers for the world, please.

Friday night, April 12 2024.

 188 days since the 7th of October.

Rockets and missiles in the north - kthe TV shows the names of the areas in orange headlines.  

Israel is ready, they say, for attacks from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen.  They are giving us the length of time it takes for rockets, ballistic missiles, drones, etc. fired from each country, and what we should do. Go to shelters of course. "They" could attack or destroy our water system, electrical system, etc. etc. Of course all of this is in Hebrew and I don't even know the types of rockets and missiles in english.  This is not a calming situation.  This is not a pleasant Friday night.  Shabat shalom - really?  The talking heads engage on each channel, the retired generals speak, the head of securitiy speak, the army spokesman speaks.  Members of the government, Bibi? Ben Gvir, Rothman, Smotrich, - where are they? what do they have to say?  "Keep calm and carry on" - "We shall fight them etc". Where are those we need now?  Netanyahu is more scared of the reactions of Ben Gvir and Smotrich to that of the Iranians. What the fuck is going on?  God help us all.

Shabat shalom.