Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-02-20
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. You can also read this email online here. Here we go...
Two cats and the hedgehog are feasting in front of the designated trash heap. People have scattered kibble there. The cats have gotten adept at finding the multiple free buffets that humans set out for them. The hedgehog is either crashing the party or an honored guest.
The rain is taking the day off. I'm still wearing my raincoat, just in case. YNet reports that an ancient cistern, said to have been built for King Ahab, has flooded. This is only the third time that's happened in thirty-odd years.1 From the photos, it looks like quite an impressive system. The water is muddy, though. I hope Ahab stocked up on water filters.
More modern tunnels are in the news, too. The French newspaper Libération reports,2 according to the English-language Globes,3 that the enemy to the north has an even more extensive and sophisticated tunnel system than the one we've found across the border to the south. Yikes.
Pundits on podcasts say that war with them seems inevitable, though neither they nor we want it. At the least, we want to finish the war to the south before we declare one to the north. They and we are shooting and throwing missiles at each other, but it hasn't turned into a declared war... yet.
My family tells me that there's a better translation than Google gave us yesterday for the information about the "quiet beach" here. A board with a series of images is being set up so that non-verbal people can point at an image to communicate. That makes a lot more sense than "voting on a painting."
They also have sent me information on a "healing retreat"4 being held in southern California for survivors of the massacre at the rave on October 7th.
The site for the event itself5 has more details. It also has an impressive song by a couple of the survivors, though the lyrics go by so quickly that I can only understand scattered words from it.
Another article today profiles the burst of current songs that have been produced here about the attack and the war.6
It quotes writer Yossi Klein Halevi (from a podcast that I think I may have linked to before):
With the ongoing warfare and resulting upheavals, in comparison to the music from Israel’s previous wars, “the most striking difference is rage. This is something we haven’t experienced before in Israeli music generally... I love this music. I love the rage and that it’s so authentic. It gives a real direction to what the kids are going through. I feel that what is happening in this war is that Israeli rap has come of age.”
The article includes videos for several songs, and links to more. Those that I have heard are quite well-made and worthwhile, though they're probably the most meaningful to people who can understand the words.
As I try to follow more of the links to listen to them, my internet connection starts flaking in and out again. It isn't raining. The connection's just being cranky. Or maybe the hedgehog has found the cables and is nibbling on them. I'll have to have a word with him the next time that I spot him outside.
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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.