The Politics of Israel

Cumulative Miles Traveled: 27,100
Current Location: Amman, Jordan
Current Mood: Feeling lucky to have the freedom to visit Israel AND Arab countries as a solo female. The US passport is so amazing.

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Amman is only 73 miles (a 20 minute flight) from Tel Aviv, but any flights to the rest of the Arab nations from Israel must pass through here since Jordan is the only Arab nation that maintains strained diplomatic relations with Israel. So I get a 7 hour view of Queen Alia airport.

Am I really going to blog about the politics of Israel? Not really...it's such a controversial issue and I am no expert on the history in this region. However, based on my very short visit to Israel and my admittedly non-expert, mostly disinterested (from a religious and political standpoint, as opposed to Zionist Jews and Palestinians) perspective, I can see why there isn't an easy answer to the issue of Israel. Living in the secular US where religion is almost just a hobby for people - something that only constitutes a tiny part of most people's lives, if any, it's hard to understand how deeply people can feel about their faith. Then you come to Jerusalem and it is impossible to not think about one's religion and faith every second. People here are SO defined by their faith and ethnicity - it is what governs every action, thought, belief. The Zionist Jews 100% believe in their right to occupy and defend Israel. The Palestinians 100% believe in their historical right over the land. I think it's hard for even the most ardent Zionist to refute the fact that the Palestinians were in fact exiled from their land and are now refugees in what was their land for hundreds of years. But then it's also hard to argue against the Jews without sounding completely unsympathetic to the Holocaust (although I really don't see why Hitler's massacre of Jews gave Jews the right to take over land in the Middle East. Why not take over Germany instead?) How do you even start a conversation when you are talking about the same thing but from such polar opposite viewpoints there there is no possible middle ground? I honestly don't see how there can be a peaceful resolution. My opinion is that the territory should be turned into a secular state where people of all faith can visit and worship. But what do I know.

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Frankly, I am very happy to be out of Israel. I honestly got tired of the "Jewishness" of Israel. I know it's probably the American secularism in me, but it's a bit weird for me to be in a place where the state is so unabashedly religious. I know it's a very American notion but separation of state from religion just seems like common sense to me. The Stars of David and the Israeli flag EVERYWHERE (not unlike the Nazi flag flying in occupied territories during Hitler's regime), the armed Israeli soldiers (who are all like 19-21) carrying deadly weapons as if they were toys, the security checkpoints everywhere (cafes, grocery stores, bus station, various points on the road to the Dead Sea). But most annoying to me personally were those Israelis who are so adamantly Jewish that they keep trying to press Hebrew on me even though they know I am not Jewish. The Muslim and Christian vendors in Jerusalem would speak to me in English (or whatever Asian language they thought I spoke) when they tried to sell me stuff. And if I asked a Muslim or a Christian for directions in English, they would answer me in English. But the Jews? I walk into a Jewish store to buy a bottle of water. I ask in English, "how much is it?" and the owner pointedly answers in Hebrew. I stare at him blankly. He repeats in Hebrew. If you don't pointedly ask "in ENGLISH please" they will never tell you the price voluntarily in English. And one storekeeper, after I asked him to tell me the price in English, said the price in English, but then repeated in Hebrew twice as if he was trying to tell me between the lines: "you ignorant Gentile, learn Hebrew." I'm not a Jew and I don't speak Hebrew so stop pressing your Jewishness on me! This is very different from going to a different foreign country as a tourist and trying to speak their language (which generally I try to do)because first of all, most Israelis are very fluent in English. Second, Israel has only been around for 60 years and some dude named Ben Yehuda just decided "hey, we should all speak Hebrew" (just like some Zionists got together one day and decided "hey, we should form a Jewish state"). It would be more correct for them to speak Arabic to me and for me to learn Arabic words for "hello", "thank you", "please", and "how much is it?" Anyway, I get that the Jews were persecuted and massacred during the Holocaust, which was one of history's greatest tragedies. However, how this gives Jews a right to decide to form their own country and force the people that were living there previously for hundreds of years to become refugees in their own land, I don't really understand. Also, I find it incredibly ironic, to the point of being funny, when an Israeli soldier with a pistol on one side and a machine gun on the other says to you "shalom" which means "peace be with you." How the hell can I be at peace when there is a machine gun 3 inches away from me?

I think I was also fed up with the uber-annoying Jewish kids I encountered. At the bus station in Jerusalem, while I was walking towards the gate for the bus to the Dead Sea, two Jewish boys (I guess in their young teens) walked by me and literally made an animal grunting noise at me, not unlike a gorilla noise. I was so shocked at this that I turned around and said, "WHAT THE FUCK??" The two boys laughed hysterically up the escalator. Then at Ein Gedi in the Dead Sea, these four Jewish teenager boys came and sat uncomfortably close to me and kept staring at and obviously talking about me. Finally after about 5 minutes one of them says "nihau" and I replied "I'm not Chinese" and apparently they found this hilarious because they kept saying "I no Chinese, I no Chinese" and laughing hysterically. I'm sorry...WHO THE HELL raises these kids to be so rude?? NONE of the Palestinian kids in the Muslim Quarter displayed such egregiously rude behavior. There is a difference between being curious about someone who looks conspicuously different from you and being blatantly rude.

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My only souvenir from Israel is about 8000 mosquito bites all over my legs and the inevitable scars they will leave behind.

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Israelis take Shabbat very very seriously. Everything shuts down - public transportation, restaurants, stores - at sundown on Friday night and doesn't open back up until sundown on Saturday night. Which presented a major problem for me since I had to get to the airport for Dubai on Saturday morning. The deskperson at my hostel had to call a special taxi for me (apparently driven by a very bad Jew, since good Jews must not work at all during Shabbat), which came with a special 20% Shabbat surcharge which you have to pay because there is no other way to get to the airport - Shabbat means that the trains and buses rest too.

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The security at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv is completely insane. I was interrogated for one and a half hours with the same inane questions over and over again.

Guard: Why were you in Israel?
Deb: Tourism
Guard: why did you want to see Israel?
Deb: Because I think it's interesting
Guard: Why did you choose Israel as one of the countries for your itinerary?
Deb: Because....it's interesting. Because I did. I don't know, I just wanted to visit it! I'm traveling around the world and Israel is just one stop.
Guard: But why Israel?
Deb: I'm visiting 30 countries and Israel is just one stop. I thought Israel would be interesting.
Guard: What interests you about Israel?
Deb: It's history?
Guard: Where else are you going?
Deb: I came from Istanbul and am going to Dubai next.
Guard: So why did you choose Israel?
Deb: Because it's in between Istanbul and Dubai.
Guard: Why didn't you choose Egypt or Jordan?
Deb: Because I didn't. I only have four months and had to choose a limited number of places to visit.
Guard: So why did you include Israel in your trip?
Deb: I think I answered this question like 10 times. Because I am interested by it.
Guard: What interests you about Israel?
Deb: I don't know...the history.
Guard: How much is this entire trip costing you?
Deb: $25,000
Guard: $25,000 is a lot of money, how can you afford it.
Deb: I am an attorney and make $____ a year and I saved up for it
Guard: How long are you traveling?
Deb: 4 months
Guard: How can you travel for four months on only $25,000? It is not very much money.
Deb (in my head): You just said $25K was a lot of money and now you say it's not enough. Make up your frikking mind.
Deb (to guard, pointing to my backpack): I'm backpacking, I'm staying at hostels.
Guard: Why did you want to come to Israel?
Deb: Didn't I already answer this? Because it's interesting.
Guard: Where did you travel in Israel?
Deb: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea
Guard: Why did you choose these locations?
Deb: Uh, I don't know. Because Lonely Planet said they were interesting spots.
Guard: Please take out your Lonely Planet so I can verify this.
Deb (opens bag and hands her Lonely Planet)
Guard: Please show me which sites in Jerusalem you visited.
(I show her)
Guard: Why did you choose these sites to visit?
Deb: Because they are historically significant? Because Lonely Planet recommended them?
Guard: But why did you want to visit?

OMG. This went on for over an hour. How do you even answer inane questions like that?
My bag was x-rayed three times. Three different security guards made me open up my bag three different times to go through my stuff. They made me show them my entire itinerary and then questioned me about each location and why I chose them. Because I did, damnit! I put my bag through the x-ray machine and walked straight over to the next checkpoint where they go through your stuff, and three Israeli guards watched me walk the 20 feet the entire time, but then after opening my bag and detecting some substance that showed up on their screen, one of them looked at me annoyedly and asked "did you open your bag after the x-ray?" I replied "you saw me walk over here. I did not open the bag." But something apparently came up on her radar, because they made me take out everything out of my bag (for the third time in 1.5 hours). They were very interested in my eyeshadow and kept inspecting it, then did a swab test on it. Finally after one and a half hours of interrogation and going through my dirty laundry, they put security approval stickers on everything and let me pass. After this there are at least 3 more checkpoints where your passport and carry-on bag is inspected for the security approval stickers.

If I were an Israeli, I'd be more concerned about the security of passengers coming from other countries INTO Israel. The security in Istanbul is so minimal that they don't care if you have liquids in your bag or if you set off the metal detector. Isn't Israel concerned that someone coming from Istanbul or some other location could be bringing in deadly substances?