Okay. So I have been getting along quite well with some of the bros here on this trip. Surprisingly. I think fraternities are stupid, but so be it. But I don’t understand why frat bros love their sports so much. Last night, after we returned from Jerusalem, they all went into a room to watch football. To watch 2 teams that none of them really cared about. I mean you are in Israel, I think being abroad and meeting new people should overcome an AEPi international football watching party. Whatever.
Today was the day that we received our Israeli soldiers. There were 8 of them. 5 girls, 3 dudes.
After we met the soldiers we rearranged our roommates so that the soldiers would become a part of our already well-formed group. I felt a bit bad for them. They were the middle-school children who moved schools in the middle of the year and had to play catch up. The ones who had to prove they were worthy of entering our Mean Girls cliques. Which is funny, because as it turned out, all the Israeli girls stereotyped American teens/college students as living with a Mean Girl mentality. And in a mutual cultural stereotype, most of us Americans thought that all Israelis were religious. But I don’t believe in stereotypes – I only fulfill them.
We had lunch (I finally was accustomed to the Mediterranean fare), and off we went to learn about Israel’s politics. We hit the bus and rode to the Supreme Court and the Knesset (Congress). Once again, I felt like this trip was planned for a nerdy Democratic Jew majoring in poli-sci. Our group obviously had trouble paying attention.
Why do all politicians think painted portraits are interesting?
It was during this part that I stayed near the back of the group, trying to meet all the Israelis. If I was going to experience the Israeli culture I craved, I’d have to be proactive about it. It also didn’t hurt that I had been telling everyone I was looking for an Israeli wife. I wasn’t. I think marriage before the age of 24 (minimum) is a shame. And maybe a sham. Yet I knew early on that this was part of the birthright mission. If we hook up with the Israelis, we will have another emotional and personal connection to Israel. Hence, I took it the extreme. I was there to bag me an Israeli trustfunder. Atleast that was my story.
In the Supreme Court I actually had a pretty productive discussion. We were asked to break up into smaller groups and discuss different issues. One issue was how it illegal for pigs to touch Israel’s soil. Therefore the one pig farm in Israel was forced to keep all their pigs on a concrete platform a foot above the ground. My group and I found it to be ridiculous, and many of the Americans were pleasantly surprised that nearly all of the Israelis (who were mostly non-religious) had never eaten pig before. We were not a very Kosher group.
Anyhow, my group discussed another cultural/political situation in Israel. Ours was about two Arabs who were on the Israeli soccer team, but refused to play under the Israeli flag. Everyone in my group showed compassion to the Arab players. Those poor Arabs loved soccer so much. Yet their political ideology wouldn’t allow them to compete in the World Cup under an oppressive flag. I was the dissenting voice who said that their logic was flawed and they should stop whining. Not that I don’t understand their political leanings. But they need to take a position and stick with it. If they don’t like Israel’s policies to such a degree, then don’t play on the team. If soccer is their life, they will suck it up and play, maybe thereby even garnering more media coverage for their political leanings. One of the people who disagreed with me hinted about how I was insensitive. Democratic citizens are spoiled and think that society and politics should and always will be in their favor.
When we were done getting all political, we traveled to a Jerusalem shuk, an open-air marketplace. If I hadn’t forgotten my camera charger I could have taken some spectacular stereotypical pictures of colorful spices in open bags, and neat rows of exotic fruit. But I didn’t. So instead I found a hole-in-the-wall hipster bar. I don’t know why it was there, among all the cakes, produce, and halvah (sesame pastry). But I enjoyed it.
Like this picture which I did not take.
I sat down, and with the help of our Israeli soldier, ordered a few beers. I wanted an Israeli microbrew. I had drank the two most popular Israeli beers, Maccabi and Goldstar. Maccabi was Israel’s shitty PBR (as The Raw Men Empire had told me) and Goldstar was their Budweiser. I ended up ordering Bezelet, a Hefeweizen made in the Golan. The fact that the beer was German didn’t really matter. It was the best beer I had yet in the Holy Land. Add to the fact that in this little hipster bar Modest Mouse’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News was playing on the speakers, and I was in Israeli hipster heaven. The perfect fusion of American and Israeli culture.
I also tried the only Palestinian beer in existence, Taybeh. Of course I then felt required to make a joke about it. How could I drink a beer from a place that doesn’t exist? The irony of that question wasn’t lost on my Israeli soldier friend.
If I have time another day I will rant for my hatred on 'posing pictures'. Action shots are where its at.
We ate dinner in Jerusalem, and returned for an evening program on Israeli culture. This may have been the best part of any discussion/organized program yet. They sat us all in front of a very religious woman. She told us about her 12 children, about how she receives money from the government, but that Israel shouldn’t exist. She explained how she thought Israeli soldiers were terrible, hateful people. The Israelis in our group were pissed. One got into an argument with the woman and stormed out of the room. Another was on the verge of tears she was so angry. The woman then said that the gay pride parade in Jerusalem was the reason for Israel’s problems. We were about to have a riot on our hands.
And then she took off her religious head covering, changed her clothes, and began talking to us as a different person. She was really an actress, one who had fooled all of us and made some of us very angry. (I was angry at birthright for sending a religious nutjob to talk to us.) After it was over I incredulously asked one of the soliders, “There is no way in hell that people like her exist. I mean, she was just plainly ignorant”. He told me that there actually were alot of people who believed the same things she did. Maybe people like her will help form an Israel Tea Party.
Birthright 1, Israel 1, Chicky 0
The Duckman
01/24/2011
Whomever took your photos has horrible composition skills