Human Writes: Fear and Loathing in Tel Aviv

On the pros and cons of mass protests | Non-Fiction | Sour Soup

Over the past year and a half, in this column, I’ve tried to look at the intersection between the daily, pragmatic part of my mind, and the writing part. This week, at the height of protests and chaos in Israel, “Human Writes” focuses on the “human” side of the equation, leaving the “writes” part for next month, in the hopes that I’ll be writing again by then.

Image by Etgar Keret, Tel Aviv, March 2023

When I was younger, I looked down on news junkies, those compulsive types who knew the name of every Knesset member and could always tell you which of them had built a new porch without a permit and which couldn’t speak English properly. Whenever I found myself talking with one of these media addicts, I got the feeling that their obsessive and incessant tracking of marginal details had replaced their desire to see the big picture.