Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-01-27
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. You can also read this email online here. Here we go...
Once I finally wake up, I make my usual shakshuka for Shabbat breakfast. For lunch, I have a serving of the cholent. As was suggested, I try adding a bit of water to it before reheating. It becomes soup. Good soup, but soup.
The rain continues off and on. I turn on my heater. It's only the second time I've used it since winter started.
The recent storms have dumped more rain on our town than on anywhere else in the country.1 As of noon today, we've gotten 4.29 inches. A eucalyptus tree has fallen in our largest park.
The rain yesterday was tough, and I got drenched walking from one warm building to another. But I can't help thinking that people across the border have much less protection from the weather.2 (Except, that is, for their supposed government, who have built themselves comfortable rabbit hutches in the tunnels, or are hanging out in luxury hotels far from here.)
I spend some of the afternoon trying to catch up on news. Much of it involves reactions to yesterday's statement by the International Court of Justice.3
The opinions lie exactly where one might expect.4 Hardliners5 on either side6 see it as a horrific miscarriage of justice by a corrupt court obviously biased toward the other side. Those in the middle see it as kind of OK.
The court didn't make anything happen immediately. It was sort of like being called into the principal's office and told, "Don't let me hear about you doing that thing that you were accused of doing anymore."
The biggest surprise, at least for those of us not intimately familiar with the cast of characters, was that the judge from Uganda voted against everything. Even the judge from here agreed with a few counts.7
One article quotes from the Ugandan judge's statement: “In my respectful dissenting opinion the dispute between the State of Israel and the people of Palestine is essentially and historically a political one... It is not a legal dispute susceptible to judicial settlement by the Court.”8
The full statement is online at the Court's website.9 I haven't read it yet.
The rain starts up again just as I'm about to head over to the House of a Hundred Grandmothers. I wait, sitting in my kitchen, already wearing my raincoat. It only lasts a few minutes.
Few dogs or people are in the park. I kick some fallen branches to the edges of the paths and stairs.
My family and I talk about the release of prisoners in Jewish law, and whether opinions favor continuing to fight the terrorists or doing whatever it takes to free the hostages. They tell me that experts see one as clearly more important, as explained in some articles that they have sent me. As I write this, though, I'm too tired to remember what the decision was or which articles explained it.
After the Havdalah ceremony to close out the Sabbath, one relative heads down to the dining hall to lead it again. He has been doing so for the past few weeks. He has been asked to give a brief explanation of what it's about, since some residents aren't familiar with it. He'll talk about it before the ceremony itself.
I stay upstairs and show one relative how to easily get Google Translate to handle web pages on our phones. They'll be able to show another resident. We all post news articles to our private WhatsApp group, in a variety of languages. I don't think anyone speaks all of them.
They, in turn, show me some intricacies of our calendar app, so I can share events. That's useful.
I head home, check more messages, and make a quick supper. I sit down at my desk again to finish writing this. I'm beat. The work week starts again tomorrow. It's going to be a long one.
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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 at that Las Vegas address, 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.
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Be respectful: at the top of the precipitation table - Herzliya and Ra'anana • Sharon Online ↩
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Cold, rainy weather making war-wracked Gaza ‘completely uninhabitable’ | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera ↩
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Israeli officials say ICJ ruling best Israel could hope for ↩
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Top Experts' Views of Int'l Court of Justice Ruling on Israel Gaza Operations (South Africa v Israel, Genocide Convention Case) ↩
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The ICJ is a serial abuser of international law | Israel National News - Arutz Sheva ↩
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First reaction to ICJ ruling from Palestinians | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera ↩
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Separate opinion of Judge ad hoc Barak | INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ↩
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Who is Julia Sebutinde? The judge against all ICJ rulings in Israel’s case | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera ↩
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Dissenting opinion of Judge Sebutinde | INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ↩