Tag: Sinai

Israel issues travel warnings

A view of shore from a dive shop in Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt. (photo by B. Simpson via commons.wikimedia.org)

During the upcoming school holidays of Passover, followed by the summer months, many Israelis travel abroad. Europe is only a few hours away by plane, and the beaches of Cyprus and Greece are even closer. Vacations abroad, even including the flight, are often cheaper than local getaways because of the high price of Israeli hotels. However, the Israeli government has issued travel warnings for 41 countries, including Europe and Asia.

“Recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in Belgium, Canada, Australia, France and Denmark raise concerns over additional attacks against Western targets, including Israeli and Jewish targets, by veterans of the fighting in Syria and Iraq who are affiliated with global jihad (including Islamic State) and by local elements inspired by the terrorist organizations.”

The travel warning, issued by the National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau, noted that is illegal for Israelis to travel to “Syria, Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan), Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.”

The warning comes amid a spate of attacks on Western and Jewish targets including the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Jewish supermarket in Paris, the shooting in Denmark and, just this weekend, an attack on a synagogue in London.

Israeli terrorism experts say Israelis do not seem to be the primary target of these attacks.

“Until now there have been two main targets – governmental targets in Western countries and Jewish institutions,” Reuven Ehrlich, a terrorism expert, explained. “Israelis have not been the target, but I cannot tell you what it will be in the future.”

However, the warnings do not seem to be affecting travel plans. Israelis have one of the highest rates per capita of travel abroad, taking two million trips a year, although there are no statistics about how many of them are travelers who fly several times a year. Israeli travel professionals say they are telling their clients to maintain a lower profile.

“We are asking our passengers to be a little quieter, which is a good thing no matter what,” said Mark Feldman, chief executive officer of Ziontours in Jerusalem. “Israelis tend to be loud and raucous and call attention to themselves. We have several groups going to Europe in the next few weeks and we have told them not to congregate in the lobby, not to speak in loud voices and, if possible, not to speak in Hebrew.”

Read more at themedialine.org.

The state of impermanence

As a harvest festival, Sukkot is infused with thanksgiving for the bounty that Jews in Canada and, mercifully, in most of the world today, enjoy. The holiday is also an earthy affair, as we move out into our backyards (or, in some cases caused by this hot housing market, our sliver of a balcony) and into temporary shelters inspired by those used by the Israelites during the 40 years of exodus in the desert. The emphasis of the sukkah is on impermanence and inhabiting one, even if just for a meal, inspires reflection on the impermanence in our lives, including life itself.

Sukkot is immediately followed by Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah – and the juxtaposition is striking. On Simchat Torah, we celebrate the most permanent thing the Jewish people have experienced. On this day, we complete the annual reading of the Torah and immediately begin again, missing not a beat between the end of Devarim, Deuteronomy, and the beginning of Bereisheet, Genesis.

For a people who have known – who, indeed, have just finished a week of reenacting – historical impermanence, Simchat Torah is a reassurance that, in the face of all historical, social and technological change, at least one thing remains constant: the book that binds us in spirit and practice.

The Torah is a constant in times of change, and it is easy to take for granted that, in the long history of the Jewish people, we are living out one of the most dramatic epochs our people has ever known. For millennia, our forebears yearned for Zion, longing to celebrate next year in Jerusalem and to be a free people in our land. In our generation, this dream has come to pass.

The creation of the state of Israel has changed Jews, Judaism and Jewish practices in small and large ways. One of the most significant ways is the sense of permanence provided by a Jewish homeland. Yet, there have been times of war and terror when the dream has turned nightmarish. And there remain many in the world who would like Israel to be an impermanent way station, merely another sukkah, for the Jewish people.

Jews – in Israel and around the world – are determined that Israel should remain as permanent and enduring as the Torah. Yet, unlike the Torah, which has a definitive beginning and end, Israel’s borders are not recognized by the international community, nor is there a consensus in Israel about where precisely they should be in the event of a final status agreement for a two-state solution.

While Jews worldwide were contemplating construction of their sukkot, the United States and others were condemning Israel’s recent announcement of additional housing construction in East Jerusalem.

Such settlements do nothing to convince the world that Israel is acting in good faith vis-à-vis a two-state outcome. On the other hand, condemning construction as the primary obstacle to peace in the region is a difficult pill to swallow: there are more pressing impediments to peace on both sides of the conflict.

However, while settlements may not be the main impediment to peace, they are an attempt to build something relatively permanent in a region without clear borders. It seems a considerable waste of resources – human labor, building materials, money, time, even Israeli and Palestinian PR efforts and goodwill – to keep building, especially knowing that the area is disputed and, therefore, impermanent.

Such construction also raises the hopes and dreams of those who ultimately will live there – what happens if they are forced to move? Israel has demonstrated its willingness to uproot Jewish residents in Sinai and Gaza in exchange for the faint hope of peace.

Through history and ritual, Jews understand that most things are temporary, like settlements that eventually give way to compromise. We also understand that some things are meant to last, like Torah and like the irreversible redemption of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.