Israel Advocacy Network Blog - State Zionist Council of Victoria

Tel Aviv

I am pretty sure that it was David Ben Gurion who said “we will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew.”

This might seem like a vulgar and perhaps unsavoury view to have, but in actual fact it really relates to the way I look at Israel, especially this time from the perspective of the Congress. I am now in Tel Aviv, a city that really has everything. I once read somewhere that ‘Zionism began with men who left Jerusalem for the coastal swamps.’ It is in this way that I most truly connected with my own sense of a love of Tel Aviv.

I often get asked why I prefer Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Many say that when they are in Tel Aviv it is so urban and cosmopolitan that apart from the fact that everyone speaks Hebrew, you could really be anywhere in the world. Their argument is that it is only in Jerusalem, with a backdrop of thousands of years worth of history, that you can really feel like you are in the Holy Land.

But it is for the exact same reason that most do not prefer Tel Aviv that I actually do. Here is a city that is so beautiful and yet so flawed. In some places Tel Aviv does look like any other city, and then you will turn the corner to find that sometimes, Tel Aviv has really lost her shine (if she ever had any to begin with). Even in just one day I have swum in the Mediterranean Sea, drank coffee in my favourite small café in Shenkien Street, eaten India food in a place where you pay whatever you please and drank Goldstar beer in one of the many outdoor bars.

I sat with an Australian friend the other night, and over a drink we discussed a magazine that contained advertisements for sex hotlines. The advertisement was to call to speak to Tali and Dana, Avital and Vered. He said to me that it slightly bothered him to think that all of these girls were Jewish. It was then that I thought about Ben Gurion’s quote, and how it really resonated in me more and more each time I travel deeper through the layers of this city.


Three housekeeping matters:

1. I understand that this is an Israel Advocacy Blog and I have not written at all about Advocacy. I also realise that this is a very tense time in Israel and an update from here would probably be very much appreciated. I aim to do a full round up in a few days. In the meantime, those of you in Australia probably know as much as I do - the reality is that in Tel Aviv I feel so far removed from the situation that I got more of an insight from reading Elly's Advocacy Updates than I did from actually being in the country. That being said, I will definitely write something more advocacy related in the next few days.

2. I have received questions in the Comments section of the blog regarding various issues... I have been reading them and will be putting together a list of answers also in the next few days! Stay tuned.

3. And finally for my father, who reminded me that I promised to show proof that I met Amir Peretz! Here it is: (L-R): Mirjam Streng (Mazkira of Habonim Dror Holland), Amir Peretz MK (Defence Minister of Israel), Emily Chrapot (Me!)