Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-11-26
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 dust in the air is neither a fluke nor burning trash nor from the war. The Ministry of Health tells us that it's coming up from Egypt and from sandstorms in our deserts. Strong southwesterly winds are bringing it here. Rain and a shift in airflow tonight should clear it out.
I see more people with guns than usual on my way to work. On the street leading to the office, I find myself walking behind a young soldier in uniform. She moves more quickly than I do.
When she's about half a block ahead, two older men pass her, heading toward me. Each has close-cropped grey hair. Neither is wearing a uniform. Each, like the soldier, is carrying the standard issue gun. I guess they're in the Reserves.
Most of the news that I see today is about a hostage from our town.1 Her release is a surprise. The terrorists were supposedly releasing minors, up through age 18, before older people. She's 21. She was abducted with her 18-year-old brother. Word had it that he would be released first. He wasn't. The local news site says that the terrorists claim that they couldn't find him.2
Most of the released hostages have been discharged from the hospitals fairly quickly. She's still there. She had been shot in the leg when abducted, and needs surgery.3
We've been told that families are to be released together. That hasn't happened consistently. The way things are done gets shuffled differently every day. Our pundits say that the terrorists are intentionally doing this as "psychological warfare."
One challenge with all of this is that no one seems quite sure what the truce agreement says. Our government and the terrorists make different claims. Each says that the other is violating it. But the text hasn't been made public.
As it is now, no one seems to know from moment to moment precisely what is going on. Those who might know aren't saying. People on the news try to sound convincing. People on the street keep protesting. People at home sit at their TVs, eager for facts as they happen.
On Friday, high school students clustered at the train station, giving soldiers cakes that they had baked themselves, wishing them a peaceful Shabbat.4
More Thai workers have been released.5 Reuters reported from Bangkok on a mother learning that her son is back here.6 Our foreign minister visited them in the hospital. He said that they are "members of the family."7
A newspaper in the Philippines looks at "the affection, trust and kinship — even unto death— between the Jews and the 'Filippinis' they call members of their family."8 Several Philippine caregivers died in the massacre, protecting elderly Israelis. The caregivers I know consistently refer to those they care for as "Ima" and "Aba", Hebrew for "mother" and "father."
One good thing that is coming from this: according to a new poll, a majority of Jewish respondents now support amending the laws to safeguard equality between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens.9 Our governent had passed a troubling "Nation-State Law" not long ago.10 This may lead to rolling it back. (The poll also covers a lot of other interesting issues that I hope to look at in more detail soon.)
At the afternoon prayers, a man that I didn't know worships with us. He appears to be a friend of the bosses. He, too, has grey hair and civilian clothes, but is carrying a gun. He's one of a surprisingly large number of men who recite the Mourners' Kaddish today.
After the prayers end, I go down to the supermarket to harvest my lunch. While I'm there, a roll-up display in the front of the office chooses to fall over onto the floor. Maybe it doesn't like what I had said about them on Friday.
When I come back in, I trip over it and hit the ground, banging my head. My fall drags the roll-up with me and knocks over a wastebasket. It makes a lot of noise.
Most of my coworkers come running to the front to see what happened. In the weeks after my stay in the hospital a few years back, I had had trouble with balance and had to walk with a cane. They're always worried when I trip over things, though I usually don't hit the ground. I'm OK. I don't even get a headache.
The wind starts up as I'm walking home. The rain starts later in the night. When I hear it, my earworm-infested mind starts looping, "I Gonna Wash that Sand Right Outa the Air." And we're not even near the South Pacific.11
Errata
(A note for those reading the newsletter: the link for CNN article on the vlogger in Gaza has changed since yesterday. It's now: Blogger leaves haunting words in final video from Gaza - YouTube )
Feel free to forward the newsletter to other people who might be interested.
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.)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
L'hitraot.
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Maya Regev released after 50 days in Gaza, while brother Itai still captive | The Times of Israel ↩
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Report: Hamas "did not find" Itai Regev from Herzliya • Sharon Online ↩
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Maya Regev, who was shot then kidnapped, seen reuniting with her family in hospital | The Times of Israel ↩
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At the "New" high school, they waited for the soldiers on the train with cakes • Sharon Online ↩
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Three freed Thai hostages arrive at hospital for assessment | The Times of Israel ↩
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'That's my son!' Thai family overjoyed as second group of hostages freed | Reuters ↩
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted the foreign citizens who were released from captivity: "They are members of our family, we expect anyone to come" - the Davar news website ↩
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The love affair that transcends terrorism and the Israel-Gaza war ↩
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Overwhelming Majority of Jewish and Arab Israelis: The Release of all Hostages is a Goal of Importance - The Israel Democracy Institute ↩
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Nation-State Law Explainer - The Israel Democracy Institute ↩
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"I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" - SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) - YouTube ↩