January 29-February 4, 2004

loose canon

Israel. Any Questions?

by Bruce Schimmel

A lot of people are not visiting Israel, which is likely one of the reasons I’ve finally decided to go. Maybe it’s being a journalist, maybe it’s just being me, but if I’m told what not to do, it’s a reflex for me to ignore the advice.

Which is why, in asking my friends what I should do, they tend to tell me what I ought not to do. Don’t ask questions. Don’t be nosy. Keep my head down. Shut up.

Well, that’s not going to happen.

It’s not like I seek out danger for danger’s sake. I’ve never climbed a mountain simply because it is there but I will put myself in harm’s way to gain a perspective that can’t be gotten otherwise.

First, a little background. This is my first trip to Israel, and I'll be there for two weeks. Though I don't speak Hebrew, I'll be traveling with another American journalist who is a dual national, has family there, and can speak the language like a native. She also, I believe, has some notion of which blind-alley blunder could bring us face-to-barrel with a gunman. I mean, we're certainly not looking to die.

We'll be based in Tel Aviv but will be able to roam around the country at will.

I guess what fascinates me most about Israel is how the Middle East's only democracy differs from ours. And how, ironically, this ancient land may offer unpleasant harbingers of our own future.

In the last two years, in the name of security, the personal liberties of Americans have been whittled away, if not outright hatcheted.

How does democracy fare under a real, ongoing siege that has lasted for decades?

How can a nation be a democracy that is also a religious homeland to peoples whose values are antithetical to each other? (I'm not just talking about Jews vs. Christians vs. Muslims, either, for there are sects at internecine war within all three religions.)

What can we learn from a place where people don't seem to have -- as Americans still do -- a fundamental desire to just get along?

That's the philosophical baggage I'll be carrying with me to the Promised Land. Since I'm also traveling with notebook and audio recorder, I expect to fill them up.

That being said, what would you like me to bring home for you? You ask, and I'll try to find an answer. With luck, not to mention a dependable Internet connection, I should be able to file my column from abroad.

So, if you can think of a place I should go, a thing I should do or -- even better -- people I should see, e-mail me at bruce@schimmel.com. My thanks in advance.