Today, I’d like to talk a little about food. For those of you who know me, I’m not a “food person”, but I can play one when traveling. I read once that there are 4 great food cuisines in the world: French/Italian/Chinese/Moroccan (sic?) I think that last one was a place holder for “Middle Eastern.” (Kind of simplistic, huh) I imagined Israel as being the one place in the world where you could get a great pastrami sandwich on rye on every street corner. That doesn’t seem to be the case. I have found only two Eastern European restaurants where I can get a good matzo ball soup. Btw: Matzo (and its food derivatives) is kind of like eggnog in America, it is usually saved for one time of the year, Passover. People are a little offended when I tell them that in the States I eat matzo all year round. But if you are looking for Middle Eastern food, you are in the right place.
A popular juice bar, at about 2 am on a Thursday night.
Tel Aviv supposedly has the most sidewalk cafes of any major city in the world, I don’t know if that is true, but clearly they are everywhere. And they are generally filled 24 hours a day, from the beach to the “slums.” Israelis eat on the street, unlike Americans. Pita pockets are carried in one hand, cell phones in another, a cigarette in a another, a water bottle in still another. There are juice bars and ice cream parlors everywhere and because it is so hot, people hydrate constantly. Food seems to cost about the same as the States, only the income is about 40% less, so Israelis think food is expensive and I think it is just about right. I can walk a block to a great all night food kiosk and get a cheese omelet, orange juice, couple slices of bread and 5 little dishes of different salads, egg, tuna, tabuli, feta, and a chopped salad for 28 shekels ($8.75). Then I can sit on a park bench, with wireless internet connection, and at midnight watch a steady stream of beautiful young people stroll by, many walking their dogs. What a country!
Arab/Israeli Restaurant: My first landlady in Israel, who is just a gem of a person, took me and an old friend to an Arab/Israeli restaurant sitting on the beach in Jaffa. The Arab/Israelis are an interesting anomaly here and were generally left over from the 1948 wars, when others left, they stayed. Clearly, they are second class citizens, I don’t think they have to go into the military; they speak Arabic, sometimes wear traditional Moslem attire, can vote, have a couple of representatives in the Knesset, and are thought to have dual loyalties to both Israel and Palestinians. There was a poll that asked if given the choice would they want to stay in Israel or go live in a Palestinian State on the West Bank and supposedly they voted 80+% to stay in Israel. Another poll found that a majority of Jewish Israelis think they are stupid and dirty and they are regularly denied jobs and access to bars and restaurants. Alas, one more miserable, unresolvable issue to have to deal with.
In any case, the restaurant was great! Initially the waiter brought out about 20 little bowls of all kinds of appetizers. I don’t remember all the names, but they were colorful, tasty, and filling. Everytime one of the little dishes was emptied, a replacement was immediately provided. There was fresh, hot Arab bread. Then I had about 15 shrimp in garlic sauce. We were too full to even have desert but the table behind us did and it was covered with all kinds of sweets and a big hookah for smoking some kind of mint herbal mixture. Oh, did I mention that the sun was setting over the Mediterranean as we finished eating.
The appetizers to the meal covered the entire table top.
Dizengoff Food Court: Yet another food extravaganza is held every Thursday and Friday on the first floor of the huge Dizengoff Mall in the center of the city. About 30 vendors set up food concessions which attract thousands of shoppers. About half the food is eaten right there and the rest taken home probably for a Shabbos dinner. There are simply “miles” of rice, lamb, baked potato, falafel, pasta, fresh pita bread, chicken, soups, and bean dishes. There is so much food and so many people, even the pictures don’t do justice to the scene. Every week I go and pretty much buy the same thing, sorry, I’m not a food experimenter. I get 3 lamb kabobs, 4 minced chicken balls in a chicken broth, 3 pieces of baklava, a baked potato with cheese and beans, a container of candied cashews and a pint of spiced rice. The cost is about 100 shekels ($30) and lasts me the entire weekend. When I die, I would like some of my ashes to be sprinkled over this food market and the rest over the semi-nude beach next to the Hilton Hotel.
A view from the balcony looking down and a close up of the many different booths and kinds of food.
POLITICAL COMMENTARY
I have hesitated to give any commentary, because all the issues are so complex that it is almost impossible to pick a place to start and make an argument in isolation from all the other factors. What complicates this process even more is that one day I read a book or meet a person who convinces me of a position and the next day I read a different book or meet a different person and suddenly I’m on the other side of the argument from the previous day. In any case here are two articles which I found very helpful and for which I think I have a general sympathy. The author, Tony Judt, is Jewish, teaches at NYU, and his field is European History. He has been a critic of Israel and both of these articles, as well as Judt himself, have been viciously attacked by the Israel lobby. The intensity of the attacks on him is to me a good sign that he is getting closer to the truth of the matter at hand.
There are a lot of sculptures of old men thinking deep thoughts, given the complexity of the issues facing Israel that seems like a good metaphor.
1. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16671
This article was written in 2003 and it expresses my feeling that Israel is really a very racist state. Of course it seems like a tolerable kind of racism because its comes from Jews, a race that is usually on the wrong end of the racist sword. Jewish racism in Israel is very complicated, because it is not generally directed against Jews from Africa (Ethiopia) or from Arab countries (Yemen/Morocco/Iraq) or even Afro-American (consider the very popular basketball stars.) It, of course, is virulently anti Moslem.
2. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/711997.html
This article was written in 2007 and traces the change in Israel from a moral and popular David fighting Goliath into the present role as occupier and repressor of the Palestinians. It predicts that with the failure of the Iraq War, the US will eventually reevaluate its role towards Israel and that will have a significant effect on the future of Israel. The outlook is generally bleak as Judt anticipates that Americas love affair with Israel will end just as the Palestinian problem reaches crisis proportions.
