The 64-day teachers’ strike ended with a whimper, but the university professors are still on strike. Karen Alkalay-Gut is a professor of English and American literature at Tel Aviv University (also a poet, chair of the Israel Association of Writers in English, a translator of Hebrew poetry, a singer, a blogger and a Yiddishist – and that’s not all…). She was so upset at Haaretz’s unbalanced coverage of the strike that she almost canceled her subscription in protest. After an acerbic email exchange with Amos Shocken, the publisher of Haaretz, she finally got her say in today’s edition.

Quote from the article:

But money was never the primary issue with us. The tenured faculty have agreed to postponing discussions about our salaries for a while, and even loaned TAU 5 percent of our salary voluntarily a few years ago when we thought it would help its dire financial situation. What we’re most upset about is that we’re simply not given the means to actually do what we’re supposed to do, to fulfill the requirements of our profession. Antiquated libraries and equipment, insufficient staff, inadequate budgets and a host of other things make it impossible for us to further our research and give to our students what they need to be professional.

Read the entire article here.

During our phone conversation this morning, Karen asked if I’d heard anything more about the investigation. I told her the police hadn’t contacted me since I was interrogated, so I only knew what was reported in the media. Later she wrote me in an email, “It just occurred to me that your phone is probably bugged.”

Yeah, probably. Actually, the same thought occurred to quite a few of my friends. Good thing I have nothing to hide, then.

Explanation of this post’s title is here.