The Israeli mosaic
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Life
It’s interesting and enlightening to read some of the feedbacks to the posts here on Israelity.
Unlike the credo clearly stated on our blog – Israel is “people living ordinary lives in an extraordinary place” – some pro-Israel readers seem to think that this is supposed to entail only an unblemished, photo-shopped look at life here.
That means that topics like the proliferation of couple-swapping sites (proves how decadently Western we’ve become) or a military commando training center for toursists that enables them to become Rambo for an afternoon (reinforces the stereotype of Israel as a militaristic society) should be off limits.
However, both of those random topics are just two tiny – but valid – tiles of the maddening and irresistable mosaic that is Israel. If we ignored mention of them, or the thousands of other endearingly weird, incomprehensible, controversial, and downright silly sides of Israel, we’d be doing our readers a disservice and also breaching our definition of trying to expose the Israel that the world often doesn’t see.
Instead of whitewashing the truth and only accenutating the positive, the hope is that this ‘warts and all’ approach will, in the end, show that in its multi-dimensional existence, Israel indeed cannot be pigeonholed or co-opted to justify a particular point of view.
Shabbat Shalom.
The two-hour commando tourist
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Travel, War
Tired of visiting the Kotel and climbing Masada? Tourists who come to Israel and are looking for that little something extra may find it with Sharon Gat and Caliber 3.
Gat, who served two decades in IDF special forces, founded the company as a firing range and security training firm for active-duty soldiers and private foreign and domestic security crews who train in cutting-edge counter-terrorism tactics, sharpshooting techniques, VIP protection, infantry tactics, and hand-to-hand combat.
But, according to a report on the Xinhuanet Chinese news site in English by Dave Bender and Gur Salomon, Caliber 3 is also open to tourist groups eager for a newer, edgier thrill than hand gliding or scuba diving.
Ranging from five to seventy years of age, and dressed in shorts and flip-flops, the newbies descend from the private bus and cautiously make their way to the asphalt-floored, camouflage-netted shooting galleries
For $125, a visitor gets to rub elbows with some of the best-trained and most deadly personnel in the counter- terrorism business. The two-hour package includes a demo by Gat and his instructors, followed by mandatory, basic drilling prior to firing live ammo.
The weapons used here can be found in any decent shooting range in the U.S. and Europe, including the Colt M-16 assault rifle. A more exotic weapon provided is the micro Uzi, a long-time favorite of Israeli SWAT teams. But the real “treat” — at least for the military cognoscenti — is the Israeli-made micro Tavor, the latest weapon to stock select Israeli armories.
While Gat is good at providing visitors a warm welcome, the ” good buddy” persona goes on hold when he briefs them about his uncompromising safety regulations.
“I’ll say it right now guys: everything you see on the tables are real weapons and real ammo. These things kill and injure,” he told a tourist group on a recent visit.
Gat told the reporters that upwards of a thousand tourists annually undergo their training, many of them well-established professionals, including physicians, attorneys, engineers and hi-tech heads.
But, said Gat, “Many of the people coming here are Jews who want to feel close to people who have dedicated their lives to saving other peoples’ lives, so there’s also some Zionism involved.”
If you do decide to partake of Caliber 3′s activities, it will surely be a vacation with a bang.
Tourists flocking to Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Holidays, Life, Travel
Despite the tensions with Hizbullah in the North, Hamas in the South, and flotillas, boycotts and the World Cup, tourists are once again flocking to Israel.
According to figures released by the Tourism Ministry this week, some 1.6 million people visited Israel between January and July, – an increase of 39 percent over the same period in 2009, and 10% more than in 2008, the country’s previous record year.
The ministry figures also showed record-breaking numbers for June, with 259,000 tourists visiting in that month, an increase of 24% over June 2009 and 8% over 2008.
According to Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov, it’s an aggressive marketing campaign by his ministry which is prompting travellers to choose Israel as a vacation destination. That effort has also increased the number of users of the ministry’s Web site – in the first half of 2010, more than 2.7 million users from over 220 countries entered the Web site – an increase of 30% over the same period last year and double the number for January-June 2008.
Travel professionals are also taking note of the treasures Israel has to offer. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv topped tourism magazine Travel and Leisure’s recent readers’ poll of the ten best cities in Africa and the Middle East. Jerusalem ranked as the best city and Tel Aviv was in third place, with only Cape Town, South Africa between them.
It’s likely that the combination of incoming tourists and the fact that Turkey has more or less dried up entirely as a vacation destination for Israelis has resulted in soaring hotel rates and few vacancies anywhere in the country this summer. It was so much more pleasant when we were ostracized.
Watch out for that horse!
Filed under: General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Travel
Hey, we all know Israel is safe. There’s less likely a chance of anything happening to you here than in any big city anywhere in the world.
But evidently, when you get out of the cities, watch out. The news on Channel 2 last night aired this footage they obtained from a group of tourists on a leisurely drive on a country road in the Galilee.
The tourists began filming with their video camera when three horses came on the highway and began to canter alongside their car. Very cool occurrence, and one worth documenting. But things turned weird when an oncoming car approached the horses head on.
The first two horses weaved out of the car’s path, but the third took it head-on, smashing through its windshield with its hooves before leaping over it and continuing on its way.
Channel 2 reported that the driver suffered minor cuts from smashed glass and the horse was lightly injured.
When checking out the coverage of the incident, I was especially taken with the report by Horse and Hounds magazine (which I had until now thought was a ficticious creation of Hugh Grant’s character in Notting Hill). Their headline? ‘Horse survives after jumping onto oncoming car in Israel’.
Foto Friday – Yuval Nadel takes to the air
It’s Passover week. And that means the entire nation of Israel is sitting sweltering in traffic jams as the entire north of the country goes south and the entire south of the country heads north — all in the name of family fun. While they do that, let’s for a moment, take to the air with photographer Yuval Nadel.
Kinneret – Photo by Yuval Nadel
Wadi Ara – Photo by Yuval Nadel
Ramon Crater – Photo by Yuval Nadel
Hefer Valley – Photo by Yuval Nadel
Ramon Crater – Photo by Yuval Nadel
Dead Sea – Photo by Yuval Nadel
And so, we land…
Kilometer 101, Arava – Photo by Yuval Nadel
More photos are available at Yuval Nadel’s website.
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