Beer Sheba To Beirut

December 1, 2007 - 10:08 AM by

Most images foreigners see of Israel are political & Wild West-ish in nature: stone throwing/burning tire/rocket launching Palestinians, shooting/menacing Israeli soldiers, bus bombing carnage, rocket hit aftermath…

With that type imagery, it’s no wonder “The Holy Land” is perceived as less than holy and downright dangerous.

Many Israelis also share a slice of that take, believe it or not.

A majority have been nowhere in the vicinity of The Gaza Strip or West Bank and a commonly held misperception is that Palestinian “terrorists” lie in wait at every turn and that the settlers living in the areas are under siege.

Although we differ in our political views, I recommend reading Treppenwitz’s tale of trying to convince a cabbie to take him from Beer Sheba to his West Bank settlement home late one night. Here’s a peek:

Finally I got a driver who, after a few minutes of reassuring, agreed to take me home.

Once we were on our way he began peppering me with a string of non-stop nervous questions:

“How far is it?”

“Are you sure?”

What’s that village over there… Jewish or Arab?”

“Arab!? Is it ‘problematic’?”

“What about that one?”

“You really drive this road every day?”

“Have you ever had any problems… roadside bombs… shooting… rocks… Molotov cocktails???”

“What the h… that was a Palestinian license plate on the car that just passed us! I didn’t know they were allowed on the roads?!”

Oh G-d!… I see headlights behind us. Should I be worried that it might be a terrorist following us?????!”

And on and on and on…

By the time we’d passed half a dozen sleeping Arab villages and were approaching the southern outskirts of Hevron, the driver had worked himself into a state of panic about terrorists who seemed to be lurking just around every bend to turn his wife into a widow and orphan his children.

Tags: • Category: Blogging, Life, Politics 

Comments

2 Comments on Beer Sheba To Beirut

  1. treppenwitz on Sat, Dec 1st 2007 11:13 PM

    2. It means a lot that you have different politics yet still stop by to see what I have to say. I wish more people were as open minded. Thanks for the mention.

  2. M B Gardiner on Fri, Dec 7th 2007 11:10 AM

    3. Although life and death situations exist everywhere,the cab driver sounds almost like a pizza delivery driver -who got a call in for one of the bad area’s here in our nice retiree-resort city on the west coast of Florida. I enjoy reading this website and hope to visit Israel.

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