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Israelis Travel in Hostile World

Israelis Travel Through a Hostile World Israeli culture is one part Arab (basically) one part European Jew (basically). Within the past century Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the USA convened together in the biblical lands and Israel was created. A new culture was formed in the process. Hebrew was resurrected from [...]

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Israelis Travel Through a Hostile World

Israeli culture is one part Arab (basically) one part European Jew (basically). Within the past century Jews from North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the USA convened together in the biblical lands and Israel was created. A new culture was formed in the process. Hebrew was resurrected from the ages, reformed to suit modern contexts, and relearned. Jews from the north, south, east, and west converged into Israel, intermixed, and formed a new culture very much unique from the sum of its parts.

During the mid twentieth century, half of my wife’s family emigrated to Israel, half to the USA. Beyond being Jewish, my wife is in no way culturally similar to most Israelis (though she does have the tell tale nose standing as a grand centerpiece of an overtly Semitic face). Israeli culture is something new, I stand amazed that so many different groups could come together in the same place, interbreed almost without distinction, learn a new language, and discard their particular old ways for a common new culture in one or two generations.

I have yet to meet an Israeli who visibly lacked confidence. They are an upright people, a solid people, a culture that takes what they want for themselves when they want it, a culture who lost the passive response a long time ago. It is my impression that the timid Israeli who talks into their shirt does not exist — either that or they have been steam rolled long ago.

What I like most about Israelis is that they are always talking about something, always debating, always seeming to have something to excited or otherwise really loud about. When I sit down to a table of Canadians or Europeans all too often they say “Where are you from?” “Where are you going?,” “What have you done here?” and then run out of ideas. I no longer feel the urge to talk with Europeans or Canadians, they all say the same thing — when I talk to them I find that I say the same things too. When I sit with Israelis they look at me and ask questions — real questions — I ask questions back, hours pass, we keep talking until some other force acts upon us. Israelis seemed to have learned the art of conversation, they seem to talk for the sake of their own stimulation rather than making a shallow pass at politeness.

And if we ever run out of things to talk about, I know that all I need to do is mention Israel. All Israelis seem to love telling others about their country. They teach lessons that need to be told, they share information that the anti-Israel bent press will never tell.

It is amazing to me how many Canadian or Americans think they know anything about Israel. They act as if they have a stake in the conflicts of the country, that they know what is going on there, that their opinion has the power to change anything. The information that they spout is always very far removed from the source — maybe they read the newspapers, more than likely they just regurgitate what they hear their friends say. They seem to think that Israel is 100% wrong, that they took over a sovereign people, that they are invaders that need to be pushed into the sea. They often get angry when they speak of Israel, they speak as if they spout unalianatable, pure fact that everyone else agrees with, they speak as if they know what they are talking about.

They can’t know.

Sometimes I hear Canadians or Americans or Europeans take political shots at Israeli travelers. They treat them as murderers, who served in the armed forces of their country killing innocent women and children. Sometimes the Western liberals seek retribution for some reason unknown to me — I have yet to understand why someone from across the world can feel any sense of solidarity with people elsewhere, in a country — or territory — they have never even visited.

The Israelis always seem prepared for such assaults. They seem to expect to be discriminated against, they seem prepared to travel in a world that they think may hate them. Many liberal Americans think that the world hates Americans, but few actually do — and even less show it. But the Israelis may have a point — they travel in a potentially hostile world, entire countries have banned them, many hotels will not serve them.

So they group up on the road, perhaps as a defense strategy.

———————-

The hotel that I am working at in the Guatemala jungle is on the Israeli trail. Israeli travelers talk to each other, they share information on friendly places to stay, they tend to go to these same places as they travel. I have noticed that many Israelis also carry little notebooks that are full of hand written addresses and phone numbers of places that other Israelis told them to go along with their Hebrew guidebooks.

They try to deny it, but they all go to the same places as each other. When an Israeli comes into the finca I know that they will want to cook for themselves (a year ago the finca allowed a group of Israelis to use our grill for Yam Kippur, and this rumor is still spreading), some want us to cook their food in their own pots, they will stay for four or five nights, fight and argue with us about every price, and then leave completely happy with big smiles on their faces and bigger goodbyes.

Invariably, they will then travel to Rio Dulce and then go swimming in the hot springs at Finca Paradiso, a place that few other travelers have ever heard of.

———————–

“Can you tell an Israeli by looking at them?” I asked a couple Israeli travelers at the Hotel Casa Shalom in Antigua.

They answered without hesitation that they could.

Israelis have a look to them, they are easy to spot, even easier to pin point after hearing the hanging a lugey “Arrchk” and “Ghresh” sounds of their language and the volume at which they speak it. I had to hold back my observation about their tendency to have rather grandiose noses, though could not help extending my hand towards the frontal portion of my face as I asked my question.

Instead, I offered that my wife had a similar appearance.

They agreed, but then added that they identify their brethren by their clothes. It is true, just about every female Israeli traveler wears black tights, and the dudes are often similarly dressed as each other — though I cannot clearly identify the trademark features. I must admit that in the presence of Israeli women I seldom looked at the men very closely.

———————-

“We went to Argentina and we saw a Star of David with a . . . a . . . a Nazi symbol . . .What is that called?”

“A swastika.”

“Yes, a swastika over top of it.”

An Israeli traveler was offering me a glimpse of what it is like to travel in a world that is hostile to their government, a world perhaps hostile to their people.

“People hate us, and it is for no reason other than we’re Jewish,” he continued. “I tell people here that I am from Israel and they say, ‘You are Israeli [makes machine gun sound and hand motion]. That is all they know of Israel. They know nothing, they don’t even know where Israel is. Everywhere we go in the world we are hated because we are Jewish.”

More than any other travelers that I have ever observed, Israelis seem driven to identify their countrymen and travel in packs. Very often a solo Israeli comes into the Finca Tatin where I am working and their first question off the boat is, “Are there other Israelis here?”

When I was researching Chinatowns in my student days in India I came across a passage that said, “The Chinese build Chinatowns not to keep themselves in but to keep other people out.” Chinatowns were built for protection, many cultural units residing in foreign lands do this. In Israel, I am told that the Russians build Russia towns, when traveling abroad the Israelis build little Israeli towns.

There is a website called something like Gringo.com that is for Israeli travelers. They read it and find out where the other Israelis are. They join them.

The fear of anti-Semitism seems to lead to exclusivist, which often leads to a reaction from non-Israelis that may be interpreted as anti-Semitism. It seems cyclic. Israelis tend to travel in packs, they have their safe houses all around the world, then often tend to show little regard for other non-Hebrew speaking travelers — Israelis move into hostels and take them over. This sometimes seems to be a little difficult for other travelers to handle.

—————-

You can sit around with a room full of Israelis and really talk about something. They are a conversationalist culture, not garbage talkers. They tend to gather in groups, they speak loudly in Hebrew — you listen to the grunts and the hacking a lugey noises emitting from the bunch, it seems difficult to break into the conversation without a knowledge of their language. You sit on the periphery, watching the group completely disregard your presence. If they talk to you it may be to ask for a chair at your table, or if you want the left overs from their dinner. It is difficult to get a pack of Israelis to regard you as a human, as someone to communicate with, but once you do the benefits are often far worth it. The language will all of a sudden shift to English, the conversation often has a tendency of quickly diving deep.

—————–

“I hate you, I kill you, you come into my territory, I kill you!”

An Israeli girl roars at an encroaching insect in the Guatemalan jungle. Honestly, she was talking about insects.

—————–

“Sometimes I just want to kill them all,” an Israeli girl spoke honestly about the people who have become known as the Palestinians.

I too, would probably share this sentiment if people were shooting missiles into my country.

I can feel the blood boiling of Canadian and European readers. Please read on.

“They shoot thousands of missiles into Israeli, and we do nothing,” the Israeli girl continued, “Everything we do we need the permission of the United States, the United States said that we could invade Gaza.”

——————

A Turkish ship full of anti-Israel activists attempted to break the Israeli sea blockade en route to Gaza. The ship was warned to stop, they did not. The Turkish ship was making a political point, they were trying to break through Israeli control. Israeli soldiers boarded the ship, the Turks fought them, nine or so activists were killed.

The international press jumped into a feeding frenzy, the leaders of countries such as Nicaragua broke off all political relations with Israel.

I had to wonder, “What if a Turkish ship tried to break a US military blockade?”

It would probably be blown to bits. In the rules of international military engagement, this would probably be standard operating procedure: running military blockades is a sure way to get blown to bits.

It is my impression that the Turkish ship was trying to make a point, trying to create an international issue, trying to put the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict back onto the front page of world newspapers, trying to pick a fight that would leave Israel looking real bad. By all accounts, they were successful.

This happened a couple of months ago. When it happened, the finca had a group of Israelis staying in the dormitory. I asked them what they thought of the dispute.

They squirmed. It seemed to me as if they may have felt put up on chopping block, that I could have been picking a fight. I could have been.

It happens.

They answered in a very non-committal, politically correct manner:

“There could have been other ways to stop the ship . . .”

I asked another Israeli a couple of weeks later the same question to receive almost the same response.

Squirm. “There could have been another way . . .”

Israelis seem to know the world they travel in.

————————-

“What did you do for your military service?” I asked an Israeli girl one night over coffee.

She told me that she worked in intelligence.

“Is there a certain screening process for the woman who work in immigration on the borders?”

The Israeli did not know what I was getting at, but a nearby Canadian traveler did.

“What do you mean?” The Israeli asked.

“Because all of the women on the border are really hot!” myself and the Canadian said in virtual unison.

“Oh, you must have been lucky,” the Israeli girl replied in denial of any sort of Israeli welcoming committee conspiracy, “so you only saw pretty girls in immigration?”

“Yes,” I continued as I explained how I found the men and women working Israel’s land borders with Jordan and Egypt exceptionally attractive. Then I remembered a person who was not so attractive: “Well, except for the lady cleaning the toilets.”

“She must have been Arab,” the Israeli girls answered matter of factly.

“Why?” I asked.

“If she was cleaning the toilets she must have been Arab,” the Israeli girl reiterated, “It sounds racist but its not, it is just the way that it is.”

—————–

“I have a friend who said that she wants to go to Gaza to study history,” an Israeli woman told me, “but the only thing there is in Gaza is Hamas, terrorists, and a bunch of buildings piled on top of each other.”

Never short to say what they think — this is why I enjoy meeting Israelis on the road.

————

Two generations ago much of the world implicitly supported the extermination of people of Jewish descent, today — in a country of their own — Israelis find themselves surrounded by people who want to wipe them out of existence. Many other countries would like to allow this to happen.

I imagine that this is a lot of baggage to take traveling. If I was born into a world of enemies — both real and projected — if I was raised to see a world that so clearly showed hatred towards me because of my race and country (no, USA travelers do not meet this kind of reception, even in the Middle East) I would probably take additional measures when traveling. I would probably have a very different view of the world.

“What you have to understand,” a Jewish friend once said to me, “is that Israel is run by the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, they are going to be a little crazy.”

Related articles: Navigating Culture – Are they rude or am I a wimp

Filed under: Culture and Society, Intercultural Conflict, Israel, Middle East, Traveler Culture

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

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  • FruuGal August 7, 2010, 2:53 pm

    I think it is wrong that one race of people can proclaim that another race of people should be “wiped off the face of the earth”. Why is this call to genocide not challenged and denounced by the United Nations?

    If any other country had missiles being shot into it’s borders, they would quickly retaliate. No other country would tolerate it. Why should Isreal be expected to accept it?

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com August 20, 2010, 10:50 am

      I agree, Fruugal,

      It is difficult for people to accept groups who live differently than they do while in proximity. Unless a culture fully assimilates itself to be like the dominant majority they will be marginalized. I suppose this is a very old — tribal, perhaps — aspect of human culture that is proved to work to the same ends all over the world. Cultures, by design, are perhaps not made to cooperate with each other. Where there is an “us” there will always be a “them.”

      Funny how during eons of human cultural evolution we have not found a better way.

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  • craig | travelvice.com August 8, 2010, 1:23 am

    Israel is one of the largest arms exporters in the world. It’s not the US that dictates terms to Israel, but Israel that dictates their terms to the US. Out of fear of a massively destabilized region — read: oil interests — due to the omnipresent threat of the use of their nuclear ordinance, the US has been put in a position to stabilize — read: aid with ability to defend the borders with non-nuclear weapon systems — their place in the Middle East.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com August 16, 2010, 11:48 pm

      These issues are very complex. But I do see the anti-israel stance that has taken over the globe as something that could play out with missiles flying in every direction.

      What was that about how when the Jews return to Israel there will be armageddon?

      This is a sentiment that is very much believed by many Christian sects. They believe in this so much that they are the ones financing much of the Zionist movement.

      We live in a crazy time.

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  • Colleen December 26, 2010, 8:27 pm

    Americans, Canadians and Europeans are, for the most part, thoroughly indoctrinated into a liberal bias against Israel by the news media. People who have never read a book in their lives past college are against Israel because they get their “opinion” from the “news.” Folks, you are being manipulated. Read and learn about ALL the points of view on the topic, or just have the integrity to admit you really don’t have a substantive opinion. It’s ok to be still learning about reality, but you waste your own time and others’ when you just parrot what you think other people will approve of you saying.

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com December 27, 2010, 1:28 pm

      Well said, Colleen, well said.

      Thanks. This sums up this piece completely.

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  • Rachel April 5, 2011, 11:26 am

    Interesting post, but your descriptions of Israelis sounded to me like the kind of Israelis who backpack, not the entire society. Have you spent a lot of time in Israel? There are definitely quiet and introverted Israelis but they are more likely to wind up in Europe or just not travel than be on the Israeli backpacker circuit. Also, the ‘bad behaviour’ of post-army backpackers is a common topic of conversation among Israelis in Israel, especially older ones.

    Not quite sure what to make of your description of how Israelis look… they look like other Jews but with less Ashkenazim and more Sephardim. There is a typical ‘Ashkenazi look’ which some people do have but, umm, we don’t all have Jewish noses… And you recognise an Israeli by the accent and shanti-shanti hippy look, not the physical features..

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    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com April 7, 2011, 3:40 pm

      Yeah, I have been to Israel. My wife is Jewish and half her family are Israelis.

      In terms of physical attributes, substitute the word Israeli for Jewish. Correct, the broad definitions that writing or communicating demands often are not meant to describe each case individually. They are generalizations. Though I do believe that there are general Israeli physical traits that go beyond dress and accent.

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  • ling December 9, 2011, 9:00 pm

    “It is amazing to me how many Canadian or Americans think they know anything about Israel.”

    You seemed to try to write an article about visiting Israel/ Israelis and how you come to understand them. But have obviously waded into talking about the Occupation/ Conflict/ whatever title you prefer.

    It is amazing to me how many people think they know anything about about the situation without visiting Israel AND the Palestinian Territories or reading up a little international law on the matter.

    And please, I am not justifying any rockets or acts of terrorism. I quite agreed with many things you wrote about. Just asking for a bit of perspective

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  • kashif May 15, 2012, 5:49 am

    I have spent countless hours documenting the pro-israel bias of american and european media and voyageur extraordinaire Wade, here you are telling me about the anti-israel slant of the very same media!
    You call Israel a nation threatened by missiles? Since the year 2000, less than 10 people have died in the missile attacks on south Israel. More than 1000 died during the war on Gaza alone. Are you aware of this fact? If the death of 10 Israelis entitle them to be mad destroyers, how much are the palestinians entitled to?
    I can clearly see your bias as the result of you having jewish connections. That’s natural. But If only you acknowledged this prejudice, you could be better informed and more objective in your appraisal.

    Not a very long time ago, Joe sacco travelled in the palestinian territories and came out with the graphic novel ‘Palestine’. I urge you read it, just for the sake of the art, if nothing else. That’d be more like real learning.
    God luck, Keep going!

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    • Wade Shepard May 15, 2012, 6:02 am

      I’m not talking about the media in this article, I’m talking about the opinions of people and them prejudging others on the actions of their governments. There is no reason for this — ever. It is a real idiot who shows animosity towards someone because of their country of origin or race. That was the point of this article.

      Also, the numbers you cite above are incorrect.

      I don’t believe the propaganda of either side.

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      • kashif May 23, 2012, 4:05 am

        I’m afraid you do talk about media here, more specifically you term western media biased against Israel or even against the jewish people which explains (according to you) the wide-spread denunciation of israel in the west.
        And believe me Wade, most non-western people dont dislike Israelis just because of religion. They dislike them owing to the deeds of some of their compatriots and their govt’s policies.
        Yes, historically jews used to be despised just because they were jewish. But that was in Europe and america and not in asia or africa. And not very long ago they were almost exterminated, but not by the people your israeli friends call terrorists.
        Anyway, you’re entitled to your perspective.
        Keep going!

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        • Wade Shepard May 23, 2012, 11:01 pm

          Hello Kashif,

          Thanks for the comments, but as I said, any person who dislikes someone because of the actions of their government is a fool.

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          • Harold Tiscoe January 3, 2023, 7:53 pm

            Dear Wade you do realise that the so called Palestinian people you refer to actually do exist, and did so long before the modern state of Israel. No person will except living under occupation or in an apartheid system. the occupation needs to end and settlements need to stop otherwise the fighting will continue until moshiach arrives . If it’s unacceptable for Russia to occupy parts of Ukraine then it’s certainly unacceptable for Israel to occupy Palestinian land.

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            • VBJ January 10, 2023, 12:04 pm

              Thanks for sharing your opinions.

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