November 24, 2023

Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-11-23

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...

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A large black dog, off leash, lies in a cool shadow outside the downtown chicken joint. A soldier passes us. The dog rises to its feet and stands as if at attention. It doesn't follow him. Its human is in one of the shops nearby.

A little girl with a bright blue helmet zooms past us on a hot pink foot-powered scooter. If there were a children's Olympic event in scooting, she'd get the gold medal. I hope she's good at steering and falling.

Two doors down, a TV or radio plays the news in English. The music from where I'm eating supper drowns out much of what it says. I hear the words "hostages" and "truce" pop out, but don't catch much else.

Everyone is waiting for word on the hostages. The pundits drone on in their supposed certainty, but no one really knows what's going on.

As the saying might go, no agreement is final until the fat lady signs. (Not that any women appear to be involved in the process. Several of the men, though, like me, appear to weigh more than average.)

This seemed like a done deal last night, when both sides made their announcements. The first hostages were to be released this morning. But there was a hitch: in order to be valid, both sides apparently had to sign a particular piece of paper. That slowed things down.

Meanwhile, conflicting news reports fly through the air. The enemy to the north claims that they also will honor the truce, even though they weren't involved in the talks. It was originally supposed just to include women and children from our country. I hear now that three Americans may be in the group. They were supposed to be released in the morning, but now it will be tomorrow afternoon.

Our government has the list of the first hostages who will be released. They have told the families, but haven't told the public. They are also warning us not to get our hopes up. More things could still go wrong.

The press have noted that some of the families who had been pressuring our government have gone silent. That makes sense. Apparently they have figured out, or have been warned, that the terrorists find their agitation useful. That might lead them to hold on to the families' relatives longer, to keep up the pressure here. So, to get their relatives back, the families are dropping under the radar for now.

I don't need to run down the details. Your news sites will have whatever's current when you read them. Here's a relatively recent rundown from the other side¹. Our papers have gone into "We'll believe it when we see it happen" mode.

I hang around at the chicken joint when I finish eating until the music gets annoying. They usually play generic trip-hop or guitar blues. Now, they are playing a disc or stream or station of smooth jazz vocalists vacuuming the life out of movie themes. I give up during a karaoke-level evisceration of "Endless Love." It is, indeed, endless.

I catch up on more news when I get home. As I mentioned yesterday, some of the kibbutzim and settlements that had been near the border are finding new locations. A list came out today.²

Our local elections, which had been postposed from last month until January, are now getting pushed back even further.³

One of the top mental health care groups has released an app for "Resilience during Wartime."⁴

We're told that the 18-year-old boy held hostage from my city may be released, but that his 21-year-old sister may not.⁵

It looks like the captives from Thailand will be released without conditions. Apparently, the terrorists don't find them useful.⁶

On the TV, the news goes on. Details are announced and contradicted. The pundits are clear that the changes are due to someone playing mind games on someone else, but they differ as to whom.

So we sit and wait. There are often last-minute flare-ups just before truces. I won't be surprised if we hear sirens in the morning.

I sleep close to the shelter. I keep the path from my bed to it clear, so I won't trip over anything if I'm suddenly awakened and have to go into it. We have a minute and a half to get there once we hear the sirens. That should give me time to stop in the bathroom on the way.

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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.