haifa.14

Haifa Fornightly(Editor--Huzefa Mehta) 14th edition 15/5/93 Nothing much happened in the last few weeks. Last week myself, Reena, Greg and Tzippi went to a safari park south of Tel Aviv. Was fun. We spent one of the weekends with Ezra and Dina.. Sunday was spent at Nahariya where Reena was taking her scuba class with the UN guys. We have today, tomorrow, and the weekend as holidays and we goofed on our plans to go to Jordan. Inquiries could not be made since there is no diplomatic relations. The idea came about when I saw the following statement issued by the US govt in rec.travel. Entry Requirements: Passports and visas are required. Entry into Jordan is usually *granted* to persons with passports showing an Israeli visa or entry/exit stamp, although implementation of this new policy has been uneven. For further entry information, travelers can contact the Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 3504 International Drive N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008, telephone (202) 966-2664. Greg has been to Jordan a couple of times. He used a duplicate american passport to disclaim his being in Israel. Since the Indian embassy refuses to issue a duplicate passport and our inability to contact the Jordanian embassy partly because it has been closed due to their independence day and also because of no phone connections to Jordan. The route would be to go to Egypt about an hour from the border and then take the boat going to Aquaba go to Jordan and finally enter Israel from the Allenby bridge. "Come visit and live in the Holy land of Palestine.." Sound like a stupid saying..Or a way to invite you guys or a Zionist call about 70 years ago.. Well it was a Zionist call more than 70 years ago..Anyways also a way of inviting you guys.. Its more than six months in Israel and it has been very busy and enjoyable.. Israel is a fun place to live however the best part are the people here. It takes some time to like an Israeli. They are aggressive and impolite even to strangers. However they are very real and don't play any games. Not afraid of calling spade a spade and no sense of diplomacy when dealing with people. Finally you begin to like the down to earth environment. All of them have been in the military for 3 years and the general degree of toughness is much higher. They are very self critical and very frank which can be annoying. Arab and Jewish History ----------------------- The British supported the Arabs against the Turks and finally managed to take a hold of Palestine themselves. Well it all started with someone mentioning that the jewish state would be the best solution to solve the jewish persecution in the world(sometime in the late 1800's). This led to the founding of the World Zionist Organization. A fund was founded to purchase land in Palestine for the Zionists. The zionist proposal to found a jewish state in uganda, cyprus, argentina and congo was rejected. Then came the second Aliyah by immigrants from Russia--and the founding of the kibbutz. Some declarations were made by the British to form a home for the jewish and the arab people. Essentially to win both support(jewish and arab) for the support for WWI. Lots of immigrants arrived during this time increasing the jewish population almost 3 times. There were no clashes between the arabs and the jews till now. A person by the named of Haj Amin Mufti enjoys the reputation of being the instigator of the arab-jewish hatred. The Arab acts of violence against the jews increased and the British did little about it. The jews retaliated. During the WWII the jews supported the British however immigration by fleeing jews were restricted by the british. The illegal immigration program started and also an underground movement to throw the British. Independence was achieved in 1948 but that started the Arab-Israeli war. IDF was established. Well what happened later depends on whose version of the story one listens to. Anyways Israel helped Britian and France against Egypt when Sadat nationalised the Suez canal.(suez canal war). The six day war (1967) Israel regained the West bank and Jerusalem and has retained it ever since. Though Israel has often mentioned that it has wanted to return peacefully the occupied territories. An Israeli view differs drastically on these issues. Some would maitain that these areas have been always part of the jewish heritage since biblical times, some insist on maintaining the area to retain the buffer zone between israel and jordan/syria and some jews maintain that they should return them back. There was another war (yom-kippur) when egypt attacked during israel's holliest dayÿû and taking back sinai. I also figured out how trade happens in the occupied territories. I asked a couple of Israeli's and they explained me the concept of "Open Bridges" which facilitates open trade between west bank and jordan and also open flow of the jordanian dinar. Israel is as culturally complex in the number of religions stemming out of it as India. Judaism being the state religion, with Islam, Christianity, Bahai, Druze, Samaritans, Black Hebrews etc. Children in Israel are very special. A family has about 3-4 children and a lot of the energy is spent on doting them. Curious to see the Israelis noted for their brusqness being so soft and tender to the young generation. Kibbutz-- A community of people who live together on a collective basis a shared ownership. Ranging from 100-2000 members. Started with a Marxist ideology by kibbutzniks coming from Russia. During WWII it was used mostly as absorption centers. Now it has its own educational system and orchestras and lots of culturally productive areas. Well it started out that the kibbutz had hard working people and they really contributed a lot to the success of what is Israel today,,with its excellent agricultural achievements however nowadays a kibbutz is a very socialist concept. The government funds the kibbutz to continue the tradition that was. The communal environment existing in the kibbutz is excellent..every body working and contributing according to his/her abilities but it is definately not productive. It does not produce as it did about 30 years ago and is now a center where parents from the US send their kids to learn about their culture. A Moshav is a co-operative village. Families own land and practice both collective and co-operative farming. I am impressed by Israel, a modern, almost Western nation stamped on a land steeped in history. The people have a real purpose in their life, and that is to build up their country so jews all around the world have a place to live in safety. Against all odds they've fended off very hostile neighbours and now they're absorbing immigrants at an astonishing rate. There is an admirable feeling of solidarity amongst the (jewish) inhabitants, which amongst other things leads hitchhikers to look up in surprise when a selfish tourist like myself drives past without picking them up. I just hope the Israelis can resist the temptation to think they have a monopoly on truth and justice, and don't let it interfere with the finding of a proper solution for the Palestinians. I'm not jewish, but if I was I'd be proud of it.