Virtual Israel Experience

Rebecca Gale

The El Al flight was half empty late January 2001. The perils in Israel were scaring off the tourists, striking a blow into their already shaky economy.

Tel Aviv University was still up and running, their below average enrollment was eased by the students who dropped out of Hebrew University in Jerusalem to be in a "safer city." No single person could be oblivious to the political situation.

We excitedly talked politics all through the February election. I became a server at a beach café, and would launch into the Barak-Sharon debate while serving the Israelis their pita and hummus. Cab drivers easily indulged their fierce opinions on any political discussion, while swerving through four lanes of traffic and cutting off the oversized busses.

Politics were easy to talk because we weren't scared. The bombings were sporadic, vicious, and far away as far as we were concerned. Our suburbanized campus had security guards who greeted you every morning with a Boker Tov as they frisked your backpack. Thrilled to be in Israel, I felt secure that whatever terrorists there were would stay beyond my reach.

I was on the Tel Aviv's women's rugby team, and our lack of competition brought us to a tournament in Belgium the first week in June. In the line for breakfast, one of our Israeli teammates said there had been a bomb in Tel Aviv. She must have heard wrong-a bomb, in Tel Aviv? Who would target a discotheque? That question wasn't some debated political hotbed. After all it was a Friday night-out for Tel Aviv's young population-people my age, three blocks from the café where I served falafel!

The bombing shattered not only the lives of 20 people but also our perception that Tel Aviv was exempted from the turmoil going on in the rest of Israel. The semester was coming to a close and parents were increasing their frantic phone calls for their students to come home.

Even the Arabs disapproved. The Iraqi newspapers thought it was foolish to target teenagers instead of soldiers.

A month after the Tel Aviv bombing I left Israel. En route to Ben Gurion Airport, the cab driver started to chat politics, something I usually loved to do. "I don't want to talk about it, " I remember saying, "I'm ready to go back to America, things are safe and predictable there."

And I am back. A month after the culture shock has worn off, my life is at school and sliding into its routine. Just this week I heard about the bombing in Jerusalem at a Sbarro, a place where I grabbed a slice of pizza for a few shekels. It is no longer standing.

However, I still miss Israel like crazy. I regret nothing about going. Don't rely on CNN. Go to Israel, it builds character.

Rebecca is a senior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is a member of Temple Sholom and served as president of her youth group in 1998. She also served as a four-year board member with NFTY. Rebecca is a member of Hillel at Miami University.

Copyright 2008 The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise