Israel Today: Impressions and Paradoxes

• Published in: The Jewish advocate (Boston, Mass.) Vol. 192; no. 21
• Main Author: Sherman, Dave
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston The Jewish Advocate 31.05.2001
• Subjects: International; Israel
• ISSN: 1077-2995

Somehow, though, life goes on in Israel. There's a certain amount of denial that contributes to this -- at a Gilo school we met a child who lives in another Jerusalem neighborhood who said he wasn't scared at all. In Jaffa, a shoe-seller told me that she feels safe there, but I found out minutes later that a mosque with a minaret overlooking the whole area has been taken over by Hamas. As deplorable as the Palestinian violence is, though, it is in fact somewhat limited. Israel still has things more or less under control. In the Old City of Jerusalem, in Gilo, in the Mahane Yehuda marketplace, in Tel Aviv, some of the most frequent targets of terrorist attacks, we never felt unsafe. We walked the streets freely, moreso than we might in Boston or any other U.S. city. And it's still a country where, crazies aside, an Israeli Cabinet minister and a close adviser to Sharon could each address us with no security present.