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October 22, 2004
To stand at Mount Sinai again
Even when the world is perilous, there is still hope and understanding.
BRIAN BLUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
I've never visited the Sinai Peninsula. And now I fear I never
will. The nearly simultaneous bombings that killed 33 at the Taba
Hilton and the beaches at Ras al-Satan earlier this month delivered
destruction to a destination regarded by many Israelis as a refuge,
an oasis in the desert where one could get away from the stress
of life in pressure-cooker Israel and luxuriate on one of the most
fabulous beaches in the world with the some of the best scuba diving
and snorkeling around.
Or so I'm told.
But the bombs also had the effect of closing the world off just
a little bit more to Israelis. Sinai now joins other former Israeli
tourist havens that have seen their symbols of public Jewish life
targeted in the last few years and, as a result, are no longer perceived
as entirely safe.
Places like Mombassa, Kenya, where an Israeli-operated hotel was
bombed in November 2002. Or Istanbul, Turkey, where attacks at two
synagogues killed more than 20 people just under a year ago. These
days, just wearing a Star of David in Paris can be dangerous.
But the Sinai ... there's something special about the place that
calls to me even though I've never been. Maybe it's because you
can drive there, in your own car even. To give you a sense of proportion,
you can get to Taba from Jerusalem in less time than it would take
to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Or New York to Washington,
D.C.
Then again, maybe it's our history. Tradition has it that Moses
ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the Torah.
The Jews wandered that desert for 40 years after leaving Egypt.
It's no wonder then that perhaps the most striking image from the
aftermath of the bombs in Sinai was not the pictures of rescue workers
digging through the rubble for bodies and survivors – we've
seen that too many times before right here in our own neighborhoods
in Israel. Rather it was the mass exodus from Egypt. The buses that
were sent into the Sinai to bring some 15,000 Israeli tourists home
in a matter of hours.
The symbolism and religious irony is unavoidable.
And one more thing: my family and I were supposed to be in the Sinai
that day. We actually had plans with two other families to make
the trek during the intermediary days of the Sukkot holiday and
go camping ... on the very beach that was bombed.
We chickened out only after the Israeli Foreign Ministry in September
issued an unprecedented warning based on "concrete" information
regarding terrorists targeting Israelis in the Sinai during the
high travel season. Would that everyone had been so cautious.
And yet, how can you live like that? Tourists stopped coming to
Israel because it's not safe. Israelis can't travel abroad because
it's too dangerous. It's not possible to guard and protect everything.
At what point do you draw the line and say "it's out of my
hands." Is cancelling vacation plans giving in to terrorism?
Or is it just plain prudent?
Shortly after the bombs in the Sinai, I received an e-mail from
a colleague in Egypt. We had often joked that we'd meet each other
at the half way point between Jerusalem and Cairo where he lives.
That is, on the beach in the Sinai.
In his letter he wrote:
"I am so sorry for what happened in Egypt yesterday in Taba.
I understand that many innocent Israeli people died, which is for
sure very bad, and not acceptable by anyone or by any religion.
Let's hope together that God brings peace in our region."
His words of heartfelt concern struck a deep chord inside of me,
saying that, even when the world seems like it's becoming increasingly
perilous, there is still hope. Even when the borders are closing
tighter and tighter, and when it would seem that no Israeli would
be crazy enough to ever visit Egypt again, there can still be understanding
between people.
I still hope to visit the Sinai someday. And sip tea with my friend
from Cairo.
Brian Blum writes the syndicated column This Normal Life,
available at www.ThisNormalLife.com.
E-mail him at [email protected].
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