Mission Middle East: What May Be Israel in Your Head, Is Likely Not Israel in Real Life.

When you say “Israel” a certain image appears in one's head. Often its Paul Newman, Golda Meir or Air Strikes. Let’s see if it matches the reality.

Tel Aviv Skyline from Jaffa (Photo: Malcolm Nance)

Over the last 40 years, I have visited Israel numerous times. My first visit came in the middle of September 1983. The ship I was on had just finished taking part in a massive bombardment of the Lebanese Chouf mountains in support of the fledgling Lebanese army offensive against the the Walid Jumblatt-run PFP, the Progressive Socialist Party Druze militia.  This combat operation involved several US warships firing hundreds of 5-inch gun rounds into the mountainous regions south of Beirut.

To resupply, we were tasked to head straight to Haifa for 72 hours and return. At that time the city of Haifa was a low-level urban landscape deeply meshed in greenery, and dotted by ancient buildings that started from the port, and went to the highest point of the city Merkaz HaCarmel.  It was surprisingly similar to Greece. But then, when you look back on the history, you understand that this port has been operating for centuries well before the Greeks, Persians, and Romans.

At that time every day, except the Sabbath appeared to be a good time to go out for coffee or tea, or an aperitif, at the dozens of cafés in the center of the city. What I noticed in the 1980s was that the population appeared to be much older, and principally, Ashkenazim, or people of European Judaic extraction.  Since I was ten years old I was raised in an orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia. So I had an image of what I thought Jewish people looked like and what I would expect to see in Israel. At that time my expectations were correct. Haifa and other cities that I visited were overwhelmingly, white, and older. When I visited south to Netanya, Herzliya, and then to Tel Aviv the Israeli coastal cities had a distinct feeling that I was in a southern Florida retirement community.