Mediterranean get-away?

Holy land?

Zionist dream?

Occupying power?

Geologic wonder?

Technological innovator?

Last month, we visited them all.

Mediterranean Get-away. In Tel Aviv, we shop in open air markets frequented by fat feral cats; walk along crowded sunny winter beaches; eat in late night cafes. We share the parks with enthusiasts practicing salsa dancing, tai chi and gymnastics. We are not blind to sociology or politics. We see protesters marching in support of housing and resident status for migrant workers; restaurant and refrigerator photos of Labor Party heroes;  the melding of Arab and Jewish social customs in Jaffa; the dark African skins of many working in low-paying service jobs; and the fears of bony feral cats on poor streets.

Holy Land.  In a morning of comic adventure, Charles and I visit Jerusalem’s Old City, an axis mundi for Jews, Christians and Muslims. (Read about the adventure here.) Claiming fatigue from late-night bar-hopping, our young adult children refuse to come.

Zionist Dream. Charles and I visit Yad VaShem Israel’s national holocaust memorial. Claiming two previous visits each, our children choose to wait outside. Inside, the exhibits teach that Jews were attacked by Nazi Germany while other nations collaborated or watched. But the attack was not successful. Six million individual deaths did not lead to national death. Throughout the war years, European Jewish artists, poets, and musicians were active. Israeli Jews welcomed refugees, orphans and survivors. Families mourned, intellectuals reflected and, outside the museum’s doors, the sun shines over Jerusalem’s hills.

Occupying Power. It’s impossible not to notice. Fences and endless rolls of barbed wire mark the narrow no-man’s land between East and West Jerusalem. Ramon and Nafha Prisons, 90% of their space housing security convicts, light up the Negev night. At numerous checkpoints, Jews are waved through, while Palestinians are asked to leave their cars, submit to searches, and explain themselves. As we travel, we share insights from the books we are reading — Leon Uris’ Exodus for Charles and Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land for me — which offer different histories for the violence and counter violence.

Geologic Wonder. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then came the Ramon Crater,” says the 3-D movie at the National Park visitor centre. One hundred million years ago, oceans drained, leaving the dry hills of the Negev Desert. At the Ammonite wall, a rock face made entirely of fish body fossils, we touch traces of this sudden event. Five million years ago, tectonic plates shifted, redirecting rivers to hollow out a crater 40 kilometres long. At Ein Sacharonim (Trader’s Spring), the crater’s lowest point, we become part of this gradual process, exploring the hidden water hole. When a raven scout chastises us for delaying the flock’s late afternoon drink, we courteously leave.

Technological Innovator. We spend Shabbat at Kibbutz Lotan. Here at the edge of the Arava Valley (annual rainfall 1.3 inches), only an open gate separates us from the peaceful Jordanian border. Deep quiet settles in; we hear birds playing and scolding; we visit cows, goats, dogs and cats; we read books on our iPads; we feel our souls. On Sunday, we tour the eco-center with its water-saving organic gardens, energy-efficient mud huts, composting toilets, and playgrounds made from trash.

Our children — veterans of a fantastic year of service in Israel, tired of the superficial religious narratives they learned in school, and opposed to the occupation — are awed by Lotan’s ecological experiments. During the tour, they plan their future: in two years, they and their closest friends would attend Lotan’s Peace, Justice and the Environment University Semester.

Which Israel?

Photos by Laura Duhan Kaplan. (1) Tel Aviv graffiti. The Hebrew says, “Don’t park here; you’ll be towed.” The English speaks for itself. (2) A dove visits our apartment balcony in Tel Aviv. (3) Charles at Yad Vashem. (4) Ramon Crater. (5) Eli and friends at Kibbutz Lotan. (6) Jerusalem graffiti. Orange artist says, “Values come before Torah.” Black artist says, “Without Torah, there are no values.”