Trying to explain Tel Aviv

July 26, 2009 - 8:42 AM by David

Yet another take on the Tel Aviv bubble, this time from the Christian Science Monitor. This time it’s done – both in writing and on video – with insight and knowledge by the CSM’s Josh Mitnick, who knows the city from the inside.

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To mark its centennial, Tel Aviv has staged a public tribute heavy on pyrotechnics, as well as a nocturnal citywide block party. It has lured international cultural acts like Italy’s La Scala opera. But its birthday comes at a time when the liberal city seems increasingly out of step with Israel’s shift to the right.

Hanoch Marmary, a former editor at the Haaretz newspaper, says Israelis have a love-hate relationship with the city: “Tel Aviv is an icon. It is a dream. It’s a concept. It symbolizes success, an open life, and hedonism,” he says. “But it also raises feelings of jealousy. On the one hand you want to be part of it, and on the other hand there’s condescension, fear, a recoiling, and jeering” of Tel Aviv.

The debate between what is the ‘real’ Israel will go on for eternity. But it’s undeniable that Tel Aviv certainly represents a valid version of Israel – as valid as the versions represented in Jerusalem yeshivas, West Bank hilltops and drab development towns.

Tags: , , , , • Category: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Life 

Comments

3 Comments on Trying to explain Tel Aviv

  1. David-Joe on Sun, Jul 26th 2009 1:28 PM

    2. I was born and rasied on a border kibbutz [Jordan] and my concept of Tel Aviv has never been negative.

    I think you have to accept the city as – it is what it is. It was never meant to have a specific value because it is an outcome not a primary.

    When my grandparents were fighting to establish the kibbutz and my parents were fighting off the Arabs Tel Aviv was a refuge as an Israeli city that was never soiled by foreign invasion.

    To view Tel Aviv as representative of Israel and classify it as “liberal” is not correct. It is like Washington DC – a city that all Americans embrace but one that cannot be compartmentalized.

    The idealogues of the left, have always been haughty with relativist values and they exist as parasites on the backs of the Zionists. Equally, the religious right also use Zionism as an excuse to further their religious lunacy and do not mind dying or killing for that – because of course “God is on their side”.

    So I would say that Tel Aviv is actually a most Zionist city that fills an area whch all proper nations have.

    And everyone must deal with it as they can. Blaming it for anything is not correct.

    I prefer Tel Aviv to New York City but that does not lower NYC to me, they are both what they are.

  2. Gail Tenzer on Sun, Jul 26th 2009 5:13 PM

    3. Haaretz is a Leftist publication.

    Tel Aviv is a modern city like any other modern city in the world. It is young, dynamic and a place where the Old World and the New World come together to create wonders that benefit the world. It is the home of some World Class universities, think tanks, and High Tech companies.

    I lived in L.A., where you can get into your car and go around the world as you travel from one community into another. It is what always gave L.A. its richness. It is also what contributed to New York.

    Tel Aviv attracts a diverse population from all over the world, where people bring new ideas and they gel in the electric atmosphere of so much wonderful thought energy. It is a blend of the Old values and the young new ideas of extremely intelligent, competitive and savy young people who impart an Ultra modern flavor to this very exciting city. That ideas clash here — so what? Israel 21c has done a wonderful job of promoting to the rest of the world the wonders developed in one of the world’s leading think-tanks and Labs that is Israel and Tel-Aviv and the cutting edge technology that enriches all of our lives. Like anywhere else, there are problems! But, the air in Tel Aviv is filled with vibes and electric energy of thinking and productivity. If it were not for Tel Aviv and Israel, we would have no computers, cell phones, wonderful developments in Medicine, Agriculture, communications, etc.
    Tel Aviv brings together and exposes to the world the creativity of all working all over Israel on amazing projects. And, I should add, that not all these people are Israelis or even Jewish. Many come to Israel from India and China as well. Tel Aviv offers a free environment for creative people to work together. Bravo!

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