What can I do in Isreal (except that!)

on a lighter note, i notice that sainsburys is now marking country of origin on its coriander as GAZA, rather than ISRAEL, does this mean it's OK to buy it?

it probably means it's produced on the settlements, which depending on your politics might make you more or less inclined to buy it.

I like the Meatloaf joke. keep it up.

although you might want to consider other transport options

Last summer when I visited, I travelled with my family into northern Israel - Haifa and some smaller towns and villages in the mountains (I can find the names if you're interested). Everyone was really friendly and very, very happy to see tourists.

Israel is one of the few countries where you SHOULD dress and act like a tourist. Luckily I was there during the cease fire last summer.

My cousin was on a bus just blocks away from the last suicide bomber, and the one before that happened right in front of her old house. She's been having to receive trauma counseling. Politics aside, people making jokes on this thread show an incredible level of stupidity. It's a fucked up situation (my family and their friends are all actively involved in the peace movement, including one friend who documents human rights abuses against the Palestinians), so to make blanket statements is just asinine.

why did the suicide bomber cross the road?
how many haredim does it take to change a lightbulb?
did you hear that one about the settler and the hamas dude?

(well, if we're gonna make stupid jokes ...)

"When in Rome..."

For real, yo.

how big is Tel Aviv? How distinct from Jaffa is it? my understanding is that it was an entirely new town built beside an old-ish town (Jaffa). I'm curious as to whether they have effectively merged into each other as one city, especially given that Jaffa lost most of its inhabitants in mysterious circumstances.

You actually make Tel Aviv sound quite interesting - I like the idea of that kind of ersatz westernness. In other ways your comparison of Tel Aviv & Jerusalem make for interesting thoughts about the nature of Israel itself - is it an island of the West in the middle east, or is it a fully engaged part of the middle east?

Politics aside, I'd say Israel would be a fascinating place to visit - lots of old stuff, attractive landscape, etc. I myself would probably find Syria or Lebanon more interesting, because they have the old stuff and the landscape but are more culturally non-Western (so you are getting more tourist bang for your buck). Although the ersatz westernness could be a draw in and of itself.

I'd say people probably do actively love tourists in Israel. I've heard similar things about places like Bethlehem which used to have a massive tourist industry and now don't.

Again, leaving politics aside, I suspect the Golan Heights would be an interesting place to visit, if only because they live up to their name by being very high up. I saw a great photo taken from them once, which showed Galilee stretching out below them like a map. Deadly buzz.

i went with my parents and sister to israel. we had about 48 hrs in jerusalem. so we go to the dome of the rock, only to realize that it's friday!! ok, so mom and sis are out of the picture (because they can't be there when the men are praying). so my dad and i figure, hey, at least we can go in right?? so the guy takes one look at our light-complected features and asks to see our IDs. we show him our passports, he realizes from our names that we're iranians, and tells us we can't go in. "because you're SHI'ITE" he sadly explains, "not SUNNI".

ok, we're not even islamic but it was fucked up to begin with!

1) eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. they're so much better in israel than anywhere else i've ever been. continental breakfast, yessir.

2) go to akka, north of haifa. it is of great archaelogical interest and has an arab marketplace that seemed much more authentic and is less crowded than the one in jerusalem. also it is on a beautiful beach - nobody swims, but you can sit out with a cup of tea and watch the waves come and go.

3) take out lots of cash and go to the marketplace. buy lots of middle eastern pop music cassettes and wander around the market eating pistachios and dates. try to get lost. you may end up wandering onto one of the stations of the cross. then you can sort of tag along with one of the foot tours. most of them end up at that famous church (i'm blanking on the name) that houses like five denominations of christianity. is it the something of the holy sepulchre? go into the catacombs - they're neat, and cooler than outside.

how big is Tel Aviv? How distinct from Jaffa is it?

It's big, and sprawling... Jaffa used to be a different city but the two have basically expanded into eachother.

You actually make Tel Aviv sound quite interesting - I like the idea of that kind of ersatz westernness. In other ways your comparison of Tel Aviv & Jerusalem make for interesting thoughts about the nature of Israel itself - is it an island of the West in the middle east, or is it a fully engaged part of the middle east?

That's a great point. There definitely is a divide between the two cities... My cousin moved to Jerusalem because she got sick of Tel Aviv. Her brother - who is a really weird, 70-something shady movie producer who was telling me about how he "totally improved" the movie Lambada (yes, the forbidden dance) when he had it translated into Hebrew by cutting a few scenes (not making that up) - said that Tel Aviv is really "swinging." But the thing is, Israel is so small geographically. It takes less than an hour to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, with traffic.

lots of old stuff, attractive landscape, etc.

Although Israel is a really new country, there's just so much OLD stuff there... We went to an abandoned city that was mentioned in the New Testament. Or walking on two thousand year old stones in the old city or touching the Western Wall.

So, one of the reasons that Israel is so reluctant to give up the West Bank is that that's where all the ancient archaelogical sites are located. The geography of ancient Israel vs. modern is totally reversed - Israel/Judah were in the West Bank. Which is ironic, of course.

I think that Rosh Pina, a very small city in the north on a mountain - you can see all the way into Syria - was unbelievably beautiful.

What's so sad about the conflict is that, as you can tell by the dearth of tourists, is that everyone is losing. It's just a combination of the worst possible cultural conditions (very simply, Israel's Zionism/self-dependence vs. Arabic culture being muscled by the West for centuries) which has led to this total stalemate with people losing lives on both sides. The sadness in my cousin's emails is really heartbreaking.

The ugly American goes Abroad... Aaron W comes to Europe & Israel!

I've heard this said before. It is one of the great ironies of modern Israel that its core area was outside Biblical Israel or a marginal part of it. I suppose the reason for this is that when the Zionist pioneers arrived the coastal plain had the lowest population density and was therefore easiest to establish settlements in.

Of course the conservatives will say that the WHOLE region is Israel, which is just one major part of the problem.

I had asked my cousin that since the Jews went thru the Holocaust, wouldn't they be more understanding about the plight of other people? The answer is that it's the opposite. The feeling is that the rest of the world turned their back during the Holocaust, so the Jewish people have to be totally self-reliant in an us vs. them sort of way. That's why they don't really care about the UN, for one.

I could keep going on and on, just really sad.