Trying to explain Tel Aviv

July 26, 2009 - 8:42 AM by David · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Life

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.

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.

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