Pat-downs, Invitations, and the meaning of a “Jewish State”

As my parents were fortunate enough to give UCSB lots of money for my B.A. in Political Science, I am going to get a little political. Firstly, there are a few things that you can’t go a day in Israel without receiving: 1) an elbow to the face from a 99 year old lady carrying 20 lbs of tomatoes. (slight exaggeration) 2) being yelled at with a מה פתאום thrown in somewhere. 3) A pat-down and 4) An invitation to stay at someone’s (might be a complete stranger or a friend of a friend’s friend) house if you ever find yourself in X city.
This extended post will focus on the latter two issues and the meaning of a Jewish State. Last week I arrived at the Tel Aviv bus station and decided to try and find a different bus than I am used to taking to get to my friends apartment. Anyways, at the bus station there is a park where many African immigrants seem to stay. Israel has a bit of a problem with foreigners these days. Estimated figures are 208,000 foreigners, 76,000 working legally, 100,000 working illegally, and finally 38,000 political refugees—mainly from Africa. The political discussion on what action to take has heated up recently, with a proposed plan to build a “detention facility” and house the illegal foreigners there. I am obviously no expert in this field. But in my professional opinion, those in the government who are promoting fear, declaring that all foreigners are diseased criminals that will destroy Israel are disgusting individuals who should not be elected. Many of these immigrants, especially those fleeing certain death in Sudan and Eritrea should not be locked up or barred from entering Israel. Granted it is (almost?) impossible to accept an unlimited amount of foreigners—especially when you fear them changing the Jewish demographic of the State—but what is the purpose of having a Jewish State if we don’t live by our Jewish ideals. Having the government observe Shabbat is important, but it is despicable to not help those in need, how short are our memories? We must be a light unto others and help those in need when it is in our power (and it is).
Back to pat-downs and invitations. You can not enter any bus station, government building, mall, etc without having your bag checked and a metal detector passed around your back; this is to ensure that you do not have a weapon or bomb on you. Israel will always have very real security concerns that it must address in order to ensure the safety of its citizens. But at the same time it is hard to not be invited to a strangers house to stay if you need to sleep somewhere or eat something. A Jewish State cannot treat foreigners escaping religious/political persecution (almost certain death) in the same manner as the rest of the world. We are not like every other country and must never forget that the world once turned its back on us. If the words “Never Again” are made meaningless by government policy we have failed as a Jewish State.

סבלנות Patience

If there are two things you need in order to make Aliyah to Israel the first is being Jewish, the second is possessing patience—and lots of it. I have been here for a couple of days and am not only trying lots of different foods, practicing my Hebrew, riding public transportation again, but am also discovering a never before known amount of patience. Some examples: took me about 4 hours to get a blackberry from the phone company, having the taxi driver get lost from the airport and spending a good deal of time backtracking, and finally going to the bank four times until I could open an account (which took 2 hours and a lot of haggling). Well, at least I have a phone, bank account, and a bed to sleep on from now on. Side note, had Mohammad’s Falafel—and for all of my Hebrew U friends back in the states—ya its everything you are thinking and more + eggplant.

To Start להתחיל

I once said that "starting is always the hardest part" but I guess i should really say that continuing and writing more than one post every 6 months is also hard...What can I say, my sister got the writing genes and I got the move halfway around the world and join the Israeli army genes. (Humor genes too) I have less than 14 hours until I am sitting on a plane with my 2 tons of luggage and flying to Israel. I am excited, a little nervous, and very eager to start this journey. I hope everyone who spends their time reading this site gets their money's worth and enjoys/is intrigued about what I write. Please feel free to comment or write to me, and yell at me when i dont write anything new. Thats all for now....שלום

PS: I must create a good title for the blog, so please send me suggestions as I'm not that creative, all i have right now is "Taking my Talents to the Mediterranean"...I know, its not that good.

Ari Solomon