Sushi in Tel Aviv

Today my adventure took a bit of a sidestep as I woke up with what must be a bad case of the flu. I spent the morning in bed, trying to sleep it off, and by the afternoon I was feeling way better.

As a result, I want to publicly acknowledge my infinite gratitude to my dear husband for forcing me to pack the ‘Shoppers Drug Mart Sampler Medicine Package’ he put together for me, containing no fewer than 7 different types of medicines I could choose from. While there is a local chain that was started by the same family that started Shoppers in Canada (and the stores look the absolute same), I surely did not feel like going out this morning to find a drugstore. Rafi: I love you and I promise I will never make fun of this again.

Twenty days into my adventure and, aside from the flu, I think I am also suffering from information overload.

I now can see that no one outside Israel truly understands what is going on here – and most people inside don’t either because they have little external context – and in my attempt to “get it,” I feel a bit exhausted so haven’t blogged for a few days.  

I consider myself an educated person when it comes to Israel and its issues and successes, but I was not prepared for the energy of the place and for the generosity and openness of its people, the willingness to engage and the phenomenal creative forces at play here.

Sunday (because “Sunday is Monday”) I spent the morning with Ilan Zajonts who is the co-founder of an investment Fund that uses the same principles used to finance high tech ventures, now focused on a major, country-changing real estate initiative.  Ilan took me to several cities neighbouring Tel Aviv where his Fund has either invested or is considering doing so: Ramat Gan, Rishon LeTzion, Bat Yam and a few others (we did get lost once. I wasn’t driving).

But let me backtrack first.

Israel is a small country. How small? Israel's area is approximately 20,700 sq km (7,992 sq mi), which includes 445 square kilometers (172 sq mi) of inland water. To people like me this doesn’t mean much. 

So, how small is that?

Compare it to Vancouver Island…

  Compare it to California…

 

Compare it to the UK…

So Israel is a small country -- with serious real estate problems.

First, there is a shortage of land and housing which is driving prices up. Israelis, like North Americans, value home ownership and see it as a primary investment. 

Second, Israel is subject to earthquakes and missile attacks that could create truly devastating damage in buildings built with old building standards (pre-1980) because they are not ready for the challenge.

In an attempt to motivate people to repair and renovate buildings and reinforce existing structures against earthquake and missile damage, as well as increase real estate availability,  the government decided proactively to provide incentives: Developers are now given special rights and reduced taxation in order to build additional apartments on top of existing buildings. As a result, co-op owners get a strengthened and renovated building and a Safe Room at no cost, and developers earn profits on sales of new “infill” apartments built on top. 

It has been estimated that there are 300,000 buildings in the country which qualify for this new government program so the potential to not only have safer buildings but reduce the housing shortage is definitely there. Sometimes governments do things right.

What I saw in my travels with Ilan was amazing.

The picture below shows three apartment buildings side-by-side:  in the middle is a fairly crappy building, not unlike many I have seen in other cities adjacent to Tel Aviv; to the left is a fully renovated building which looks brand new, has been reinforced and has additional floors on top; and to the right is a building in the midst of being improved.

Before-during-after

In Bat Yam, Ilan and I enjoyed at coffee at a beachfront restaurant, right across from where his Fund is investing on the restoration of 20 buildings.  In just a couple of years, the area will be completely renewed and renovated, with a substantial increase in the number of residential units available. (I want one)

In Bat Yam, the view from the real estate to be renovated.

But spending a few hours in the car with Ilan made him a captive audience and it gave me the opportunity to ask him a wide variety of questions, pretty much as there were popping into my head. He answered them all graciously and without hesitation. (Did I mention we got lost once? I am sure it was unrelated) 

How do Israelis make a living and a life here?

The Israeli standard of living is high (as of 2010, Israel had the 24th largest economy in the world) and, as far as I can tell, prices for consumer goods are about the same as at home (cars and gas are way more expensive due to taxes). But I understand that average incomes are lower than in North America. So I asked Ilan, how do Israelis make a go of it.

It seems that Israelis do not plan for retirement as much as we do (that may be a joke) because they see their home as an investment and trust their pension (75% of their last salary, and for life) to be there for them. Personal levels of debt are low and Israeli banks were in fine shape to survive 2008.

But you need to trust government for this to work. Do Israelis trust the government?

Israelis come together during external crisis, but there are deep divisions across groups in the country, especially between secular and ultra-religious citizens, he told me. Municipalities have lots of power (this comes up a lot in conversations) and often stand up to the national government (there is only the national and municipal governments; nothing in between).

What about corruption?

People see the current wave of charging government officials for corruption as a sign that democracy is working; it is a good thing. They believe that in the past it would have been considered necessary to hide the corruption. Since current cases in front of the courts are old, Ilan believes that in fact corruption in government is decreasing.

What about last summer’s citizen protest?

Last summer the State of Israel experienced a revolution: hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets and protested the high cost of living. Anger over rising prices fueled the 'Israeli Summer' and generated widespread support for action. 

The government wasn’t scared of the protest movement because the requests were not political in nature but social.

Ilan found this to be very exciting and positive to the democratic process -- and this struck me, so I researched the topic. It turns out he isn’t alone. Many people in Israel share his excitement about the protest – nothing at all like what we experienced in North America.

The protests motivated the Prime Minister to set up the Trachtenberg Commission to examine and propose solutions to the high cost of living in Israel. The commission concluded that 60 billion shekels should be allocated for public housing over the next five years, 5000 housing units should be built for rent and sale, corporate tax should be raised, national insurance money should be increased, tax should be reduced on imported food products, and to extend the law of free education beginning at the age of three, among other suggestions.

People like Ilan see the protest movement succeeding because for the first time there has been a shift from security issues to social ones, and no political party wanted to associate itself with it, so it never deteriorated into a political agenda debate. It was the first time in Israel’s history that the country was united on social issues outside of war. Even Israeli Arabs participated and only the ultra-Religious sat this one out.

This was all fascinating discussion, but eventually we had to have lunch. I realized I hadn’t had sushi in almost three weeks (probably the longest time ever) so I asked him to go to his favourite sushi restaurant in Tel Aviv.

With Ilan, sushi in Tel Aviv

The food was very good, and they had several original rolls (one was called a 'sandwich' - lots of rice) but nothing like my beloved Miku at home (hello Park sisters!).

At the restaurant, Ilan told me a fascinating story. As he was growing up, his father had his accounting office in the neighborhood where we were (no sushi restaurants then), and he often used to come to the area to visit his dad. In the early 1960s, he was in the area when he saw an Israeli Arab arrive with a truckload of fruits. He thinks that until then he had never seen an Arab. The man had just purchased the store right next to where the restaurant is now and was setting up shop. Within a few months, the store was the centre of activity in the area and the owner grew his businesses to several successful locations across the city. Today, his son runs the stores and Ilan always stops to greet him (unfortunately he wasn’t there that day). 

So much for “Israeli Apartheid” - again. 

Best fruit

Best fruit

Ilan, like most Israelis I have talked to, clearly differentiates between Israeli Arabs (sometimes they call them “1948 Arabs”) and consider them full and equal citizens, and the Palestinians living in the territories occupied after the 1967 war.

The former receive equal treatment in all areas of civil society, such as the law, education and the professions, access to medical care, etc., but agrees that they may not always have equal access to economic activity as Jewish Israelis do, and do have higher unemployment levels. This is mostly because Israeli Arabs live in smaller communities; the municipal powers are low; they engage in more underground economy and therefore only have access to national government funds. Often Israeli Arabs may not believe in the system enough to engage outside their villages but in many industries Israeli Arabs are leaders (for example, Construction). About 20% of Israel’s population is Israeli Arab and about 70% of them are Muslims.

On the other hand, with regards to the Palestinians, Ilan --like most people I talk to-- just wants to have a peace settlement so they can get on with their lives. Go away, so we can keep building this country.

On Monday I finally got to meet in person with Avigdor Luttinger, the man who enabled so many of the amazing business introductions I have enjoyed. Avigdor lives in Zurich and we have Skyped many times but yesterday was the first time we met in person. 

Meeting Avigdor was really the highlight of my stay thus far (OK, going to the Kotel trumps it, but you know what I mean). He embodies what I see as the spirit of Israeli entrepreneurship, having co-founded the first Israeli company IPO on Nadaq in the early 1980s (Magic Software). His generosity and wit are truly inspiring, and he enjoys tremendous respect from all those I have name-dropped to say I know him.

Avigdor Luttinger

Avigdor and I met for breakfast at a French restaurant close to my apartment, across from Kikar Rabin, called Brasserie. From my research, it is where the intelligentsia of Tel Aviv hangs out. I got there early as the place always has a line up and doesn't take reservations for breakfast. I am afraid didn't recognize anyone (because of course other than Bibi and Barak and Tzippy I am not sure I could recognize any of the local luminaries, never mind the artists) but by the way people there air-kissed, I am sure I should have.  We had a four-hour breakfast (thankfully they do not refill your cup of coffee automatically here), and it was phenomenal to listen to the stories and ideas Avigdor shared with me. I feel very grateful to him for his friendship and trust.

As an aside, I wanted to order from the Hebrew menu and was having trouble with this word: בייקון ... I was decoding to say... BA-EEH-EEH-KUN... Avigdor had a hard time not laughing when he told me it said "Bacon" -- welcome to Tel Aviv.

How do you spell it?

From our breakfast, I went to lunch at my favourite neighbourhood cafe, Cafe Masaryk, and had the pleasure of meeting with Ilan Maik. Ilan is my friend Nilly's dad - and he was as interesting and charming as she said he would be. We talked about politics and the economy, of course, and told me what his company does (Processing Controls). I was floored when he told me one his clients is the Israeli Army and he sells components for the Iron Dome.  (So far, no one I have met here seems to do trivial things). We ran out of time quickly as I had to go to a meeting in Ramat Gan, so we agreed to meet again when he returns from LA.

With Ilan Maik

(As an aside, when I got to Cafe Masaryk, the waitress told me they were thinking of sending a search party for me. I hadn't been away this long in the last three weeks!)

To lighten things up, in the evening I went to the Opera to see Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor  (that was a joke; it is a tragic opera).

Tel Aviv Opera House

The Opera building, about a 7 minute walk from my apartment,  is an absolute architectural gem. Opera life in the pre-statehood Israel began in Tel Aviv in 1923 with Verdi's La Traviata. Today, it has over 18,000 subscribers and mounts an average of eight productions each season. The theatre was full, and the performance was spectacular with over 100 performers on stage.

Bad girl again: took pictures while instructed in several languages not to.

Unfortunately, the next morning (today) I woke up sick.

A Snapshot of Jerusalem

Spent the weekend (Friday and Saturday) in Jerusalem.

As I was about to get on the bus at 8 am on Friday, I received a call from my find Nurit who lives in Jerusalem advising me of a change in plans: the Annual Jerusalem Marathon was taking place and the start was precisely at the entrance to the Israel Museum, so it was closed. Goodbye Dead Sea Scrolls.

On the bus to Jerusalem, I realized the bus had WiFi. Maybe I should have looked out the window more.

I arrived in Jerusalem about 50 minutes later, and it was cold. Very, very cold.  Nurit picked me up and off we went, to spend the day in Jerusalem.  She asked me where I wanted to go, keeping in mind that many streets were closed off. I said we should go to the Old City of Jerusalem, to see the Kotel. She agreed and we headed that way, but immediately realized so many streets were closed off for the Marathon that it was going to be hard to get there. Not to worry, said Nurit, we will manage.

Thanks to the road closures, what we managed to do was go to Ma'aleh Adumim.

Ma'aleh Adumim is a planned community built from scratch about 20 years ago, in the West Bank, on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, seven kilometers away. Ma’ale Adumim is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It also is the site of the Good Samaritan parable in the Book of Luke. As a so called settlement, it is controversial, but certainly not to the 40,000 people who live there.  It is an architecturally beautiful community. 

View of Jerusalem 7 km away, from the Aroma Cafe

Nurit told me she had been reading the blog so we found an Aroma cafe right away. It was in a very modern mall, and we sat down to enjoy each other’s company for a while (i.e., until the marathon was over, so we could head back to see the Old City). What I found very interesting in the mall was the clearly mixed clientele of Arabs and Israelis. So much for “Israeli apartheid.”

Nurit Fosh Baltiansky and I were classmates in Chile, and the one thing I remember most about her is that I used to eat her lunch. I don't mean this metaphorically; I mean it for real. She thought her mum packed her too much to eat and I was happy to oblige. The funny thing is, she remembers this too.

I also remember that Nurit was always a sweet-natured person (see above note about lunch) and she hasn't changed one bit.

Not only was it cold and windy in Jerusalem, it was pouring rain. And I mean, rain coming at you from all sides, blowing the umbrella inside out, sort of rain. Rain, and a harrowing wind. And Nurit, like a saint, walked with me across the Old City towards the Wall, always with a smile on her face, stopping to point out interesting things about various spots, never once showing the least bit of impatience even though I am 100% sure she could think of 999 places she would rather be than walking in the cold rain to the Kotel with me. 

Nurit at Jaffa Gate. Rain had not yet started.

Entrance to the Old City

View of East Jerusalem from the Old City

(I did not take many pictures that day because I had to keep my hands inside my rain coat.)

The Wall, a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard, is on the eastern side of the Old City, on the western side of Temple Mount, so if you park outside Jaffa Gate, you have to go through the Armenian quarter to get there (a schlep, really).  When we finally got there, I thought I had gotten my Tanach all mixed up: it was raining so hard that it seemed to me I was not praying at the Wall but about to join Noah's Ark.

After a few prayers and "telegrams" at the Wall (all the while trying to hold on to my Shoppers Drug Mart special-price umbrella), we headed back. Nurit asked me if I wanted to go back through the Arab Quarter (a shorter route) or the Armenian Quarter (the way we came in). I remembered seeing the riot squad as they were finishing their shift when we arrived. Each Friday, the Israeli Army deploys the riot squad to ensure there are no riots as Muslim Arabs leave Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque located inside Temple Mount (think of the sermon they must hear), and they mean business (never mind the Vancouver Police at the Hockey Riots last year).  I opted for the longer route.

View of East Jerusalem from the Old City

We headed back to a new mall that just opened outside the Old City's Jaffa Gate, called Mamilla, and walked in to a great restaurant -- with the most space heaters I have ever seen.

Mamilla was originally established in the late 19th century as a mixed Jewish-Arab business district. Until the 1967 Six-Day War, it was located along the armistice line between the Israeli and Jordanian-held sector of the city. It went into decline after many of its buildings were destroyed by Jordanian shelling. Today, it is a $400 million major mall and entertainment complex. Hello Rolex, MAC, H. Stern, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Nautica, Bebe, and Tommy Hilfiger… by the Jaffa Gate.

Nurit enjoying a warm bowl of soup

With Nurit, both thawing...

Our lunch; I didn't eat hers

 After a long and leisurely lunch where we got caught up with each other’s lives (Nurit is a translator in the film industry; I guess I can thank her for the subtitles on TV shows that are helping me improve my Hebrew), Nurit dropped me off at the home of Aimee and Fred Tischler.

Fred and Aimee, along with their lively boys Ezra and Adin, are from Vancouver and are in Jerusalem spending a year here on a Sabbatical.  They were very generous and hospitable and invited me to spend Shabbat with them.

We had a great Friday night dinner, and were joined by friends of theirs. Fred and Aimee have a house rule for Shabbat, which is to speak only Hebrew, so we all conversed in Hebrew (some of us more than others).

On Saturday we went to synagogue to a lovely shul, a block or so away from their place (and it was a good thing too, as it was still very cold, but at least it wasn’t raining). The congregation is “modox” (modern orthodox), and made up mostly of Anglos and French immigrants, but the rabbi speaks only Hebrew. The building is very new and modern, and it was full. There wasn’t a place left to sit either in the women’s or men’s sections, with lots of kids running around. I simply loved it.

After lunch, Aimee and I (along with their dog Rosie) went for a walk between their place and the Old City. It was sunny (but not warm) and Aimee took me down narrow alleys of Mishkenot Sha’ananim district, which was the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on a hill directly across from Mount Zion. The views are, to put it mildly, inspiring.

As the day ended, I took the bus back to Tel Aviv – and learned the hard way that inter city buses do not run on Shabbat.

Hard Work Paying Off

I read today that, per capita, more Israelis have cell phones than any nationality on earth.  Several people I know have 2 cell phones, one for outgoing calls and one for incoming calls and, of course, they don't like it if you call them on the wrong one, because it ruins their carefully orchestrated mobile phone calling plan (I learned the hard way).

For lunch I had the pleasure of meeting Eran David and Sharon Schwartzman who both work at the Jewish Federations of Canada office in Jerusalem. I was impressed with their professionalism and their deep understanding of the issues Canadian Jewish Federation offices face. They really want to help Canadian Federation organizations and we had a great conversation about their online strategy.

Eran and Sharon. Donors, your money is in good hands!

I mentioned to them that it is my perception that we Jews in North America telescope all issues with regards to Israel to include Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas yet Israelis just don’t come across as concerned about it all, and asked them what they thought about it.

“Denial” said Sharon.

As an example, she mentioned that yesterday, YNet News (Israel’s most popular news website) had absolutely no news items covering the continued bombing of southern Israeli towns from Gaza because, well, because a cease fire had been established so the news source moved on (Gazans are either unclear of what ‘cease fire’ means or Hamas cannot deliver it; either way, the barrage of rockets continues in the South – 39 km from my apartment – and children are being kept from school by their parents).

 

And what do they think about Hamas? 

The Egyptians are strengthening Hamas' breakaway organization, Islamic Jihad, so they themselves become politically respectable (just like the PLO did, I guess). They believe the wall Israel is building along the Egyptian border will help immensely. Right now the Egyptian border is very “porous” to the point that over 20,000 Sudanese refugees have managed to sneak into Israel (and are now a huge problem in Eilat; but that was another discussion). 

I very much look forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks in Jerusalem.

Later in the day I met with an Israeli VC and while I don’t want to discuss specifics on the blog, I cannot contain my excitement about what I saw and heard.

Israel seems to me to be a finely tuned machine creating and nurturing and encouraging and rewarding entrepreneurs to start new companies. There are variuos business models to do this and make it a win-win-win for everyone involved. the models continue to evolve and everyone here seems open to the next and better way of trying things. Something I have not seen much happen back home are the Accelerators and Incubators (not the same thing, I am learning) which provide the right amount of support to meet both investors’ and entrepreneur’s needs.

For dinner I met an old friend from Vancouver, Steven Shamash, and his family. Steven lives in Netanya, about 30 km North of Tel Aviv.  Netanya has 14 km of beaches and it is a very popular tourist resort as well as residential community. Real estate there, like in most of the country, has skyrocketed. Steven told me that the land of a Kibbutz located just outside the town, now turned into a hotel complex, is worth $1 million an acre. That is a lot of oranges!

On the way we stopped at a natural preserve and saw some beautiful wild flowers.

Type of wild flowers to be found at the preserve

Flowers we actually saw

What we really looking for were Black Irises, which only bloom once a year, and just for a month. Unfortunately we were too late.

Flower we did not see

 At Steven’s home I had the pleasure of meeting Toni, his wife, originally from South Africa, as well as his very, very talented and engaging kids. His daughter Eliza is only 18 and a rising star in the music world. She played a few pieces on the piano that literally took my breath away. Do yourself a favour and click here, and here and here to hear what I mean.  I also met Elad, who is 15 and has just taken up strength training (and it shows!).

Eliza Shamash

Before I left, Steven and Toni gave me a great gift: a whole box of halva!  

"How did you know I love it?"

"I read your blog"said Steven.

Wow, this hard work every night is paying off.

Almost Everyone

When I ask locals how come they speak English so well , I get one of two answers: (1) I lived in the US/Australia/Canada/UK for a while, or (2) I am lazy and watch a lot of TV.

On the treadmill at the gym, I search for a TV channel that has English subtitles (the trick is to find a Russian or French channel, as they will have subtitles in English and Hebrew). Since I am struggling with figuring out how to practice my Hebrew, I decided to try approach #2 but in reverse.  So today, since I could not find any Russian or French channels, I decided to try approach #2 and watch an American show with Hebrew subtitles. I am pleased to report I was able to read the first few words of each screen! So while I didn’t have a clue what the show was about, I felt pretty good about my learning.

Hebrew and Russian subtitles on TV

Later in the morning I had lunch with Louie and Klara at a swish café close to the Tel Aviv City Hall. I had met them before and was thrilled to see them again. They are very close friends of Rafi’s parents from way back when.  Around us, lots of yummy mummys window shopping at Escada and Laurel. 

Louie & Klara

Louie and Klara have lived in Israel since the 1930s, having escaped from Germany just in time, and had many stories to tell about Israel in the last 70 years. After all, they were “there” at the time of all the events I am learning about by going to museums and classes.

Louie retired many years ago as an executive at El Al. His perspective about the current internal political situation was interesting. He has seen it all, from the Labour Zionist leadership in the 1940s to the 1970s when Unions reigned supreme, to the switch to an open market in the late 1970s. He agrees that without this open economy, Israels’ high tech miracle would not be happening, but he thinks much of the founders’ spirit has been lost and people have become more selfish. He also told me something I keep hearing, that Ethiopian Jews are being unfairly treated and that it will take a generation of their children going through the Army for them to be fully integrated into Israeli society.

Towards the end of our lunch, I took my iPad out to show them some family pictures when Klara said to me, “Is this a 3? I have a 1 and am not sure I should upgrade.” She turns 90 next week.

The afternoon was used with two separate meetings at the same café next door, once with A. and another time with U., and I was (again) quickly reminded of what Dan Senor and Saul Singer write in Stat-up Nation, the Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle: "When an Israeli man wants to date a woman, he asks her out that night. When an Israeli entrepreneur has a business idea, he will start it that week.” Israelis want to move fast - at least in business.

The nice waitress also pointed out I had been there three times today.

In the evening I had the pleasure of being invited for dinner to Hamutal and Simon’s place. Hamutal is Rafi’s cousin’s daughter. I got to meet beautiful 6-month old Danielle.

Hamutal and Simon, with Danielle

They live just outside Ra’anana, in an idyllic place reminiscent of a small village. Only that they are seconds away from Israel’s Silicon Valley, housing companies such as Amdocs, HP, Microsoft, SAP Labs, and so many others.

Simon works for a multinational high tech company focusing on Latin America and Hamutal… also works for a multinational high tech company, in the Training area. Simon said to me it sometimes seems to him that almost everyone in Israel works in high tech.

Almost? 

He Smiled at Rosh HaNikra

Today I started the education program I had signed up for. The course series has a combination of classroom and field trips. The field trip series is called The Land of Israel, and guess what, they go places.

(I should have started last week, but they went on a 2-day trip to the Golan Heights to see snow and I figured I have seen enough snow this year.  Seeing Israelis in the snow would probably have been something to behold, though).

I joined them today and we went North. Way up North, past Haifa to the Upper Galilee and the border with Lebanon.

The group is made up of English-speaking residents, mostly retired. I felt very young. They meet every Tuesday for classes and trips, so they are quite a cohesive group, but they were very welcoming. ("Say Hello to Raquel. She is from Canada.")

The field trip leader, a woman from South Africa, somehow managed to tell me off twice for not following instructions. Apparently buying a cafe hafuch (cappuccino) at a pit stop and holding the bus wasn't a good idea. Nor was staying behind the group to chat with soldiers. She warned me she doesn't want me to continue to be a troublemaker. Now, this troublemaker role is a first for me. I might enjoy it.

She told me off. I am a troublemaker.

The man in the photo below is in the group. His shirt reads "Chilean Army," it has a Chilean flag, and identifies him as “León”. I shouldn't then be blamed that, when I attempted to ingratiate myself with my new comrades, I started to speak to him in Spanish.

He was startled and said he did not speak Spanish. I pointed the shirt's writing to him, and he replied he had no idea what it meant. He had found the shirt in an apartment he owns when the tenant went missing one day, without paying the rent. So he kept the shirt.

Leon, I found your shirt!

So for those of you reading this in Chile, si conocen a un “León” que se escapo del ejercito y dejo su departamento en Israel sin pagar el arriendo, díganle que acá le encontré  la camisa.

The offshoot was that he told me that while he wasn't from Chile, someone else in the group, Erwin, in fact was. The group around us seemed very pleased I had made a connection, and Erwin and I immediately started sharing names to determine who we knew in common.

Both the trip stops and the presentations were themed around the War of Independence (1948) and a few of its heroes' lives, so there was a lot of effective learning going on (bonus, no gift shop stops). The tour was led by an experienced and very knowledgeable tour guide. In Israel, tour guides have to go through a rigorous certification process to work in the field (for all I know, Yoav the guide might have a PhD, as this isn't uncommon).

Yoav showing us 4,000 of history at-a-glance

Yoav showing us a map, not walking backwards

 Our first stop was at Keshet Cave, high up on the mountains on the Upper Galilee, on the South edge of the mountain ridge that separates the upper Galilee and Lebanon.  The ceiling of the cave collapsed in the distant past, leaving only an arch - which is the source of the name.

Keshet Cave, Galil

The view was breathtaking, and even though it was a hazy day you could see all the way to the Mediterranean. We got some very interesting explanations about the history and geology of the area but I will not even attempt to repeat that here. The photo speaks for itself (I hope).  And here is a video of an extreme moron swing jumping off Keshet cave.

Yoav's presentations covered not only geography, geology and history but botany as well. I now know what a carob tree looks like.

Carob tree

We also learned about the early modern Jewish settlers in the area and their struggles under the British, and how they organized themselves and built a resistance movement which, eventually, gained Israel its independence.    But the price they paid was high: over 6000 people were killed in the 18 months after prime minister Ben Gurion declared Israel's independence (I have relatives who were killed here in the period). This represented 1% of Israel's population at the time. Do the math.

The second stop was at the settlement of Chanita where we learned about the history of the place and had a picnic lunch at a lovely break in the forest - a forest funded by the JNF (I recognized a tree I planted but couldn't find the plaque with my name). 

JNF sponsored park

The people in the group were very friendly and shared their food generously. The picnic time, especially, reminded me of summer camp growing up.

One woman asked me what I thought about what is happening in Israel and Iran and the missile attacks in the south. I told her she as the first person in 13 days to bring this up.  At this point, we were driving very close to the Lebanese border. Hello Hizbollah.

Lebanese border, right there

The last stop was at Rosh HaNikra, where the sea meets the rock on the coast of the Mediterranean.  Essentially it is a geologic formation in the Western Galilee, a white chalk cliff face which opens up into spectacular grottos.

RoshHaNikra grotto

And here is a video clip to show how close to the Lebanese border it is, filmed by yours truly.

Rafi and I went to  Rosh HaNikra 4 years ago, and while it is very impressive, I was more interested in other things.

 

Patrol soldiers at Rosh HaNikra

Two patrol soldiers walked by, on duty. One is 18 the other 19. I asked them if things were quiet now that Hezbollah has lost the support of Syria and Syria is otherwise "distracted."

"No" one said, "Hezbollah is getting ready to attack."

"Ready to attack? You two look very relaxed. Is it because you are around tourists?"

"No" he said, "We look relaxed because we are prepared."

I asked him if I could kiss him (he smiled; I didn't).

North of Tel Aviv

Monday started at the gym, working out with Emanuela. I figured that if I asked her to speak only in Hebrew to me, I would (1) get a better ROI fort the investment, and (2) get her to slow down as I asked what the words meant (the #2 reason of course is the real reason).

In terms of learning what's going on here, I also learned that the cafes, at least in this area, don't open before 8 am. 

I started my touring day at The Tel Aviv University, or TAU, campus, in Ramat Aviv, north of the Yarkon river. Four years ago when Rafi and I were here, I remember the river was but a stream. Today, it does qualify as a true river, even for Canadian standards. I feel bad about complaining about the rain last week.

At TAU I visited Beit Hatfusot, the Jewish Diaspora museum. The goal of the museum is to provide an overview of Jewish culture and history since the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE until the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and attempts to answer the question, What kept the Jewish people intact through 2000 years. Instead of telling the story in chronological order, it focuses on major aspects of Jewish life, and each aspect has a separate section: Family, Community; Faith; and Culture Among Nations.

Being here was interesting and important for me. Important because an aunt of mine was the Chair of the Board for many years until she passed away a couple of years ago.  Interesting, because the nature of Zionism is only to focus on Jewish history *until* the destruction of the second Temple and *after* the start of the Zionist movement in the late 1800s (the rest is generally regarded as sad, weak, losers' history... which of course is sad in and of itself. But I digress).

Beit Harfusot entrance wall

The museum building and the exhibits are very impressive. From my perspective, unfortunately, I thought the content was pretty basic. Maybe I am not the target market but I would have thought that being housed at TAU it would have had more in-depth content.

View of TAU

After resisting going to the in-museum Aroma cafe, I walked over to the Cymbalista Synagogue a few steps away. 

Cymbalista

The Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Center was made early in a time when famous architects where designing many high profile buildings in Israel, and developing a form of creative contemporary architecture around Jewish institutions.  Impressive building, very new and modern. Smaller than I had thought it would be from the pictures on the web.

For lunch, I walked into a student cafeteria in the Sciences Building (sorry Rafi; I promise not to bring you here to eat when you come). The food was, well, what can I say: like the food in all school cafeterias, except that the portions were large enough to make any Jewish mother sending their kids to school here feel fine.

I sat outside among the students to eat and enjoy the mild weather, but there were several very assertive cats that wanted me to share my lunch and since I essentially hate cats, I had to move indoors (hello Georgia!).

Cats, Einstein...

From TAU I went to Ra'anana, which is about 25 minutes drive from Tel Aviv. From what I can tell, Ra'anana is Israel's high tech capital. Driving on the Yaalon freeway to Ra'anana is a lot like driving from San Francisco to San Jose: you see the very same names on the buildings. Ra'anana has been named the city with the highest quality of life in Israel and the safest city in the Middle East by the World Health Organization.

There I met with M. and O. I tried to ask them about what it is like to live in Israel, but they just wanted to talk business -- and I think that that is the answer: You live here like you live anywhere else. 

But I insisted, so we talked for a while about the Iron Shield missile defense system. After all, O. was a robotics expert in the Army and knew a thing or two about Israel's defense capabilities, and after a bit of prodding was happy to share.The Iron Shield can knock out 90% of the missiles it attempts to intercept, and O. thought that 90% was shameful. It should be higher. M. pointed out that  because it costs over $100,000 to fire each anti-missile rocket, which Hamas get for a few hundred dollars, the system had to be developed to calculate which missiles were actually worth shooting (those expected to land on populated centres) and which were not (those expected to land on barren land). In other words, Ronald Reagan's vision of Star Wars is alive and well.

Is there ever going to be peace? I asked (prefacing it as a naive Canadian question). O. said it all depended on how you define peace. "Maybe we get absence of war."

From that meeting I went to the one of the Microsoft campuses in Ra'anana, where I had been invited to attend some sort of Start-up competition, sponsored by Microsoft.  This was just one event; the whole country is obsessed with entrepreneurship and apparently such events go on all the time, in many locations. No wonder that after Canada and the US, Israel has the most companies listed on Nasdaq.

About six Start-ups did a pitch in front of what I think was a mixed audience made up of other Start-up entrepreneurs and junior VCs looking for the next big idea to fund, as well as consultants looking for new clients. There were about 100 people there, of all ages, both men and women. People were very focused on each presentation, and the checking of emails and Facebook on the mobiles seemed to me to be at a minimum. When the person seating next to me started to chat, others shushed us immediately (I  don't think this ever happens anywhere else in the Jewish world, especially not here where people all talk at the same time).

I decided to leave before it was over (some of the ideas were fairly dumb), and as I was leaving I was recognized by D. whom I met last week. Lucky for me, he was also ducking out early and going to Tel Aviv so I scored a ride. 

He told me he was going to a lecture in English by a journalist speaking on the middle east, so I went along. The place was packed with young Anglo immigrants mingling and sipping wine (my daughters would have fit perfectly, age-wise).  I left early because I couldn't hear the speaker. There was a lineup outside of people wanting to get in.  Outside, the city was just getting going.