Israel - the ordinary and extraordinary

As I write I’m in the Baka neighbourhood of Jerusalem, a kind of upscale but historical borough about a half hour walk from the Old City. The sky is blue, the air fresh and clear. I’ve been here the past 10 days on a Solidarity Mission with more than a dozen other Canadians. The purpose is to show support for Israel in its time of need. We have toured numerous sites, from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to Kfar Aza, one of several kibbutzim that suffered horrible atrocities when it came under attack Oct. 7 by Hamas from neighboring Gaza, about a mile away. We could see black smoke rising from Israeli shelling in the distance. We could hear the tat-tat-tat of heavy caliber tank mounted machine gun fire. Occasionally

we’d hear the very close booms of artillery, from our side of course! The burned out houses were horrific. We then toured the site of the nearby Nova rave, where hundreds of young people were slaughtered, injured or kidnapped, an open field (photo) of victims' pictures on stakes, now a national monument with visitors/mourners coming every day. We met with the deputy security head of Sderot - a city long the target of Hamas shelling - and saw video of an Hamas attack on the police station, the once modern building since razed and where an open lot with a large menorah now stands. We met soldiers and cooked for them at a field relief station. We volunteered at numerous sites including picking kohlrabies in a field just

outside Ben Gurion airport. We packed necessities, including food, for soldiers, the destitute - and evacuated families (many of whom were in our hotels) - the poor and elderly Holocaust survivors. We spent time in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It was surreal flying here. What would Israel be like? But it didn't take long to adjust to the fact that life goes on. Taking the 20-minute train ride from the airport to Jerusalem seemed as normal as taking the subway in Toronto. There were traffic jams on the neighboring freeway. People were going to work as they always have. The stores were open, the restaurants buzzing (the food here is extraordinary), the vast and teeming old world Machne Yehuda Market (photo) shoulder to shoulder the afternoon before Friday sunset and Shabbat when people stock up for food in a land largely silent on Saturdays. We met an injured soldier at the Shaare Zedak Medical Center, also the largest obstetrics hospital in the world. We dined with soldiers who had joined the Israeli army from as far away a Uruguay and New York City. The bottom line is that, at least in most of Israel, you wouldn’t know a war is going on. But scratch the surface and talk to people and you know there is a common cause to support the soldiers in the fight for the country’s survival. “Bring Them Home” hostage posters (photo) are everywhere. Life here is both ordinary and extraordinary.  

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

The El Al experience

Israeli airline El Al is reputed to be the most security conscious airline in the world. And for good reason. The state of Israel has been under threat almost since its inception and has suffered scores of terrorist attacks since its creation in 1948. I’d always wondered what it would be like to fly on the airline. Yesterday my wish came true. I boarded flight LY 319 at London’s Heathrow Terminal 4 for the just over four hour flight to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. I’m in Israel for 11 days. Prior to boarding I had had a good part of the day in London after arriving at noon on Air Canada from Toronto. My flight to Tel Aviv didn't leave until 10.20 pm. But after arriving back at the airport, claiming my luggage and checking in at the El Al counter, I was asked several additional questions while in line by an airport official before I even got to check in. These were pretty general, including how I was transferring flights and what I did between them. But I think it was the fact I had left the airport and went into the city that triggered a security alert. First a square yellow sticker was attached to my passport. I was also told to show up at the check in gate at 9 pm,  half an hour before boarding. I did and was asked to enter a security office and hand over my shoulder bag. There a staffer went through with it with the security equivalent of a fine tooth comb. Even my Clif energy bar was put on a device to see if it contained explosives. The experience lasted 15 minutes. Everyone was polite and courteous. But attached to my bag, as well as my checked luggage, were the same yellow security stickers (see photo). I wasn't the only one so diverted; three other passengers all of whom seemed Israeli citizens and spoke Hebrew, also were. I didn't consider this procedure particularly onerous and was expecting perhaps a more thorough interrogation. Otherwise the packed flight to Israel was as normal as that of any other airline.  Something else I noticed. The El Al flight departed at the very end of an airport terminal pier. The plane parked on the tarmac was completely dark, surprising because at night usually one sees cabin lights. The plane also seemed to sit in outdoor darkness. (A friend later told me this was all part of the security procedure.) No doubt there also were undercover armed air marshals on the flight  to thwart any attempted hijacking. And, not surprisingly, at the initial airport check in counter - unlike at any others in the airport - there were two armed British police officers carrying machine guns. 

I guess every friggin public institution now has to have its hypocritical and guilt signaling so-called Indigenous land acknowledgement, from city council meetings to the new University of Windsor Law school and the former Art Gallery of Windsor (now Art Windsor Essex). Now even Air Canada does. Flying from Toronto to London Friday night I heard it for the first time. After the security announcement, an Air Canada voice overlaid a video of the panoramic Canadian natural landscape. Only, instead of the usual Acknowledgement words indicating the meeting is taking place on (former) Indigenous land, AC’s acknowledgement is that it is “flying” over such territory. Apparently you just can’t get away from this woke stuff, folks, even in the skies.

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller