I SURVIVED the most dangerous vacation in the world!

[midtowngym]

Posted: 11/6/04 at 11:50pm

1. Still jet lagged at a cafe. Sirens suddenly blare, ambulances and police cars speed to our corner and chaos ensues. A suicide bomber blows himself up in the market next door-4 dead, 36 wounded. Welcome to Tel Aviv!

2. *porn fantasy* Eyes closed and waiting for the bathroom against a wall. 6'3",20-something soldier taps me as his machine gun presses against my chest-"Bathroom is free", he smiles. It's no longer necessary since i've just peed in my pants.

3. Onto Jerusalem! Arafat is STILL dying/dead and tension fills the air. Friend unwittingly books a hotel in the Muslim Quarter-empty hotel & no other tourists in sight. The police will not confim my hope that the loud *bang* noises we hear each night are just firecrackers...

4. Lovely Muslim storeowner states that "Uncle Bush now has another chance to make peace here." It's also unusually warm because "winter is stuck at an Israeli checkpoint. Maybe he'll come next week." The Arab Seinfeld!

5. Unwittingly drive through the world's most religious Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on the sabbath (the road was empty, it seemed like a good choice...) They chase my rental car, pound on the hood, scream and purposely stand in the middle of the road so I must swerve not to hit them. My friends suggests I "tell them i'm Jewish." I explain that would be worse--we could be stoned to death if I open the window and give them a chance to pull us out.

BUT, there are beautiful Muslims and Jews (they just don't talk to each other) plus temples, mosques, churches, sculptures and art that are thousands of years old. I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

[Westopher]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 12:01am

I picture five like a driving test where obstacles pop up. Good laughs.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 12:09am

Midtown, I'm glad you got through it okay. The banging noises? Most definitely not firecrackers. Sorry.

And the only thing I find as terrifying as Muslim extremists is Jewish ones. They're awful, but they're usually too busy studying Talmud and bugging the **** out of the secularists to form terrorist groups.

[liotte]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 12:34am

Glad you made it out ok! I spent a year in Israel a few years ago, and thank goodness never experienced more than a molotov cocktail outside my window!!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 1:59am

wow. Forget Disneyworld!!

Glad my hot Jew boy is safely back home!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 2:03am

Let's get back to #2!

[BwayLover]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 2:06am

I'm glad you enjoyed our lovely country in the end... You did have some bad luck, that's for sure, and I agree with Plum about extremists from any religion. Glad you're safe and sound!

BUT...I can't help but take some offense to the way you're describing my country. It isn't always like that, you know, and it's not "the most dangerous" place in the world or a place you have to "survive" a vacation in. You just happened to have had some really bad crap happen to you in close proximity, things that even people who live here spend their whole life without ever experiencing.

When you present Israel like that, it only helps set a certain image even more in the minds of people who know little about it - is that an image that we, as Jews, want it to have? I certainly don't. If there is a chance for Israel to survive as a Jewish state, it must have support, and tourism is the biggest support of them all.

I know I may be a little sensitive, but this is my home after all.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 4:27am

"They chase my rental car, pound on the hood, scream and purposely stand in the middle of the road so I must swerve not to hit them."

Wouldn't that be considered work and on the Sabbath day?

Bwaylover I think if we let ourselves get to the point of thinking of Israel as another world, we distance ourselves more from the plight of the region and it pulls everyone further away from a peaceful solution because if we think of it as another world it becomes easy to write it off since we do not necessarily understand it.

[midtowngym]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 7:42am

BwayLover--
I cried at the Western Wall. I was in awe of the 2,000 yr old ampitheater in Ceasaria. Jerusalem's Old City is the most breathtaking place i've ever seen. I really floated in the Dead Sea! I met the kindest, friendliest people--both Muslims and Jews. And the Muslim's treated me better once they found out I was Jewish--i felt safer around them!
It was simply bad luck to be next to a terrorist act, but i repeat--I WOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT FOR ANYTHING. Everyone MUST go to understand why so many religions and people feel so stongly about the place.

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 9:03am

YAY FOR MIDTOWN BEING HOME.

We all missed you.

[mominator]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 10:30am

midtown so glad that you are home and safe.

[BwayLover]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 11:36am

Midtown...I know you wouldn't have missed it for the world, but only those who read your post carefully picked up on it. My point it...Too bad you felt you had to elborate on the bad stuff instead of the good stuff. I'm not mad at you or anything, just sad that without meaning to, you contributed to this image people have of Israel.

Just an example..Look at the responses you've been getting. Everyone is happy you're home safe and sound, which is great- but it makes me feel like you barely escaped some third-world country and bragging about it.

I'm sorry I'm taking this all out on you, cause this really isn't personal- I hope MORE people like you will come and visit Israel, and I hope YOU come back and visit; I just hope we'll hear about the positive things first.

Updated On: 11/7/04 at 11:36 AM

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 11:53am

How did I know this would be about Israel? I went to Israel last summer and I was less than a mile away from one of the biggest bombing that year. It's not that scary or dangerous. But I guess I'm being a little harsh. I come from a VERY Zionistic school and family so I'm also Zionistic.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/7/04 at 12:10pm

Here, let's balance things. I went to Israel for 2 weeks during the summer. The closest I came to any kind of danger was driving by Gaza and hearing things go boom, and walking through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem, something I'd actually never done before.

I went as far north as Galilae and as far south as the Negev, to the Mediterranean in the west and the border of the West Bank in the east. And I got along fine. It was just another sorta vacation spent visiting as much of my humongous extended family as possible. :)