Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-11-10
Hi. I'm Joseph Zitt. I moved from the US to Israel in 2017. This is my newsletter about more-or-less daily life in my city in the shadow of war. You can select these links to subscribe or unsubscribe. There are more links at the bottom. Here we go...
The sirens sound just as I'm walking past my favorite hummus joint. It's exactly 1:30. They're right on time, as usual, to make the rockets the top story on the half hour news headlines. A lot of people are eating at the shop or waiting in line for their lunches. The people who are sitting immediately stand.
The owner comes out from behind the counter and bellows "Yalla!", the local word for something like "Let's go!". The customers head toward him. I join them. He guides (and occasionally pushes) us out through the back of the covered eating area and toward an open door in the building over the shop.
Inside, stairs lead both up and down. The shop owner yells, "Downstairs! The basement! The shelter is there!" Many of us head down. Others go up. He grumbles, "OK, the staircase up should be safe enough."
The stairs down lead to an unfinished basement. There's a proper shelter straight ahead. There's no furniture, just a cement floor and stone walls.
A lot of us pile into the room. We aren't crushed up against each other, but there's little room to move. The children with us think it's fun. A grownup turns on a flashlight app and shows them how to place their hands to make shadow animals appear on the walls.
A sign pointing nowhere says, "Restrooms." At least that's what I think it means. The word "sherutim" literally means "services." I've heard jokes about people misunderstanding what the word means in different contexts. A friend was confused when he read some of my next book, Afternoon Prayers, in an automatic translation. The software chose that same word when the English text mentioned worship services.
People start to wander out after a few minutes. Most leave after six. Two young men and I wait for the full ten. I know that, walking outside, I'll be in greater danger than most if shrapnel falls from the sky.
When I emerge, I see that the hummus joint is back to normal. The customers who had been eating are back at their tables. The line to the counter has reconstituted itself, in pretty much the same order.
I get my usual Friday groceries at the supermarket in the Heart of the City mall, across the main shopping street. I get there a bit later than usual. The produce is a tad more expensive than before, and pretty much picked through. They're out of cherry tomatoes. I get what I need. I notice about a dozen signs in the aisles and near the checkout, pointing to their shelters. I guess that they came in handy a half hour ago.
I decide to get more coffee. The chain coffee shop nearby is closed. I go across the stream to an ice cream shop and indulge in an affogato. (As I write this, spellcheck refuses to accept any form of the word. I check Google. Two "f"s, one "t". Like an affordable cat.) I wonder what type of ice cream to ask for. Without asking me, the worker puts in French vanilla. OK.
I read through more news as I eat the affogato. The big story in the media is from a "watchdog" news site. It claims that major news services had been tipped off to the October 7th attacks and had embedded journalists with the terrorists before they happened. Our government makes a big scene of demanding answers.
The news services soon respond. It appears that the journalists did what good photojournalists do: learning that news was happening, they got down there, got as close as they could, and got the story. The first images from them were from over an hour after the attacks began.
The watchdog site quickly craters, claiming that they were "just asking questions." That's what people who make headline-grabbing accusations consistently do when their bluster is blown.
A seismologist tweets that the bombings across the border could trigger major earthquakes. We have a significant fault line running through the country and have had smaller ones before. The last big one was in 1927, and they're said to happen every hundred years or so. And, according to a report to our Parliament last February, our government doesn't have any plans for what to do if one happens. I wish I were surprised.
Aside from the effects on humans, the fighting can have other serious ecological effects. As an article a few weeks ago pointed out, the booms from rockets that explode over the sea can kill marine life under and around them.
On my way home from the ice cream shop, I look at what had been a varied, frequently-changing display of photography along the street. All the frames now hold the same images, placed there by the city. The sides facing west have collections of pictures of the hostages. The sides facing east have large text in black, white, and red: "Bring them home now."
I head home to put my groceries away and get some of this writing done.
The dining hall at the House of the Hundred Grandmothers is still on wartime footing and closed for Shabbat supper. Time for Plan B: I make a quick sandwich and head up toward the kalamansi trees. I have my ticket. The Taylor Swift movie awaits.
Today's links:
- Some of these articles may be in Hebrew. Google Translate tends to handle them pretty well.
- Yalla: The Story of the Middle-East's Favorite Slang Word - Israel News - Haaretz.com
- Affogato - Wikipedia
- Photographers Without Borders: AP & Reuters Pictures of Hamas Atrocities Raise Ethical Questions | Honest Reporting
- Reuters denies any suggestion it had prior knowledge of Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel | Reuters
- Israel demands action from 4 international news outlets over journalists' presence at (ynet)
- Israel demands action after journalists reportedly joined Hamas massacre - The Jerusalem Post
- Israel Accuses Freelance Photographers of Advance Knowledge of Oct. 7 Attack - The New York Times
- Statement on Yousef Masoud | The New York Times Company
- Media watchdog says it was just 'raising questions' with insinuations about photographers and Hamas | AP News
- Due to Gaza bombing: Dutch seismologist warns of seismic impact along Dead Sea | Jordan News | Ammon News
- Israel can expect 'similar sights' to Turkey if major quake strikes, official warns | The Times of Israel
- Why does a rocket explosion at sea sound louder?
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Here’s an archive of past newsletters.
You can find me via email, Bluesky, Mastodon, Facebook, and, just out of inertia, X/Twitter. There's more about me and my books, music, and films at josephzitt.com.
The newsletter’s official mailing address is 304 S. Jones Blvd #3567, Las Vegas NV 89107. (I’m in Israel, but if physical mail comes to me there, it’ll get scanned and emailed. I don’t expect that to happen much. If you want to send me physical mail, ask me for a real address.)
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L'hitraot.