Tel Aviv and Jerusalem

I mentioned that security was tight to get on a place flying from Cologne to Tel Aviv, and that my friend Joan had rehearsed me as to what to say at the passport check when I arrived. I thought she was kidding. She was not. They asked me all the questions she said they would, and I answered them all correctly. Finally I made it through security, picked up my bag, and met Joan in the reception hall.

The weather was beautiful as we drove into Tel Aviv, a thoroughly modern city with glass tower after glass tower. One could see where the Zionists had made the desert bloom with green, and they were now destroying the green to make it bloom with green glass towers. I just hope that in a few decades they do not run out of good land to farm, as it has all been built on. But then, Tel Aviv is a modern city, and like most, is being increasingly surrounded by suburbs, where the penduli live as they go into the city each day to make their living.

I really did not know what to expect from Israel, or Tel Aviv, or Jerusalem. Indeed, I did not know what to expect at Joan's house, other than the fact that along with her PR Matchmaking business, she is a 'cat lady', who may get calls at any hour to rescue a cat that has been hit by a car, or had some other untoward incident disrupt its and her life. Also, as a cat lady, she takes care of a number of cats in a park down the street from where she lives, as well as about fifteen cats that have taken up residence on her terrace, and I could never get them all in one place long enough to cound how many were inside the house. I do know that I had to be agile at the doorway in order to get in and out without letting the inside cats out or the outside cats in.

With all of her cats, Joan still managed to keep a clean house, and it was amazing to me that the litter did not smell, but then she changed the boxes twice a day. It was strange for me, waking up in the middle of the night, to find four or five, and maybe six or seven cats sleeping with me. They occasionally would want to play with my toes, or sleep on my chest, and one took great delight in pawing at my nose as I tried to sleep. Joan had been kind enough to give me her bed as she slept on the couch in the living room, and once I got up and noticed that there were another seven cats sleeping on top of her. Amazing.

After touring around Tel Aviv for several days, I took a bus to Jerusalem, where I stayed for two nights at a hostel sponsored by the Church of Scotland, or the Presbyterians, as the church is called in America. It was close to the old, walled city, which is where I spent most of my time. While I walked through most of the old city, I did spend hours just sitting and watching the life of the old city for hours. It was amazing to me, and in many ways represented for me what I found disturbing about Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Israel.

The old city is separated into quarters for different groups; Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Armenians, Jews, Muslims, and on and on and on. And the quarters are indeed different. The shop keepers try to guess the ethnicity or religion of the tourists passing through, and try to call to them with the appropriate greeting. I found a number of people to be camera shy, so eventually I just stopped taking pictures altogether.

As my time in Jerusalem was getting short, I took the city tour bus to see parts of the city outside the walls. Again, it was interesting, mostly because of the divisions of the city. They do have a law that states that all buildings must have facades of white Jerusalem stone, which makes the city all one big color, which was startling at first, but then I must admit that I found it rather uninteresting. What was interesting was that the city was divided not only by religion, and not only by country of origin, but also seemed to be divided by sect. So certain sects of certain orthodox groups would be in one area, and others in another. And when I say orthodox, I am not referring just to the Jews, but also to the Muslims, the Evangelical Christians, the Copts, the Eastern Rite, the Roman Rite, and finally, on the tour bus, we passed the new Mormon Tabernacle, high on a hill overlooking the old city. Just what Jerusalem needed, another religious presence. Ah well.

Back in Tel Aviv, I began noticing more how it was also sectored along the same lines as both old and modern Jerusalem. What a shame. Of course it is not helped by the idea that new walls are being built, for protection, security, or to enforce separatness. What a sad state of affairs. The picture was taken near the original mandate border of Israel, and near where Joan is building a new home. For something that is supposed to provide protection and security, I found it a bit scary.

Finally the dander got too much for me, and I moved to a hotel on the beautiful beach that Tel Aviv has. I felt luxurious on a high floor of a hotel, facing north along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Then I watched the news, and the bombing death of Hezballah's Imad Mugniyah was just being announced, along with Hezballah's statement that they now had the right to attack Israel. Following that, the great Humanitarian George W. released a statement that while the US was not responsible for the bombing, we were none the less happy that Imad Mugniyah was no longer alive. My sense of security dropped another point, and later, when on a walk, I noticed that just to the south of my hotel was the US Embassy, and I realized that if Hezballah had any strong missles, and if they wanted to fire them at the Embassy, then my hotel room would be directly in the line of fire.

I should not make this seem as if I did not feel welcomed in Israel. Not only was Joan an excellent hostess, full of interesting information about her adopted homeland, but also, it seemed, at just about every street corner, the government wanted to give me an official,if somewhat metallic, high five.
Joan gave me a magnificent over view of the city, and it was wonderful walking through the Arab flea market to the south-west of Tel Aviv. I got a real idea of how the city and the country worked from her, as well as an idea of how they did not work.

All of my misgivings were, at least in my mind, further justified in leaving Israel, and having my papers checked and re-checked first at the entrance to the airport property, then at the entrance to the airport, then at the entrance to the area used to check into my flight, then at the baggage inspection area (where half of the checked baggage was being searched - although my baggage was not gone through), then where I picked up my bording pass, then before I went through security, then when I was going through security, and finally, when I was bording the plane.

The flight to Cologne, with another overnight there, and then on home to Palermo and finally Sciacca, was without incident. But I must say, I am happy to be home from that trip, and I mourn the state of affairs that has created such disharmony in what could be a beautiful and shared land. The worst part is, I see no solutions. Of course there are no easy solutions, but it seems that there are no difficult solutions either. If ever our world needed a mulligan, I think it would be in the middle east.