Another day of extremes, I’m starting to think this is the essence of the Israeli experience. I was awakened by a thunderous noise which I think was a sonic boom, or at least the after burners of jet engines. I quickly dressed and walked down to the beach where I caught the tail end of a huge air show. (see attached picture) My apologies to all my peacenik friends, but this show was so cool. Mostly French Mirages in formation and single F-16’s I think, maybe F-15’s, but I think that’s a carrier plane. I feel terrible about saying this, but seeing a Star of David on the wings of a supersonic jet fighter really raised the hair on the back of my neck. They even performed an aerial refueling, with the mother tanker, feeding the fighters all along the Mediterranean coast. Everyone in Tel Aviv must have been watching because the beach was packet all the way from the river on the north to Jaffa on the south.
After the show, I decided to walk the length of the beach, I don’t know how long that its, but it took about 2 hours, I was popping Tylenol the whole way. I’d like to say I saw the whole gamut of the human experience since the extremes were well represented, but I have to catch myself, because this is really the whole gamut of the Jewish experience. There aren’t any Asians, except a few who look like they are caregivers for old people, no American blacks (I don’t think) and very few blondes, but there are a few, they look like gods and goddesses from planet Blue Eyes. Here are couple of quick observations:
I saw two of the Ethiopian Jews, they were tall (over 6’) and really, really dark. I had this insight that if Obama’s Dad was still alive and on the campaign trail he would really freak out the NASCAR moms and dads. The American black is like a mocha latte compared to the Ethiopians. Also there were a number of the religious sect people and they all had lots of kids. It almost seemed like the only people with kids were the religious couples, I don’t know if that is statistically true, but I think I read something along those lines. It seems that only the Palestinians and the religious nuts have more than 2 kids. So one more reason to expect WWIII. As every else, even though there were crowds of people, it felt safe and clean, or at least I felt safe. There were almost no soldiers although I’m starting to think all young people are soldiers only not in their uniforms.
I was really tired so I decided to take my first bus ride. There hasn’t been a terrorist attack on a Tel Aviv bus in about 5 years, so it didn’t seem that anyone was very uptight. Although I have to say, I don’t see any Arabs, assuming I even know what an Arab looks like, but everyone I see really looks Jewish, except the Ethiopian guy and he was with a pregnant wife so nobody seemed worried about him. I promptly fell asleep and woke up in the bus maintenance yard north of the river. Fortunately, I had my map and not only did I not have to ask anyone directions, but 2 people saw me with my map and came up and asked me where we were in Hebrew and I answered in Hebglesh. (I just made that up, so if they make a movie with that title, I want a cut)
I came home took a nap and got up at 11pm because the tour book says the “club scene” starts at midnight and I’m such a clubber, I didn’t want to miss it. I walked about a half hour to the Old TA Port and its true, this is a night town. All the cafes were open and at the port there were about 10 large hangers with music blaring out of them. So here’s the scene, there are lots of 20-30 year old women dressed up for dancing, make-up, cute outfits, fancy shoes, all bouncing around talking on their cell phones and chatting animatedly with their girl friends. Then there are the guys, same age, all in blue jeans and old T-shirts, hanging out with their male friends, not quite energized, kind of dreading the club environment. I hate to draw conclusions from just one quick visit, but I fear this scenario is being played out in lots of other cities. I kind of felt badly for the girls since they seemed to have put so much effort into getting up for the event and the guys looked like they were being asked to do the dishes. All I could think of was why is youth wasted on the young. I also kept thinking why didn’t I come to Israel when I was 20, but then I’m sure I would have been dressed in jeans and dreading going into a crowded club scene.
Finally made it home, lots of single people on the street, it feels very safe, no police in sight, but I believe Tel Aviv has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and I think they do that without a police presence, which is a source of civic pride.
The Independence Day stuff is curious. I mean who did Israel get independent from. It couldn’t be the British, they voluntarily left. Actually, first they promised the land to the Jews and the Palestinians and then they left while they were being fired at by both the Jews and the Palestinians. They certainly didn’t fight a war of independence against the Palestinians, who hardly fought back and also left or were forced from their homes. The myth seems to be that a major war was fought against the 5 attacking Arab countries, but most of the revisionist history books I’ve read all indicate that the attacks of the Arab legions were very weak. In fact, the Jordanians probably made a deal with the Israelis not to fight and only volunteers came from the other Arab countries and were largely ineffective.
The comparison to the US is interesting. We celebrate the War of Independence against the British, but the real battle was against the American Indians which went on for more than a hundred years and no holiday to mark it. (unless you consider Columbus Day, basically the anti-Indian holiday) You don’t hear much about that war, but you do hear a lot about how we taught the British a lesson and considering that Canada and Australia taught the British the same lesson without having a big war of Independence, it makes you wonder. For what I can gather on the news, the Independence Day celebration doesn’t have much to do with Palestinians; there is a lot of talk about the 5 Arab armies and the political decision of the UN to make Israel a state. It’s similar to the US obsession with the British and ignoring the fact that real fight for the land area of the US was with the Indians and Spanish. But in any case I really liked the jets today and the fireworks last night. I think next week the Palestinians celebrate Nakba, "the catastrophe", so that will be their turn to interpret history.
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