On Covid and institutions

My RAT result

I wrote (but didn't post) the following two weeks ago:

As my kids say, "bummer". I had a positive result on my at-home Covid rapid antigen test last night. I administered it because of fever and a cold. Now, I am a scrupulous mask wearer, a Covid recoverer, had two vaccines, scored 2,000 + on a serological antibodies test four months ago and have, to my family's chagrin, grown extremely anti-social during the last two years.  

So, we're stumped as to where and how I caught this.

On the off chance that this is a false positive, I will go do a PCR test this evening.

I am particularly disappointed because the pool to which we bring Haya for hydro has been broken all week. It only recovered and reached the desired 32 degrees Celsius (about 90 Fahrenheit) this morning. I did a lot of Whatsapping to land a cancellation of one hour by one of the teachers for this morning. 

So Haya will miss her hydro this week. As I have often noted: It's the highlight of her life...

Haya, in a recent drawing of mine

Since then, Haya has thankfully had two magnificent sessions of hydro. The second one was this past Sunday which we did in 30 degree (Celsius) water, instead of the usual 32 degrees. With her wetsuit on, Haya appeared as comfortable as usual. But I really missed those extra two degrees.

All the Whatsapp groups I'm in for people with disabilities and their families have been abuzz with talk of forming inspection groups. Clearly, the recent uptick in accounts of abuse in institutions here in Israel triggered that.

The idea is for those groups of volunteers to visit unannounced Israel's institutions for people with disabilities. I just volunteered for the Jerusalem area. Hopefully we will visit ADI Jerusalem and uncover whatever there is to uncover.

This time we won't be accompanied by politicians as we were the last time such visits were made ["Notes from an Aleh visit"]. 

My "partner" back then in 2018 was Knesset member and now Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Dr Nachman Shai, who in my opinion was utterly deceived by our guide's slick spiel. Sadly, Shai's reactions were confined to unadulterated praise.

Five years and justice is as elusive as ever

Sbarro bomber Ahlam Tamimi continues to incite terror under Jordanian
protection [Image: Frimet and Arnold Roth’s blog, This Ongoing War]

Once again, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has cast his spell on yet another world leader. Whether it is his glibness, the impressive English, his seamless melding of East and West, it really hardly matters. He always gets what he is after.

Last week it was Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid who met with him. The public was told that the encounter was intended to reduce the likelihood of violence during the impending holiday season.

It was the second meeting the two had since the new Israeli government was formed last June. And since Jordan deigned to publicize this one – after keeping the first a secret – it was hailed by Israel’s media as a great success.

“We agreed that we must work together to calm tensions and promote understanding, particularly in the lead-up to the month of Ramadan and Passover,” Lapid said in a statement after the meeting at the Al Husseiniya Palace. “Our special relationship with the Kingdom of Jordan ensures a better future for our children, and the peace between us isn’t just good neighborliness but is also our moral responsibility to both our peoples.”

Mr. Lapid, I am both heartbroken and infuriated by your meeting last week with Jordan’s ruler. If moral responsibility is really your concern, why did you not mention to your “good neighbor” his immoral conduct towards my child’s murderer?

Why did you, and do you, consistently ignore how this leader with whom you boast of a “special relationship” refuses to abide by the kingdom’s extradition treaty with the US?

That he steadfastly rejects the U.S. demand to extradite the self-confessed mass-murderer who is one of the 25 most wanted terrorists in the world?

Our child’s blood, along with that of the fourteen other innocent victims of Tamimi’s treacherous attack on Israeli soil cries out for justice.

Lapid and Jordan's king this past weekend

[Image Source]

But you, Mr. Lapid, see fit to sing kumbaya with the one man who can hand Tamimi into the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Five years ago today, on my birthday as it happens, officials of that same arm of the U.S. government met with my husband and me along with the parents of another U.S. citizen murdered by Tamimi to disclose that criminal charges against her were about to be unsealed.

They came to share this with us before the public announcement at a press conference scheduled for several hours later. I shed tears of relief then in the naive belief that the move signaled an end to Tamimi’s years of frolic since she was freed in the Shalit Deal five and a half years earlier: an end to Tamimi’s celebration of murder and to her incitement of others to emulate what she did.

The conduct of leaders both in the U.S. and Israel since that day has taught me that my belief in their sense of “moral responsibility”, to quote Mr. Lapid, was entirely unfounded. Realpolitik and personal advancement are what motivate them.

And so, my dear Malki, I am sorry but one more year has passed with your murderer still free, still protected, still unrestrained.

[A version of this post initially appeared in Times of Israel]