Reporting from Tel Aviv:
On Thursday night Ibni and I dined outdoors at a Korean place and then walked the two miles or more to the protest site in central Tel Aviv. Shortly after we arrived, we joined in marching with the huge group of protesters as they began to make their way across the city. It was an extremely peaceful assemblage; the protestors (including babies and the elderly) seemed more determined and focused than angry. This morning the Times of Israel reported that last week there were not only more and larger protests across the country (and of course in Tel Aviv), but the police had retaliated in many cases (particularly in places where major road closures resulted). According to the Times, Thursday is to be not just a day of rage but also a day of paralysis. From where I sit, things should be ripe for a major explosion just about the time I leave on April 3 if not a day or two before, depending on the outcome of the final legislative vote on the current judicial reform proposal. I am aware of being here at a pivotal moment in Israel’s history, one that may be a tipping point regarding the country’s very existence never mind its unfolding political story. Ibni, his girlfriend, and their friends are disturbed to the bone by what’s going on and quite frankly admit as much. Each of them strikes me as feeling especially vulnerable because of their status as olim, although I’m not sure I understand why that is. As I write this, it occurs to me that my during my sojourn here last summer as well as on Friday morning (the day after I joined in the protest) I had dreams that, respectively, evinced the image/metaphor of the Augean stable. While I took the image to have personal meaning, it strikes me now that it might in a larger sense refer to Israel at this moment in time. I very much think so, in fact.
