December 20, 2023

Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-12-20

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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The TV behind me in the convenience store blares a sports match of some sort. The cashier is listening to news on his phone, cranked loud enough for him to hear it clearly against the TV. There is no music, but the content is dissonant. The news anchor recites the name, age, hometown, and rank of fallen soldiers as the sports fans cheer.

Coming home, I find computer problems. The hub that connects my laptop to my good speakers, my large external monitors, power, and other things appears to have failed. Fortunately, I have my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and have a regular power cord, so I can keep going this way while I figure out how to proceed.

Let's see if I can do news like this.

The municipal elections, which got delayed, delayed again, then moved back to the date of the first delay, may move yet again.¹ As we saw yesterday with one person running for mayor in our city,² there's a problem with candidates who are in the reserves. Not only can't they campaign in uniform, but many are on fronts quite far from the cities in which they're running. Several of them have filed a petition to keep the elections from happening while we're still at war.³ Our Minister of Finance, with whom I tend to disagree on just about everything, is calling for a sensible delay, at least until the end of February.⁴

I'm OK with whatever happens. I like our current mayor, who appears to be a shoo-in for reelection. (My spell-checker tells me that the term is not, as I had thought, "shoe-in." That's good, since I don't know what that would have to do with shoes. Clearly, a shoo-in wouldn't have to be shoehorned in.)

Lots of people have been sending food to the front. Some more-or-less organized campaigns have been collecting donations. A cardboard box with the handwritten words "For the soldiers" sits at the entrance to the supermarket downstairs from work.

There's just one problem (that I know of, at least): Some of the food is going bad or isn't as sanitary as it should be, and soldiers are getting sick from it.⁵ Dieticians recommend sending dried fruits and nuts in sealed packages. Trail mix for the win!

As I type this item, a WhatsApp message comes in. Some organizations who have been making healthy sandwiches for the troops are running out of money and supplies. The war is going on longer than we first expected. But a philanthropist couple that I know are now helping out with funding and logistical support to keep them going.

They mention that some of the food is going to the Golani Brigade. I encountered the mother of one soldier in the brigade at the pharmacy yesterday. It's a small country.

This Friday, there's going to be another bike ride to raise awareness to the plight of the hostages. The mother of the remaining hostage from here is spearheading it.⁶

I notice that Google Translate is glitching on this article. The hostage's mother's name literally means "Mine is a good name." It's sometimes coming through as a name, but sometimes it shows up as that English phrase. Fascinating.

The Washington Post and PBS's Frontline have made a documentary, Failure at the Fence, about the October 7th attacks.⁷ It's free to view on YouTube. I haven't watched it yet, but plan to after I post this -- assuming that I'm not so frustrated by the process by then that I want to crawl under my bed.

Technology: Yay. Sigh. Thud.

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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.