Friday — Flew El Al business class upper deck 747. 9:30 flying time. Arrival one hour late due to extra security in New York for passengers arriving from Toronto (they had to check in again). Food and entertainment could use upgrading; the video selections were limited for half the flight to rap videos a la MTV — frankly, I was hoping for Israeli or Jewish cultural choices. But if you think I was bored, the flight marshal across from me kept “reading” the same newspaper for the entire flight! Nevertheless, El Al moves people around in a humane way; service was certainly pleasant despite the stereotype and I was able to check in less than an hour before the flight. I think their security perimeter at JFK is too wide and there are still too many opportunities for a good terrorist team to penetrate it.
Taxi to Sheraton Hotel didn’t grab me; just $20 to get to Tel Aviv which was less than I thought — wow, I am in shock. Sheraton gave me a Club floor at $145 and I took Towers privileges for an extra $60 per night. Room was small but had a good view. Hotel is 7% full. Muscovic visited. Friday night dinner with Gil was reasonable at $32 but scaled down from the usual spread. The Tower is useful for entertaining guests and Adi joined us after dinner for late night conversation. [Notes of conversations are in a separate document.] Traffic jams along the beachfront even at 2am.
Saturday — Tversky visit. Lunch, reading. Walk around the city in late afternoon with much nostalgia on every block. Sitting in the middle of Rabin Square I see a little sign in lights that says Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday) with a small blue star. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. Gil takes me to dance party for 500 at an outdoor club on the beach near the electrical power plant. Tel-Avivis know how to party; Lior is attacking all the girls and is a Wild & Crazy Guy! I am a bit too security conscious; they are not.
Sunday — Arkia security excellent for the short flight to Kiryat Shmona $35 each way. Sde Dov airport in Tel Aviv is 10 minute taxi ride from the hotel. Airplane makes a 3 minute stop along the way to literally stop at the end of the runway to let off passengers and then take off again! I wish the Americans could learn to turn flights around this way. The airport is a hut. Mohammed meets me and we drive to Safed courthouse to meet Bernard and the 3 of us go to lunch. Then with Bernard to court, drive around the North (he drives nuts but was a professional driver in the UK) and see his businesses and family, a kibbutz and various sites until my early evening flight back to Tel Aviv. Despite being within close proximity to the borders of Syria and Lebanon, it is quiet here now and the town is rebuilding. The Lounge fed me dinner both nights so I am getting my money’s worth from this upgrade. The major hotels all seem to have dial-up Internet access but the debit cards are reasonable at $10 per hour. (The Dan Hotel Tel Aviv wanted $2 per minute but I complained to the manager and they backed off real fast. In Damascus they wanted $1 per minute which is the most I ever saw but then again their Internet never worked anyway so the price was hypothetical in any event.) Late night visit with David Livingstone (I presume) at the Azrieli Tower and to visit the poshy gym inside. This tower is the Israeli World Trade Center target equivalent.
Monday — Morning leisure; read by pool. Drive to Jerusalem by private taxi, to be safe. Cost about $50. King David Hotel suite is “Achla” (regional slang for Cool). Full 2 room suite with no corners cut. Attentive staff, beautiful view and a charm throughout the hotel with detail throughout. Met Josh and then walked to Café Rondo. Moshe is playing cards; his workers say he is angrier these days because there is no business. Walked city center to look around and have snacks just as town is closing before the holiday. Soldiers guard the Sbarros. Atara’s café closed. Hilton lost its name because it cut too many corners and its arcade is almost completely empty. Prayers and holiday celebrations at the Great Synagogue, sat with Moshe and viewed the family plaques. Met Frances Karam in the lobby of the hotel; I got his current number from the YMCA. Dinner with the Ottesoser’s in the hotel’s Sukkah that you’d think was the coffee shop with all the art and the high roof. Then walked to Varda to see the cousins and a bunch of family.
Tuesday — Splendid breakfast. Walked to the Western Wall for prayers. Not one soldier guarding the walk via the Armenian and Jewish Quarters but it felt safe anyway. The soldiers are all diverted to a group of 50 people parading through the Arab Market dancing toward the Wall and to a synagogue in the Moslem Quarter. At the Wall it is hot; most people have left by the time I have arrived. I see Ze’ev Schwartz and the Galbuts from Florida. Meeting with Oded at the hotel. Lavish buffet lunch (these meals are $75 apiece so they ought to be!), weak on entrees but heavy on exotic cold foods including an Asian sushi chef all dressed up. Sat with Matthew Zuckerman; read in the hotel’s lawn which is the only such green place at a hotel in Jerusalem. Late dinner in the evening with Josh’s cousins who have returned from a military attache stint in Sri Lanka. Hakafot Shniyot (Holiday Dancing) at the Liberty Bell Garden; we all join hands and sing songs. Return to hotel to watch the historical program about the hotel on its closed circuit channel.
Wednesday — Ronen at the bank. Azulay’s art shop for decorative wine bottle corks.Yirmiyahu for embroideries. Visited several art galleries — I will ultimately take 2 lithographs as paintings are beyond my means. Scouted out office space at the Hilton, just in case. Israel Museum to see China treasures exhibition and search for paintings by Daniel Moritz Oppenheim (didn’t find any). Itzik Shanan at hotel. Transfer to Eldan Hotel across the street for $89 per night; very good value in a new hotel. Dinner at the King David’s La Regence grill room; filet of beef and chocolate mousse. All excellent; the dining room is closing tonight for lack of traffic. Sad.
Thursday — Gilead at the hotel for breakfast. Taxi to airport. I leave my bag at the baggage check room just below the parking lot. 1pm flight to Amman. Royal Jordanian has just 4 on this big Airbus 320 (but the plane was full coming into Israel with Israelis returning from holidays in Asia). We are all upgraded. 30 minute flight is fine. I am still OK arriving at airports an hour before flight time. Amman airport is being upgraded; duty free shops have been redone and security is tight and professional. Mustafa meets me; Amman seems quiet and safe but Mustafa notes, “When the sh.. hits the fan, the King crushes dissent.” We go to his house and stand on his rooftop to talk, just as we did the year before on the roof of the Tel Aviv Carlton hotel. A lovely lunch at a very nice restaurant — I have never had a bad meal here. Visit to Hanna’s house. Early check in at the city center terminal. Coffee at the Blue Fig, a trendy place near the American Embassy in Abdoum. Quick ride back to airport and a full flight back arriving at 8:30pm. Transfer to Dan Hotel — $200 per night on the business floor. 130 people in the hotel; nice room recently renovated and the hotel is also one of Tel Aviv’s best. I also like the location which is very central; the Hilton and Intercontinental are on the periphery. Dinner at Yotveta; I love their juices and everything I’ve ever tried there. Moshe Weinstein meets me at 11 and we sit at the Intercontinental. Quite a long day, eh?
Friday — 10am train to Haifa. It is a beautiful ride. I sit in the back; this train is filled with soldiers and makes an inviting target. My taxi says he has been waiting since 4am in front of the hotel for a customer and was first on line. Shmuel meets me with home-baked bread and sandwiches. We visit his office and the Bahai Gardens, walk along the seafront promenade by the Meridien Hotel. David Levy meets us; we visit his apartment and then to the Druze village of Ussfiyah for lunch. Drive via the Carmel Mountains to Tel Aviv. The drive through Ussfiyah and the Carmel looks like Lebanon on the way to Damascus. Missed Guy Harpaz; he’s in divorce and today his wife is moving out of his flat. Later we visit David’s brother’s flat and Sheinkin area. Allenby Street is quite busy on Friday nights with many nightclubs catering to East Europeans.
Saturday — Ayal joins for lunch. I enjoy a bit of walking and a beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean Sea. I am always overdressed as I walk the boardwalk in Tel Aviv but I travel with 3 days clothing and pack long sleeve shirts and slacks; it reminds me that I don’t really fit in here. Tel Aviv is more casual and the weather is just perfect in between seasons. The Israelis are not exactly great dressers; the Arabs I know dress much more sharply. Gil and Adi come again and we talk; then to cousin Sarah for an hour of Jewish music sing-a-long and open house at her house which she stages monthly as part of a tradition started by her late husband Yudi. Barak meets me with his Mercedes and Ze’ev his driver. Visit his restaurant at Rothschild & Allenby with great French bakery and then his nightclub with 4 floors hosting 1,500 per night. Lots of security and watch dogs.
Sunday — A bit of traffic to the airport so we divert though Jaffa. Checked in 45 minutes before the 10am flight but I’m paying $900 extra each way for business class so I can do this! Flight is 11:30 to Newark. This 777 has more amenities but the upper deck on a 747 is more peaceful. I am not at all looking forward to being back in New York!
Highlights from Dialogues in Israel and Jordan — October 2001
Arie (lawyer) — Go offense. Can’t deal with the Palestinians. They want 100%. Even if they make peace, it will be a truce and after a few years they will invent an excuse and get out of it. Keep the status quo in place for a long time.
Gil (regular kinda guy) — no ideas. Just keep on fighting as there is no alternative.
Adi (economist; Iraqi family background) — Try compromise. If it doesn’t work, wipe ‘em out. Give them hope. Israel can’t do anything inside Iraq or Afghanistan.
Avi (lawyer) — We tried compromising. We could wipe them out in 2 weeks and we should.
Mohammed (lawyer with strong Sharia knowledge) — Give them a state so they will concentrate on nation-building instead of jihad. The US should show its evidence to convince the world and work harder to convince Moslems that the US doesn’t hate Islam and the Arabs. Stop trying to humiliate the Arabs. Even Westernized Arabs are still Arabs; they can live without the cars and jeans and live in tents and eat shit if they have to, and they will if they feel they must in order to maintain their dignity.
Bernard (lawyer / entrepreneur and very Europeanized Israeli) — I don’t watch TV so that nothing happens. The reality is too depressing. Wants compromise.
David Livingstone (doctor) — wipe them out.
Gabi (taxi driver) — put things back to where they were in the 1980’s with the various mayors running the show in each of the villages and throw out Arafat and the Tunis crowd. Do this until new opportunities appear.
Moshe Yeffet’s Arab employees — This is all a business; money and power corrupts Jewish and Arab leaders and gives incentives to continue the state of war.
Frances Karam (Christian Arab from YMCA) — This is all a big waste. Christian Arabs being squeezed. The Pope got Sharon to promise to save the Christians if Arafat’s people try to wipe them out. Frances’s Arab doctor sent him to an Israeli doctor last year to get an operation that saved his life.
Meir (cousin / student) — Give them everything they want. It can’t go on like this.
Varda/ Zvi (cousins — top economist and archeologist — lifelong liberals and nation builders) — The Arabs are impossible and show they don’t want peace. No choice but to keep fighting. The new finance minister is Dr. Ignoramus — he boasts he took my class which is true — he registered for it but never showed up! [To lose these votes reflects how the consensus has truly shifted.]
Oded (political scientist with strong interest in economics and salt of the earth type) — Arabs are losing everything. Sharon waits for his moment. Maybe all of Arafat’s guys will go back to Tunis. Over the long term there will be more war; the Israelis at the top are benefitting. The Arabs are losing this war of attrition and particularly the better educated people and young people with futures are emigrating. Arab students won’t go to the US to study; they and their countries will be the big losers for it. Big victory for bin Laden.
Josh’s cousins — They want everything. Compromise won’t work. If we compromise, the risk will be higher after they screw us.
Ronen (banker) — Economy is bad. There is no policy. No ideas. We wanted compromise but the Arabs don’t.
Itzik (New Israel Fund official; liberal organization) — still wants compromise. Afraid though that Arafat is not a partner. Islamic side still agitates without anyone toning it down on their side. Very focused on settlements as an obstacle to peace. Worried US will blame Israel for its problems.
Gilead (business consultant) — Barak offered as much as he could; peace is a dead issue for the time being.
Mustafa (Jerusalemite resident of Israel and Saudi Arabia; citizen of Jordan) — Hopes for a deal. Arab Islamists need to tone down the rhetoric; US needs better propaganda effort to show Moslems that it is not a nation of infidels that is anti-Islam. Enjoys Herzliya living the best; says that if he speaks in English in Israel, Israelis think he is Jewish.
Hanna (wise man living in Amman) — Give the Palestinians hope to choose life and something worth losing.
Moshe (business consultant) — Just keep fighting. Can’t do anything with them.
Jonathan (economist) — Good thing we are at war now — it is inevitable. Can’t deal with them.
Shmuel (hospital director; bioterrorism expert) — Keep fighting. Make minor technical gains to make the situation better on the ground (ie: take strategic areas to prevent shootings at neighborhoods; set up ambushes on dangerous roads to deter roadside terrorism). Continue the liquidations. Government ministers who are in charge are indecisive and even negligently nonresponsive as to plans for response to bioterrorism. At least in Israel there is some coordination among agencies — the US has 150 people around the country all reinventing the wheel. Several scientific cooperation committees with Palestinians fell victim to politics, both Israeli and Palestinians were at fault. He is exhausted attempting to try to cooperate with Palestinians and is disappointed that other Arabs are afraid to deal with him — all these information exchanges are always held hostage to politics and it is stupid to do this with regard to science and culture.
Yochi (cousin; computers) — No ideas. Over long haul, things will get better.
Ze’ev (high-tech inventor) — Wipe them out.
David (somewhat radical liberal activist; high tech) — Give it all back. We have to learn to live together and do justice with the Palestinians. The US must impose a solution.
Eliran (computers) — Can’t deal with them now.
Ayal (sales and marketing) — Can’t deal with them now; unfortunate situation.
Barak (lawyer / entrepreneur) — Arafat is an idiot; Israelis are also not innovative. Let’s see what the USA does.
