From Capitol to Capitol.

One of the reasons I can only live in Jerusalem and not Tel Aviv is that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital city. While it’s certainly true that some politicians and government offices are based in Tel Aviv, that’s no different than New York in America. Growing up outside of Washington, DC my idea of celebrity watching was going downtown and watching administration officials and congressmen. Yes, it’s true, I got more excited when former Clinton Cabinet member Donna Shalala walked into a store I was working at in college than when The Nanny’s Benjamin Salisbury was in my college film class or when I spent a semester studying with Jerusalem-born Natalie Portman at Hebrew University (OK, maybe that one’s not true … but it’s Natalie Portman, every Jewish guy’s dream girl, so that’s a special exception). Yes, I’m more comfortable and feel at home when my friends work on Capitol Hill or the Knesset rather than in Hollywood or New York, or when my mother runs into Joe Lieberman at the supermarket or when I walk home from synagogue in Jerusalem on Shabbat next to Hadassah Lieberman. I appreciate it more when Congress members come to Jerusalem rather than Will Smith visiting the Western Wall (although I suspect, the female population would disagree with me there). Yes, I would rather work in a think tank than in high tech (well, except for the salary issue!).

Basically, I’m a Washingtonian born and bred who watches C-SPAN and the Knesset channel for entertainment and I’m proud of holding a political sophistication that most of America or Israel lack (how many people know the difference between hokei hayesod and a huka?). So, I always get a little homesick and a little happy when I have a little politico moment here in Jerusalem, no matter how minor.

I always feel just a bit better seeing motorcades and diplomats, such as when Condi Rice was just down the street from me a few weeks ago, staying at the David Citadel Hotel. Peeking from afar her covered exit and some of the secret services’ black SUVs, I walked home the rest of the way feeling just a bit more at home.

Walking down the street yesterday, I heard several sirens. Having lived here during the worst years of the second intifada, I was alert to a possible pigua (terror attack), which is normally what multiple sirens symbolize. But, I breathed a sigh of relief when the sirens were a police car, black Volvo, and several SUVs, carrying some dignitary – most likely bringing Prime Minister Olmert back to his nearby home. Oddly, though, I thought to myself, unlike the American presidential motorcade (OK, which I admit, I only saw once), the prime minister’s motorcade didn’t include an ambulance.

As Jay (also a Jerusalem transplant from DC) said, when he ran into the Meridor brothers (Dan and Sallai – a former Israeli justice minister and Israel’s current ambassador to the US) at the beer festival in Jerusalem:

I was talking with a former Justice Minister and the current Israeli Ambassador to the USA in the middle of the street in the middle of the night with no security guards. Up there with motorcades and the drones of surveillance planes in the middle of the night, random politician spotting makes this place feel more like DC. WOW.

Despite being Israel’s financial – but not political – capital, this just doesn’t happen in Tel Aviv … or New York.

2 Comments on From Capitol to Capitol.

David-Joe on Fri, Aug 17th 2007 4:25 AM


Actually I think that Winona Ryder or Selma Blair or Claire Danes [converted] are far more my idea rather than Natalie Portman….

m on Fri, Aug 17th 2007 8:52 AM


I saw the Condi motorcade as well! Pretty exciting stuff, I must admit! I was actually walking past the citadel and watched the security for a bit… just as exciting as a hollywooder.

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