2023-03-09
An update from Tel Aviv!
Welcome to Month 5 (ish) in Tel Aviv....
Today:
An unanticipated lunch. Two blocks away a wall has a hole with a couple tables and some vegetables behind a sneeze guard. No menu. A Yemenite grandma outside drinking coffee. Nothing else.
I walk in to look around, and ask what the story is. Grandma shows me a little gas burner where she makes Yemenite pitot. She explains that usually this is made to soak up soup. Her twist is that she cooks an egg on it. 28 shekels.
I'm on my way home from a yoga studio, and have only a 20 shekel note in my pocket. She says Hey, it's good luck, sit down. Singing along to Phil Collins on the radio she cooks up a hot meal: An egg or two cooked between two Yemenite pitot, a freshly made spicy salsa, diced cucumber, tomato and pepper. Hot and tasty. She recalls that Phil Collins was a member of the group Genesis, and recounts that he played in Israel some years back, but she decided not to go. Some famous American chef visited years ago, and there are pictures of the two of them on the wall. Also a note from Henry Winkler (the Fonz) written on a napkin.
I hadn't planned to eat lunch out, but that happened.
Purim lasts ten days here. Starts the Thursday before Purim and goes to the Saturday night after. Makeup was first applied to my face a week ago. Tonight I may end up putting it on myself.
Another day, another party.
Life is built of yoga, cooking, time with friends and time on the phone with family. Seattle-ites seem to visit Israel a lot? Recently had a semi private tour of the Modern Art wing of the Israel Museum.
Oddly am doing rather little guitar playing and language learning. This is an unexpected.
Visited a winery east of Hadera yesterday. Really great wine. They do crazy blends. Very tasty. Very pricey. Had part of two glasses and passed on buying a bottle.
Locals speak of shifts in Israeli society: Casual violence on the street. Loss of social cohesion. For example, a professor friend was in a very minor traffic altercation with another car. No impact. Just a dispute over right of way. The two women in the other car got out and pounded their fists on her stopped car for some minutes. No one paid any attention or helped. Walking through town the other day, I gestured to a bus driver stuck in traffic to stop honking his horn. My friend jumped on me, afraid the driver would get out and beat me up.
Demonstrations are everywhere, and are starting to be daily in one place or another. The topic surfaces in the most mundane encounter. In a friend's car yesterday a tire picked up a screw. At the shop for a new tire, the owner, a grey-stubbled Israeli, started talking unprompted "I didn't fight in the wars to be controlled by a government like this. I don't have another country. Protest and resistance is the only option."
There is worse... The Kahanists are feeling quite empowered. C.f. https://zimberdvar.substack.com/i/104527613/supplement-for-those-reading-on-the-site-not-in-the-email
Real estate prices are softening in Tel Aviv. Capital flight is real. A friend found that the apartment of interest lost a few percent in value over several weeks.
That is the news.
Raf