Now officially we have a teenager in house. Actually the feeling is we're in a rollercoaster with debris flying around. Everyday there are shoutings, communication is in vowels, in some cases it turns to mono syllable like Grr or mmm. The only place where we have some sense of quietness is on the sea - sailing.
While Ella is running headstrong into the maturing problems, our homeland is running headstrong into oblivion. A teenager needs guidance, we're trying to help her with her struggles, Shirley by trying to over shout, but Ella knows it's for her.
Israel on the other hand doesn't listen, it feels like the cow who kicks the bucket before milking. The entire world is signaling "you're doing it wrong", Uncle Sam doesn't use the politically correct terms anymore, every expert has already said it's a disaster, but we're still running forward.
To tell the truth, I'm not sure Ella's 14th birthday will be in this country. We might end up as refugees in another country. Refugees with full citizenship and rights, but still refugees because our first home will be gone.
I hate to say it, unlike Poland and Hungary which surrendered to the tyranny Israel doesn't have the option. Tyranny means the end for this country. The inventions done here are due to the a combination of free thought, lack of resources and the backing of courts which judge based on intentions. If it's not a colossal failure it can be written down as another bad experiment.
The system created in Israel has many drawbacks, but one major key factor - it works. Anyone who tried to compete with an Israeli team knows the amounts of money you have to invest in order to beat it, if it's compared to the amount of money the Israeli team invested it's exponential. It might turn to be the past. Nobody knows yet, same as nobody knew that bombing fort Sumter would cause a large scale civil war.
Unlike normal years, in this year I don't state Ella's achievements, in this year I state our fears and hope for a better future.
I know when the time for Shavit's birthday blog comes the future will be clearer, for better or worse.
