Unpublished Newswire

I t’s a hot day in early summer, and I’m trying to hide my shameful body in the sand by the polliwog pond. The polliwogs have grown into fat squiggly black dots, with slender tails. They swim in funny, jerky motions across the pond, where dragonflies hover above water shimmering slimy and mysterious in the July sunshine. The polliwogs are metamorphosing into frogs, and I’m metamorphosing too, although not in a good way. The long skinny body that I’m covering with sand looks nothing like the film stars in the movie magazines of the 1950s. The skinny calves and knobby knees, the legs that...

Tel Aviv — Every Saturday night, scores of Israelis (along with some tourists) stream into the courtyard of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which has become known as Hostages Square, to commune and to call for the return of people held captive in Gaza. As of last Saturday’s rally, Hamas still held around 58 of its 251 initial hostages, some alive and some believed dead. Speakers at Hostages Square that night included former hostage Naama Levy and family members of other Hamas victims. “In captivity, I saw thousands of people standing here, wrapped in flags, shouting, singing, holding...