Judy Halper, at The Blogs

Sep 26, 2024, 11:56 PM

As happens every year around this time, the tomatoes are getting leggy, the cucumbers are gone – killed by an organic-spray-resistant infestation. In a week or so, when the rain starts, hopefully, in earnest, it will be time to...

Sep 23, 2024, 11:41 AM

We blew up their beepers. Back to business.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, in his televised speech to his followers, said Israel had crossed every red line and committed war crimes, breaking all the rules. He was speaking of the “big-beeper-blow-up caper,” in which a foreign country (spoiler alert,...

Sep 17, 2024, 12:22 AM

Trying to make sense

Maybe having had to run in my bathrobe to the neighbors yesterday morning as sirens woke us and bits of flaming missile fell in my general area had knocked me for a loop. But whatever the cause, I feel...

Sep 7, 2024, 9:05 PM

Another anniversary

Two ears of oats, Theo Nieuwenhuis, courtesy the Rijksmuseum

There’s an anniversary coming up. Unfortunately, the one you are probably thinking of -- around a month from now -- will most likely be marked by recrimination, cheating, lying, the breaking of crockery and custody fights. But I’d like...

Aug 31, 2024, 2:53 PM

Ready to scream

I know things are bad when friends and family write me with one sentence, as if I did not know. “Can’t you get rid of him?” “See what he’s done now!” Honestly, I’d like this blog post to be one...

Aug 23, 2024, 3:14 PM

The Philadelphi Trap

Grenade set to explode with a trip wire. Image: MoserB via Wikimedia Commons

By the time Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, 83 Israeli civilians and 179 members of the IDF had been killed there. The last few years of the conflict were particularly bloody. Soldiers in tanks or armored personnel...

Aug 16, 2024, 11:42 AM

My Irrational Hope

Palestinians wait to board a bus at Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis on August 15, 2024, after permission from the Israeli authorities was given for 11 children suffering from cancer to leave Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in order to receive treatment in Jordan. (Bashar TALEB / AFP) (from Times of Israel)

Amid the continuing speculation as to the nature of the upcoming Iranian/Hezbollah reprisals (Will they coordinate? Will they tone it down or go for broke?), I admit there is a certain pleasure in simply waking up in the morning....

Aug 2, 2024, 11:10 AM

Featured Post

What to expect when you’re expecting an Iranian invasion II

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (left), Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah (center), and Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (assassinated in 2020, right). This photo is believed to have been taken in Tehran 2019. (Wikimedia Commons, with edit)

This time, they’ll likely try harder to make it hurt - just enough to let us go back to shooting at each other over the border

Jul 29, 2024, 11:23 AM

Until my country opens her eyes

This week’s peaceful sit-in near me reverberated with the phrase “Ain li eretz acheret, (I have no other country)” a lament for the country that claims our identity. It is a song of sorrow for a place that has...

Jul 18, 2024, 5:09 PM

Bibi, Duke of Wannabe

This week, our Prime Minister compared himself to the Duke of Wellington, a controversial figure in his day who, by the way, led his second government to downfall with the unpopular (at the time) Catholic emancipation bill. The insinuation in...

About Me

Judy Halper is a member of a kibbutz in the center of the country. She has worked as a dairywoman, plumber and veggie cook, and as a science writer. Today she volunteers in Na'am Arab Women in the Center and works part time for Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom.

Contact Me