Living Through Apocalyptic Times

Every year mankind is confronted with natural and man-made disasters. 

Fire. Floods. Pestilence. War. Famine. Extreme heat. Earthquakes. 

This year seems different. The natural disasters seem more apocalyptic. With the exception of earthquakes, humans have unleashed disasters of multiple impact. 

Years of unheeded global-warming warnings, and the Trump administration’s eager efforts to act in defiance of scientific evidence, are now fueling catastrophes that merge in their combined assault on humanity. 

Water has been the mainstay of news stories day after day, for weeks, nay, month after month, this year. 

Water. Too much of it. Too little of it. Dramatic, pulsating views of its destructive power throughout the Midwest and Southeast. In our nation’s heartland, cars and homes float along rivers engorged by torrential volumes of rain far exceeding daily historical norms. 

Meanwhile, residents of the western United States swelter under droughts and heat domes as their parched states go up in flames. 

And yet, Americans continue to migrate to the water-challenged Southwest. 

Across the Atlantic the water story is one of drought. The Danube and Rhine rivers in many places have been so water-depleted that boats cannot sail them. Americans mostly know them as vacation venues for scenic riverboat cruises. 

A river cruise with no water to traverse is a bus ride. Instead of unpacking belongings once and living in one stateroom for a trip’s duration, when a river is unnavigable passengers have to disembark with their luggage and take motor coaches to a point along the river where they can board another boat. There is no certainty this exercise will happen just once.

More importantly, the shallow depths of the Danube and Rhine are jeopardizing commercial activity throughout Europe. Goods, including raw materials, finished products and agricultural produce intended for world markets, cannot be guaranteed to be moved by the lower-cost river option. 

The troubled water route and Ukraine’s war with Russia also contribute to famine in Third World countries dependent on Ukraine’s wheat and fertilizer. Russia has increased its targeting of Ukrainian naval grain shipments.

A global marketplace has superseded most home-grown agriculture. Outbreaks of salmonella poisoning, Listeria contaminations and Cyclospora infections impact millions, not just isolated communities as in years past. 

A common thread throughout all of these catastrophes is the seeming ambivalence and even the complicity of the Trump administration. Trump’s war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz affect the shipping of some 20% of global fertilizer. 

Trump ended U.S. participation in the World Health Organization and has sharply cut back U.S. Agriculture Department funding for farmers, food banks, climate and  conservation programs, and meals for schoolchildren. 

Trump has failed to announce a coordinated response to fires in the West and flooding in the Midwest. He gutted FEMA, the federal emergency management administration. 

Americans are reaping what he sowed in his MAGA-inspired rush to cut what he considered excessive budget expenses while reducing taxes on the wealthy.

 

Life Under Israeli Rule vs. Jordanian & Egyptian

In the days prior to the 1967 Six Day War, my sister Lee was in Israel packing food for the Israeli army as the country and the world wondered if Israel could survive. Its resounding victory set the template for all that has since transpired between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Six decades later it is instructive to compare today’s life in the West Bank and Gaza with how it was under Jordanian and Egyptian rule. 

Lee posted this analysis from Leah Zakh Aharoni on her Facebook feed:

Every third Palestinian Arab alive today is alive because of Israel.

I know how that sounds. Stay with me.

In 1967, when Israel liberated Judea and Samaria (what you call West bank) from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt, we inherited a population of roughly one million Arabs living in conditions the modern world had mostly left behind.

One in six Arab babies died before their first birthday.

Life expectancy was 48 years.

Fewer than 30 villages out of hundreds had electricity.

Most Arabs in the hills of Judea and Samaria lit their homes with kerosene lamps and cooked over wood fires.

Only about 10% had running water.

There were 9 primitive hospitals in the entire territory for nearly a million people.

And there was not a single Arab university. Not one.

Then came us.

Within one generation of Israeli administration, the picture changed so completely that the numbers are hard to believe.

Water was connected to hundreds of villages that had never had running water in their history. Electricity reached villages that had been dark since the beginning of human settlement.

 Four Arab universities were founded: Bir Zeit, An-Najah, Bethlehem, Hebron, where zero had existed before.

Israeli doctors trained Arab doctors. Israeli hospitals treated Arab patients for cancer, cardiac surgery, and the pediatric emergencies their local facilities could not handle.

Israeli vaccination programs reached Arab children whose grandparents had grown up when a childhood illness meant a childhood grave.

Life expectancy rose from 48 to 72.

Infant mortality dropped 90%.

All this in one generation. One of the fastest life-expectancy gains ever documented in any population, anywhere in the world.

And the population exploded.

One million Arabs in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza in 1967. Five million today.

Fivefold growth in one lifetime.

That does not happen when a population is oppressed.

 Oppressed populations shrink. American Indians shrank by 90% under European contact. Aboriginal Australians shrank by more than half. Populations that live under colonial oppression do not multiply by five.

So do the demographic math.

Every third Palestinian Arab in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza today has a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent who would have died in infancy or of preventable disease  if the healthcare conditions of 1967 had persisted.

That is not political rhetoric. That is demographic arithmetic.

And the story does not end at Judea and Samaria.

Even in Gaza, the famous Shifa Hospital  that made international headlines in November 2023 when IDF forces uncovered the Hamas command center operating beneath it, was expanded and modernized under Israeli administration by Israeli architects and engineers.

Israel built the hospital. Hamas turned it into a military bunker.

Jews build hospitals. Terrorists convert them into weapons of war.

Now ask the question.

If the Jews are foreign colonizers, why is every piece of modern infrastructure that keeps the Arab population alive something that Jews built for them?

Arab doctors trained in Israeli hospitals. Arab professors teach at universities Israel enabled. Arab babies survive childhood because of vaccines Israel administered. Arab farmers irrigate with water Israel connected. Arab homes are lit by grids Israel extended.

The Jews did all of this in Judea and Samaria within twenty years of returning.

The Arabs did none of it in the nineteen years they controlled the same land or in the four hundred years the Ottomans controlled it before that  or in the thirteen hundred years since the Arab conquest of the Levant.

Here is the uncomfortable truth.

Water. Electricity. Hospitals. Universities. Roads. Vaccines.

 Living children who would otherwise have died.

Every marker of modern civilization in this territory arrived when the Jews came home.

The land waited two thousand years for its people to come home. And when we did, we built. And when we built, they lived.

When you hear about "settler expansion," remember what was here before the "settlers" .

 Kerosene lamps and infant graves.

When you hear about "occupation," remember what the occupier built. 

When you hear about Arab suffering, ask who reduced that suffering by 90% within a generation.

It was not the Jordanians. It was not the Ottomans. It was not the British.

It was Israelis.

Look at what we built. Look at who is alive because of it.

Every third Palestinian Arab in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza today. Alive because Israel came home.

Now tell me who the colonizer is, concludes Ms. Aharoni.  

Shalom Yisrael Prepares for 2026 Visit

2026 has been a difficult year. War. Antisemitic attacks, verbal and physical. Energy crisis. Affordability issues. Torrential rains producing killer floods. Extreme heat. Devastating fires. Food safety concerns. 

We weren’t sure it would happen this year, but the Shalom Yisrael committee is pleased and excited to announce our program will be held from October 11 thru October 21. 

Shalom Yisrael is well aware of the pressures everyone faces. We hope, however, that you will see the value of helping us sustain our program of more than 35 years, bringing  Israeli civilians to America for some well-deserved time building relationships between our countries while reaffirming our commitment to Israel. 

This year our seven guests represent native born and immigrant Israelis, women who have devoted their lives to helping others. Here’s how one of them, Revital, described what she hopes to accomplish during her time in America: 

“I look forward to sharing the story of Israeli civil society after October 7—how ordinary people came together to care for one another during a national crisis. I also hope to learn from your community and exchange ideas about volunteerism, resilience and building compassionate communities.” 

To accomplish Shalom Yisrael’s mission we need your help. 

I am the treasurer of Shalom Yisrael of Westchester. The Shalom Yisrael program costs about $20,000 a year (60 percent on airfare alone). We have no paid staff or administrators. Volunteers handle all aspects of the program. Volunteer host families provide housing and meals. 

Your support of Shalom Yisrael can be part of a never-ending bond between Israel and its brethren in America. Every day more Israelis—soldiers and civilians— face injuries that require the services of the volunteers we are bringing to New York. Your support is greatly appreciated.

During their stay in America they will speak to students at the Leffell High School and Westchester Hebrew High School. They will visit cultural and social service institutions,  tourist spots and see a Broadway musical.

You may donate by sending a tax-deductible contribution to: 

Shalom Yisrael

c/o Murray Forseter

11 Brad Lane

White Plains, NY 10605

Shalom Yisrael, a proud member of Westchester Jewish Council, is a federally recognized charitable organization. No goods or services are exchanged or received in consideration of a gift. Tax ID # 74-3148036

Thank you for your consideration. 

Dear Diary ...

 Dear Diary:

I didn’t tell you but two weeks after spending 11 weeks on the pickleball sidelines with a left ankle injury I was sidelined once more, this time with a right shoulder injury (no pictorial evidence this time).  

When it happened I thought it was a minor setback. I could fully raise my arm in front and back. But an hour later I could move it barely an inch from my side. Pain was constant. Sleeping was difficult as I could find no position that did not produce sleep-inhibiting discomfort. 

By luck, I secured an appointment the next day with an orthopedic shoulder specialist. Originally I could not see him for a week but when I called back an hour later to say I could come in if a cancellation occurred I was told one had just opened up for later that day. 

What I theorized was a reaction to too many poorly performed backhands was, after diagnosis and x-ray, calcific tendinitis of the shoulder and a possible pinched nerve. I got a shot of cortisone and a prescription for physical therapy. 

Often, cortisone immediately resolves the pain as it shrinks the inflammation. Not so for me. I sent an email to the doctor the following day, only to get an automated response that he would be out of the office for four days. His assistant later replied that sometimes the cortisone takes a few days to take effect. 

So it did. By my two week followup appointment the shot and PT had my shoulder back to normal. And the doctor said my backhand form had nothing to do with my injury. 

He cleared me for playing, gingerly at first. I played last Thursday. No pain, before, during and after. 

Friends—non players—keep telling me to forsake the game. At 77 I am one step or one swing away from another setback (I’d rather not say “injury”), they reason. Of course, they have a point, but no one ever described me as “reasonable.” 

So on most Tuesday and Thursday afternoons you will find me on Lifetime’s pickleball courts. Your prayers are appreciated. 

Thinking Calendars, Ticks and Healthy Living

I get very few pieces of relevant, old-fashioned mail these days. With one repeated exception this time of year—“free” calendars arrive almost daily. Free because at one time I sent in a donation. Or the sponsoring organization purchased my name from a mailing list. 

The most recent calendar came from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It followed calendars from the World Jewish Congress,  the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Federation of America, the World Wildlife Fund and U.S. Conservative Judaism.

Why 2027 calendars show up six months in advance is a puzzlement, unless the sectarian organizations sending them hope to get their share of monies that would be sent to Jewish organizations that distribute calendars in the summer before the Jewish New Year begins in September. (Calendars from Jewish organizations mostly run September through August.)

All the calendars are constructed with monthly heartstring-pulling pictures chosen to elicit a contribution. The WWF, for example, has adorable pictures of a young panda, a baby emperor penguin and a mother rhinoceros feeding its calf. Each month of the Holocaust museum calendar shows “tiny objects” of child victims and survivors. Give once and you’re locked into annual calendars for as long as their mailing list computer retains memory. 

Last summer charities started to up their game. Along with the standard, full size 8-1/4” by 10-1/2” hanging calendar, a 6” by 8-7/8” booklet calendar arrived in the packet. 

Calendars are not the only freebie showing up in my outdoor mailbox. I’m getting personalized return address labels, far more than I could possibly use over an entire year. Organizations like Sierra Club, The New York Public Library, the Environmental Defense Fund, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the National Park Foundation and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have my address on insta-print. 

Though my iPhone has a clock and calendar, I’m old fashioned enough to have actual clocks ticking away in all rooms of our house (including bathrooms) and paper calendars hanging in our home office and mud room. I keep a pocket multi-year calendar on my night table. 

Gilda does not share my association with old-time technologies. That’s why all these solicitations are sent to me, not her, except for the ones from right wing and Christian organizations. Somehow she got on their mailing lists. 

Tick Mystery Solved: In my last blog I wondered why a picture of a tick showed up on an unrelated New York Times article about JD Vance’s book “Communion.” 

Turns out, The Times had published a story (“We Don’t Have to Sit Back and Let the Ticks Win”) a few pages earlier in the July 12 Opinion section which I only just got around to reading. To illustrate the article the creative staff liberally planted ticks on the printed page of the article, dropping one or more on several other pages of the section, including the one on “Communion.” 

I can’t say this graphic treatment was groundbreaking. During a visit to Miami years ago I recall seeing a magazine article on the preponderance of large, black palmetto bugs infesting homes. The art director delighted in placing multiple palmettos across the entire magazine section. That was really creepy and truly realistic.

How to Live Better and Longer: Gilda laughed at me, my kids rolled their eyes, when several years ago I compiled a list of illnesses my parents endured and perhaps genetically passed down to me and by extension to my offspring. 

But there it was, number 8 in The New York Times suggestion for a better and longer life: 

“8. Make a list of your parents’ chronic health conditions.

“While lifestyle affects people’s risk for age-related diseases, genetics also play a role.  Dr. (Elena) Volpi (director of the Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at UT Health San Antonio) advised finding out which diseases run in your family, and then talking to your doctor about how best to manage your risk over time. Ask which signs or symptoms you should watch out for, and what you can do about them” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/well/longevity-expert-tips-middle-age.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share).

See, I’m not so crazy after all. 

The Christian Thing to Do?

I finally got around to reading Carlos Lozada’s analysis of JD Vance and his book, “Communion,” which appeared in my print edition of The New York Times July 12  (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/07/opinion/jd-vance-communion-clash-civilizations.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share ).  

Before I offer any commentary, note the few closing paragraphs reproduced below. Just above the second to last paragraph there is a picture of a tick. Why? Who knows. Was it crawling along the printing plate unknown to the pressmen when the order to “roll ‘em” came? That’s my guess, as the article made no mention of ticks, Lyme disease or any other crawling creatures. 

Just another crazy part of the Vance phenomenon.

I haven’t read “Communion,” so I am relying on Lozada’s pull-quotes and interpretations of the text from the man who wants to be our elected leader come 2029. Central to Vance’s beliefs is that America and the Western world are in a conflict within themselves. They are losing their foundation as a “Western Christian civilization” to a “secular global liberalism.” 

A now practicing Catholic, Vance says the soldiers who fought and won World War II were battling to save “Western Christian civilization, and the values particular to it: the concept of natural rights, including freedom of speech; a sense of duty to one’s neighbors; an obligation of the strong to protect the weak; a belief in free will and individual conscience.” 

Funny, but in the long history of organized religions, many of those concepts are part of their DNA. Christianity, Catholicism, does not have a monopoly on those attributes. Of course, in past epochs anyone practicing free speech, free will and individual conscience could be castigated. Even put to death. Let’s chalk up those reprisals to pre-Enlightenment times.

What really got me to writing this composition is Vance’s attack on immigrants. “As our leaders have ushered in an unprecedented increase in demographic diversity through immigration,” he writes, “they have simultaneously discarded the most powerful force for cultural cohesion: Christianity.” 

Huh? Does Vance not know that Latino immigrants are almost exclusively Catholic? That their presence has increased attendance at churches? 

Am I being too simplistic? Maybe Vance is okay with Latinos but not with Moslem or Hindu immigrants (he has, after all, wanted his wife to convert from Hinduism to Catholicism)? 

Vance has been publicly silent about Donald Trump’s push to expel Afghanis, many of whom came to America because they assisted our fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Sending them back to their native land would be tantamount to a death sentence. Is that the Christian thing to do?