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That was to the tune of "I'm turning Japanese" in case you missed it.With a little over three months left of my impromptu time here in Israel, I think I've crossed the barrier in terms of turning Tel Avivi. No that's not a typo, residents of Tel Aviv are called Tel Avivis. And I'll try refrain from saying Tel Aviv again for the next few sentences.
Just before I went to the UK I purchased a gorgeous, second-hand-but-almost-brand-new, Trek beach cruiser bicycle. I christened her Sandy for the following reasons; she's pink (metallic magenta to be specific), retro-looking and ridden by an Australian living in the very beachy city of Tel Aviv (oops, sorry). For those who don't get the logic, let me spell it out for you. Pink like the Pink Ladies, retro like Grease, Aussie like Olivia Newton John and finally, where there's a beach there has to be...you got it - sand. Et voila, Sandy.
Considering I hadn't really ridden a bike since my early teen years, this was bound to be a challenge. But I'd decided to get a bike and fully throw myself into proper Tel Aviv lifestyle. You see, along with cats, dogs, dog poo and cafes, this city is full of bicycles. It's the easiest way to get from A to B and you don't have to worry about parking (but you do need to watch out for bike thieves).
So when the opportunity presented itself to get Sandy at a better-than-bargain price, I couldn't turn back. After a few test laps around the park next to the seller's home and a few reassuring words from Doug on my program, I handed over the cash and became the proud owner of this beautiful specimen of machinery.
Riding her home was...hmm...interesting. It took me about an hour to ride the 6km route home. Lots of wobbles, lots of near-misses, lots of dirty looks and "tsks", and lots of jumping on and off when the path was deemed too narrow, or the kerb too high. Never mind the very literal pain I had in my behind once I finally made it back to the apartment. I was hot, sweaty and exhausted but I had done it. I'm not ashamed to admit I was also fairly proud of myself.
Nearly a month has passed and I ride Sandy to work and back almost daily. My confidence is building every day and I can negotiate tight spaces and pesky pedestrians like a pro. Well, most of the time - I haven't crashed into anyone or anything yet. I constantly get stopped on the street by people wanting to know where I bought her. They lavish her with compliments: "!איזה אופניים יפה" which means "what a beautiful bike!" To which I smile and say "תודה" - thank you.
I've also developed a knack for giving drivers a lot of attitude when they fail to stop properly at crossings. Nothing bad, just a healthy amount of Israeli chutzpah ;) I could almost pass for an Israeli. Until I open my mouth, that is.
I'm long overdue for a blog update and while I was going to write about our group's wonderful 3-day tiyul to the south of Israel that happened a couple of weeks ago, it seemed more pressing that I talk about the issues Israel is facing at the moment.
Israel is no stranger to bad press and controversy. Everyone and their dog has an opinion (good or bad, and often misinformed) about the Jewish State. And this is fine, I don't have a problem with people having opinions that are different to mine, unless, like in this scenario, their opinions have been formed on anti-Israel reporting, propaganda and years of ignorance.
When the newspapers hit the stands early on Tuesday after the disaster that was Monday morning, the headlines screamed "Bloodshed on the High Seas". I was sitting on the train on my way to Brighton and saw the front page of The Guardian with an equally dramatic headline and asked the passenger opposite me if I could have a look. After reading the front page I passed it back to him and clearly looked shocked, but not for the reasons he thought because he said to me, "yeah, it's pretty bad huh?"
I've gone from being sad to frustrated to plain old mad with the way the Gaza flotilla incident has been reported across the world. First we hear it's 19 people killed, then 15, then 10. I believe the final number is nine now? The world is told how Israel "stormed the flotilla" without being given the surrounding circumstances leading up to the soldiers coming on board. In the race to have their articles out first, the truth and all the facts got lost along the way. People read one article, from early on in the piece, and think they're experts on the matter.
I've had several discussions with people I've encountered here in England about the topic, and they just don't have all the information because they read just one paper, or one source, rather than trying to get the whole picture. No one wants to give Israel a chance, and all the Israel-haters start to crawl out of the woodwork again because they feel they can freely criticise Israel at these times without reproach. Because why should they get in trouble when the reporters and politicians don't get reprimanded for their uninformed accusations?
This is nothing new for Israel, or for the Zionist/pro-Israel Jews out there who have been fighting the bad publicity battle in the Diaspora. So the struggle continues. The best thing to do is to arm yourself with knowledge and facts. Don't fight back with mud-slinging or get too emotional. As my dad once told me, knowledge is power, and the most effective way to combat the nay-sayers is to throw facts at them, because they can't argue with fact. The truth will come out eventually and the world will open its eyes and see what we've been seeing all along.
