Trying to figure things out in Ashkelon

A relaxing couple of days. Trying to digest the mounting info overload.
 

On Tuesday I met Dara, the daughter of my friends Corinne and Jon in Vancouver, as she took a short break from her high school class trip to Israel. We met at the entrance to the Carmel market to go for lunch, and looked for a place to sit and eat (lots of places to buy prepared foods; almost no places to sit and eat, and tons of people to bump you). Eventually I turned into a side alley, thinking that perhaps I'd find a small restaurant. Instead, we found ourselves in the butchers’ side of the market, where one butcher shop after another displayed their wares down small alleyways. This would have been fine except that Dara informed me she was a vegetarian (mercifully, she was a great sport about it!). Eventually we found a falafel place; sadly it wasn’t too good so I owe Dara one.

Dara and I had a few chuckles comparing impressions about Israel and Israelis. We both agreed it is way greener than we had imagined it would be, and we also agreed that when people here bump you on the street, they don’t apologize – and look very startled when you do (“I am sorry; I am Canadian”).

With Dara at the Carmel Market

From the market I went to a short meeting with Y. close to Jaffa and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking down the Tayelet, the seaside promenade that extends from way south (south of Jaffa, anyway) to way north of Tel Aviv (or is it to Netanya?). About 57% of Israel's population lives in the coastal plain, and each town either has or is building its own Tayelet. Soon it seems one will be able to walk all the way from the Lebanese border to Gaza! 

It was a sunny and fairly warm day, and I enjoyed just watching beach-goers play Matkot  over miles.  Matkot   is the “cult” beach sport here (and probably nowhere else). It is beach tennis with no rules except keeping the ball "live" (i.e., not dropping it on the sand). Two players use a wooden racket to hit a small rubber ball. The distance between them, as well as the aggressiveness of the hit, varies depending on the players’ stamina (you see all ages playing).  They love the game and, as long as it isn’t raining, I have seen people play. Tap, tap, tap, tap....

Matkot players

On Wednesday, today, I went to visit Rita Rosenbaum-Geier in Ashkelon, located about an hour south of Tel Aviv by train (50 km), and about 15 minutes’ drive north of the Gaza border (12 km).

Ashkelon is an industrial town of approximately 120,000 people, right on the Mediterranean. Originally settled by Jewish immigrants from Arab countries, in the 1980s it saw a tremendous influx of new residents from the former Soviet Union. Today, Russian is a standard language on many public signs (which are overcrowded as it is, since all street signs here are in Hebrew, Arabic and English). The city is bright and feels very young and new to me.

Today, the weather was sunny and crisp, the sky was blue with white puffy clouds, the ocean was emerald green, the green meadows were covered with yellow flowers and red kalaniot (anemones) flowers. And there wasn't a bomb shelter in sight.

Kalaniot are a protected species

Ashkelon is the northern terminus for the Trans-Israel pipeline, which brings petroleum products from Eilat to an oil terminal at the port.  In other words, it is the same fuel that Israel sometimes sells to Gaza to help them on humanitarian grounds. Yes, to the same people who shell Ashkelon with deadly rockets.

Right this moment, for example, there is a dispute over fuel supplies between Egypt and Hamas. This has triggered shortages of fuel and electricity in the Gaza Strip, causing massive power outages. Life in Gaza sucks because they only have electricity for 6 hours a day and precious little gasoline or cooking gas.

Why? Because of a political standoff with Egypt, which supplies Gaza's fuel.

Hamas controls Gaza and wants the fuel to come directly from Egypt instead of through a cargo crossing with Israel. Egypt refuses to allow the fuel to pass because it wants Israel to continue to be seen as responsible for Gaza's problems. Israel of course views Hamas as a terrorist group (see references to deadly shelling above…). And Hamas of course blames the crisis on the Israeli government.

So what does Israel do?

On March 23, Israel allowed nine fuel tankers to cross over to Gaza, with enough industrial diesel to only power a plant for one day. More deliveries are being negotiated. The shelling only ended a few days before as Israel is the "entity" Palestinians refuse to acknowledge exists. In other words, Gazans are going with severe energy shortages and blame Israel.

(Anyone out there who can explain this to me? Any of this?)

Our first stop in Ashkelon was a cafe on the Ashkelon marina, where we enjoyed a "cafe afuch" (cappuccino) by the sea.

Ashkelon marina

It was such an idyllic place, overlooking miles of white sandy beaches, with mothers strolling about with babies in carriages and smart-looking ladies doing lunch. This definitely wasn't what I expected to see, on any level. This isn't Tel Aviv, after all. These people here aren't supposed to be in denial like Tel Avivians.

But Israelis trust the Army, if not their Government, to do the job and keep them safe.

Hasn't it always done so, starting in 1948? Isn't that the essential promise of the state of Israel?

So the army has come through for them with the Iron Dome - which in Hebrew is called "the Iron Kippah"!

The Iron Dome is a mobile air defense system designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometers away whose trajectory would take them to a populated area, in all weather conditions (i.e., the stuff of Star Wars).

My friend Rita has first-hand knowledge of the Iron Dome. As the Israeli that she is, she remembers being more than a bit skeptical when Israeli officials announced they would be deploying the Iron Dome to protect civilians from the constant shelling coming from Gaza, thinking, "What is this? Star Wars?! It is just politicians trying to reassure us."

However, shortly after, she was outdoors enjoying her beautiful garden in peace and quiet when she heard a very loud noise, like a jet plane flying right over her head. Rita looked up and saw what seemed to her to be a fireworks rocket going straight up, then followed by a lightning fast rocket intercepting it. She then realized what was going on -- and quickly rushed to her home's bomb shelter (the "safe room"). 

Not a fantasy but a reality, her everyday reality, brought to you by the IDF (oh yes, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.)

From the Marina, we went to have lunch at her home. Unlike me, she isn't afraid of gas BBQs and so she grilled some mean chicken for lunch. We were joined by one of her three sons, and enjoyed the live convo about politics and life in Canada. 

With Rita, in her garden

Rita under her lemon tree, with two of her three dogs looking on

After lunch, we went for a walk in the Ashkelon National Park - right outside her house! Unlike the Pacific Spirit Park right outside our home, the Ashkelon National Park encompasses history and heritage thousands of years old. In addition to mother nature, it contains ruins dating back to the Roman period, among them marble and granite columns and capitals, the Roman basilica and statues of the goddesses who were the patrons of the city. 

Roman ruins

Roman ruins (to the left) in the park, overlooking the Mediterranean

On the way back to Rita's house, we saw a flock of sheep being brought to graze by their Bedouin owners.

The train ride back was quiet and relaxing, as I watched the sunset and drafted this blog post on the iPad.

Once in town, I walked back to the apartment from the train station, stepping into the mega-mall Azrieli Centre (or was I in Metrotown?!), then stopped by the local Shoppers Drug Mart look-alike to stock up (but they didn’t take my loyalty card...) and tried to get a mani at the local mani-pedi palace (open till midnight every night) but they were too busy to take me until 10 pm. 

Shoppers Drug Mart look-alike

Life in Tel Aviv just goes on.