December 28, 2014 6 Tevet 5775 Blog Family thoughts. Today Susann is traveling to Agur to celebrate with Idit, Adam and Chayleigh Ashreis first birthday. A powerful attack of last weeks GI assault that I thought was over has leveled me, and although this greatly upsets me I cannot go to Agur with Susann. OK. No one remembers his first birthday party, and Ashrei will eventually forgive me. But I suffer now from nausea and diarrhea, am physically weak (days without food) and Susann feels some guilt at leaving me alone here. I assure her Ill manage and probably will. Attempts to find a baby-sitter for me have failed, although a neighbor will look in every two hours and check for vital signs. Actually I think a mild case of death might be better than the embarrassment of a baby-sitter. I have books, this laptop and many medicines. Susann has baked the birthday cake, rich in whipped cream and strawberries and I look forward to photographs of Ashrei inhabiting it. Yesterday, Shabbat when I do not write would have been my sister Sheilas seventieth birthday. She died at twenty-seven of leukemia leaving behind a husband and a daughter not yet a year old. During her brief – two month – dying time I was deeply into preparations for aliya; our plan was that she would follow when the infant was more portable. In the last year of her life Sheila was very active in Zionist affairs. She founded a chapter of Hadasah which after her death was named for her. She was more a true believer than I. Her husband Paul remarried and we have remained friends. My niece is grown and lovely and Paul and Gail have had a girl. There has not been a day in which I do not remember Sheila. Forty-three years absence does not end love. As I predicted Friday, the Arabs who firebombed Ayala Shapira and her father have been caught along with a bunch of their assistants. Israels security service, the Shin Bet (for Sherutei Bitachon), is very good at apprehending Arab terrorists and I am certainly glad this is so. It seems they have infiltrated Palestinian terror organizations such that they prevent most attacks and can quickly identify “successful” terrorists. They have not similarly infiltrated Jewish terror organizations. There are probably fewer such. However and very terribly, the Border Police and sometimes even the army functions in ways reminiscent of terror organizations and apparently even if very young Palestinian children are shot, nothing is done about this. There are some simple linguistic changes that might improve things. When I was in the army, I objected to the opposition being called “the Arabs.” I knew Arabs who were not the opposition. I suggested “the enemy”instead of “the Arabs” and was mocked into silence. The use of “the Arabs” as the enemy includes 20% of the citizens of Israel, a group of people who must, unlike the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, be integrated into Israeli society. Many Israeli Jews hate all Arabs, including their fellow Arab citizens. But I recall Mississippi in 1964. It can be done. The rainy spell was supposed to have ended but the sky is a uniform light gray. The pigeons, usually reliable, are sheltering under eaves. Susann has left, so I hope any rain waits for her to arrive in Agur.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:04:58 +0000
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