May 16, 1999 The Dead Sea Sholom all you baby boomers, ex-hippies, and wannabe members of the peace & love generation, WOODSTOCK LIVES! in israel. on the dead sea. in the judean desert. near joshua's holy walls of jericho. from 1-8 am on a friday night/saturday morning shabbat. without another living thing within unknown countless crumbling clay parched miles. with blaring techno/trance music, day-glow green juggling balls, fire-lit twirling balance sticks, and beautiful israeli kibbutzniks (20 year old joyous kids) ecstasy-ing their brains out, dancing past dawn until the polic
Middle East, 1999, chapter 5, the election
early morning, may 18, 1999 rabin square, tel aviv, post election day abraham, isaac, moses, david, solomon, assyria, babylonia, talmud, koran, mohammed, north africa, moors, spain, sephardim, france, italy, germany, poland, ashkenazi, russia, diaspora, america, palestine, israel -- everything exists and comes back to this "fertile crescent, this holy land, this cradle of civilization". no wonder everyone makes claim to it. no wonder blood continues to be shed over it. neighbor against neighbor. brother against brother. in the name of god. in the nam
Middle East, 1999, chapter 6, the chosen people
may 16-19, 1999 tel aviv back in tel aviv, benny and i take a much needed break from each other, and i shuttle myself around between "servas" hosts. i find myself in the university suburb of ramat aviv with a retired military major and his architect wife, in sh'kun dan with a husband-wife team of jewelry manufacturers who swim every morning at 7 a.m. in the mediterranean, and with a folksinger in jaffa. all these friendly, generous people offer their homes to absolute strangers (like myself) and treat them (us) like family. they feed us, give us a comfortable bed, clean towels, often time
Middle East, 1999, chapter 7, squaresville – the shantipi world music festival
may 19-22, 1999 hadera, israel ever since my arrival two weeks ago, the big event in alternative circles - besides the election - is the shantipi world music festival. somewhere a mix between cultural anthropology, serious party, and rampant capitalism, it's a long five day weekend during the shavuot holiday just off the coast between haifa and tel aviv, near a small town called hadera. an outgrowth, but now well-marketed version, of the renowned rainbow people festival, the roving ecological, modern-day hippie festival still promoting and living
Middle East, 1999, chapter 8, a little (feminist) reflection
may 24, 1999 haifa the train north from tel aviv stops abruptly - like many things in israel - blunt, abrupt - and i am in haifa. it's over 100 degrees in the shade (fahrenheit), but once again i am fortunate, a servas day host picks me up at the station. we go to her house, about half way up well-mannered, forested mount carmel, and from her balcony, we can see the immaculate white marble bahai temple. a much less daunting city than israel's other two leading religious and secular capitals, haifa feels like a working class city of russian i
Middle East, 1999, chapter 9, haifa, akko, and the dungeon master
may 24, 1999 haifa the train north from tel aviv stops abruptly - like many things in israel - blunt, abrupt - and i am in haifa. it's over 100 degrees in the shade (fahrenheit), but once again i am fortunate, a servas day host picks me up at the station. we go to her house, about half way up well-mannered, forested mount carmel, and from her balcony, we can see the immaculate white marble bahai temple. a much less daunting city than israel's other two leading religious and secular capitals, haifa feels like a working class city of russian i
Middle East, 1999, chapter 10, the tzaddiks of svat
may 25, 1999 safed, israel the next day i'm on my own again. i take the bus from haifa to safed, one of the four holy cities in israel. just like the three other holy cities which are connected with a specific element: hebron - earth, tiberius - water, and jerusalem - fire (naturally), sfat is connected with air. perched high up in the eastern mountains of the galilee, overlooking the hula valley, on the opposite side of the golan heights, svat (yet another city of multiple spellings) is home to the jewish mystics, or "tzaddik
Middle East, 1999, chapter 11, sleeping with camels
Sleeping with Camels this piece can be heard as it was radio broadcast on npr's "the savvy traveler" on december 7, 2001. click http://www.savvytraveler.org/show/rundowns/2001/20011207.shtml then click "Listen to the Whole Show", and fast forward to 32:40. "sleeping with camels" is an adaptation/condensation from the longer and preceding piece, "the great sinai". ------------------------------------------------- may, 1999 salaam/sholom, it's may, 1999. the middle east. israel. ehud barak has just been elected prime minister, appeared in rabin square at 3 in the morning in tel aviv,
Middle East, 1999, chapter 12, wadi kelt, jericho, marc chagall, & silence
"gold sky jerusalem" by yitzhak greenfield may 26 - june 1, 1999 jerusalem it's the next day. i've taken the "long" bus ride back to jerusalem from the upper galilee through tiberius, the "big" city on the "kinneret" (hebrew for sea of galilee). of course, "long" and "big" are relative terms in a country that is only 280 miles long and 85 miles across at its widest point. the one-time, 2nd century roman capital of the land of israel, tiberius, is now a rather middle of the road tourist attraction with trendy mud baths and expensive "st. peter's
Middle East, 1999, chapter 13, the great sinai
june 2 - 6, 1999 finally. this is the place i've been hearing about since arriving in israel almost a month ago. everyone, absolutely everyone, says "go to sinai." they say "the best" israelis go to sinai. the holy no-man's land wrestled over by egypt and israel for millennia. the home of the bedouin. the vacation play land of israel. the place to meet women. the place to kick back and chill. to forget about time and civilization. the best diving in the world. the price paid by israel to egypt for peace. now there are two ways to go to sinai