Are we down for the count or not?

Is it possible that I chose to live in this country? Yes, yes, I think I did. No, this is not going to be one of those, “The funniest thing happened to me today on the bus ride through the city” blogs. This is going to be closer to “The crisis we are facing in our country today is one of great proportions, coming from so many directions that one can get dizzy trying to catch a glimpse of them all.”

I got home this evening, after a two-day educational tour around the southern part of the country, to find out there was a terror attack in Eilat yesterday. Before I glanced down at the colorful “Yediot Ahronot” (“Latest News”) newspaper carelessly thrown on the dining room table and the horrible news gracing the front page, my roommate asked me, “How was it?” “Well, I can’t say it was enjoyable,” I said, in my first attempts to shed off the emotional, physical, and daily hardships of the people I met on my trip, “But it was an experience I needed to have.”

Only after I had dinner and relaxed a little did I notice the paper and the headline, “Terror in the Vacation Town.” What I cannot get over is why I hadn’t heard about it. Earlier today, the director of our program said that the experiences we have had over the last couple of days were “punches in the gut” and should wake us up. The three punches:
1) Meeting settlers taken out of the Gaza Strip during the Disengagement
2) Meeting a Sderot resident and learning why the kassam rockets that fall on their town is sometimes the least of their worries
3) Meeting a Bedouin man whose village, despite all the evidence in the world, is not “recognized” by the state of Israel.

While the groups represented are very, very different is many, many ways, a common thread wove them all together—I don’t believe in the state anymore; I can’t make a difference; nobody, nobody cares about our lives.

And then, the fourth punch in the gut arrived—the terror attack which killed three people, that, like I said, I can’t believe I didn’t hear about.

The rain that started to pour down as we left the south, the flood that greeted our return to the Holy City, is close, very close to my mood right now.

So, what do you when you’re punched in the gut? Well, you hunch over for a bit, try to regain your breath, and then with your first full intake of air, thank G-d you’re ok. So, that’s what I’ll do for now. In the coming days, I’ll write more about the specific experiences above because the things I heard were said in vain if nobody else knows about them.

Words of "Wisdom" from the 1950s

It is too seldom remembered in the American society that working girls and career women, and women who insistently serve the community in volunteer capacities, and women with extracurricular interests of an absorbing kind are often borrowing their time and attention and capacity for relaxed play and love from their children to whom it rightfully belongs. As Kardiner points out, the rise in juvenile delinquency (and, he says, homosexuality) is partly to be attributed to the feminist movement and what it did to the American mother. --Robert Lane, American political scientist, 1959

Snow, Strikes, and Other Great Reasons Not to Go to School

And then, I remember, I live in country with a socialist tendency. There was no school yesterday--all the students of major universities (and some smaller colleges) --numbering 125,000 in total--decided to strike in order to show their protest to the plan to increase the tuition next year to something unpayable by most Israelis seeking higher education.



The week before, on Wednesday, we had snow and classes were canceled in the afternoon. This week, students formed a picket line at the major university entrance gates and wrapped the doors/gates in chains to prevent potential "scabs" from entering the university. (Note: No teachers were harmed in the shooting of this film) The exception would be the international students--those who attend a special school at the university that provides classes in English--who are already paying ridiculous amounts of American dollars to attend classes.

There are several reason why this fight does not necessarily affect me but why I support the cause:

1) I don't have classes on Wednesdays, so I did not face the moral dilemma of whether or not to strike. But I have to say, if I did, theoretically, have class on Wednesdays, I would also not go. Students Unite!

2) Because I am a new olah (a new immigrant, of the right age, by the way), the government is paying my tuition, so I guess if they decide to raise the tuition, they will have to pay a higher cost for me. However, I know that morally it is my fight to fight--after all, this could the tuition I have to pay for my own kids one day. Also, if they raise tuition to such a high level, the government may take away this benefit from new young immigrants looking to study in Israel.

There are many details of the whole tuition-raising process that are causing suspicion and anger among students and faculty, but in short, here are a few:

1) A committee was appointed by the Ministry of the Treasury--government officials and senior professors. Noticeably missing were any students. AFTER the demonstration--a call from the committee chairman for students to join the committee.

2) Past promises--from another committee--to decrease the tuition have yet to be enacted. And now, they are talking of substantial tuition raises.

You may think that professors would be upset with the whole deal. But from what I've heard--keep in mind I study in the liberal (not only in name) arts--teachers are supportive. That teachers showed up to teach yesterday is part of the strategy organized by the student union and the academic faculty's union--they may need a new card in the future (i.e. the teachers also striking). However, I heard several teachers say, "Of course you all shouldn't show up."

And so, what could I do but not show up? The "other reason not to go to school," strolling the pedestrian mall in town popping into bookstores on a beautiful sunny day.