Fili’s world

(Referring to Doubting to Shuo’s article “The Sesame Chicken Factor“. I’m even using his structure and words… :P)

One thing about living in Taiwan as an Israeli is that people already have a great deal of exposure to the Israeli issue. As a result, many feel that they have a good understanding of happenings in Israel, especially about politics. Unfortunately, much like Israelis have a very one dimensional exposure to, say, China, the international media only portrays a certain side of Israel. As an Israeli who has traveled around East-Asia and Australia in the past year, I can say it’s downright shocking to see how different this country, or even the city of Jerusalem, looks on the television sets of different countries.

One of the most grating things, is constantly being told Israel’s dangerous because “Israel and Palestine are not so good”. Sometimes, I have a hard time explaining to my international acquaintances what exactly life is over at this part of the world.

I didn’t think much of the fact that most Israelis serve over 3 years of military service, but always felt like I needed to explain myself or apologize when telling it to my friends. “I heard Israelis all go to the army, how long did you so to the army for?” they ask, and my dilemma would surface. How should I answer something like that? How would I react to somebody telling me that he served over 3 years in an army? With all the Israeli bad publicity around the world, with camera shots of Israeli soldiers pointing guns at stone-throwing small-kids, there’s no way I would come out okay. There’s no way of explaining the Israeli-Palestine situation to anybody in 3 minutes since, honestly, I’ve been trying to understand it myself for the past 27 years. So, my reaction would usually be “too long, too long” with a shy smile, but that would only arose more curiosity, and I would struggle to change the topic. Hearing that Taiwanese need to serve for two years didn’t make me feel better mentioning it. I am not an enthusiastic patriot as most Israelis I know are.

I didn’t think much of the fact that Isreal, and especially Jerusalem, has grown used to terror bombings. I imagine that if there was, god forbid, another terror attack in New York, London, Bali or anywhere else, then the media would discuss the whole thing for the next few years to come, investigations will be made, “Democratic” outrage will break, countries will be invaded, unwilling rulers will be overthrown, and everybody will be in total shock. With the suicide bombing in TelAviv last week, I really think that most people in Israel don’t even pay attention anymore. It will maybe last a day in the news, maybe - just maybe, someone will mention something about needing to converse with the new Muslim rule in the Palestinian territories, but - it will fade away quietly. In a way - it already has.

I didn’t think much of the fact that going into a restaurant you’re being searched over your entire body with a metal detector, that you need to hand in your bag for inspection when you go into a mall or open up your car’s storage in search for “suspicious” things when driving into a car park. Those who I’ve met in Taiwan that have been to the US recently, since the 9/11, were often discussing the ridiculous American anti-terror measures being taken in Airports, and I would sigh in the background and think to myself it’s a good thing they haven’t encountered the ElAl (Israeli air-company) and the Israeli airport security brain-drill into everybody and everything making their way into Israel.

But, with all that I didn’t think much of, I did have time to consider the question of whether Israel is as portraited on the news and, although there’s little chance anybody would take my word for it, my conclusion is - no. Is it unsafe to travel or live in Israel? I don’t think so. Is it this bad here? no way.

A little story I told every once in a while to those willing to listen is that when I was chilling out in one of the southern islands of Thailand, I happened to meet this very interesting Thai person who seemed to have as much free time as I did. In our conversation, he was very eager to hear everything about Israel and he asked a lot of very profound questions about the Israeli politics and life. At first, I was hesitant as to how to answer, but after an hour or two I figured I’ll just give my most direct view of how things are. After over half a day of talking and shake-drinking, he paused for a few minutes, had another long go at his cigar and exhaled with a slow - “So, Israel is very much like Thailand”.
I scratched my head, wondering if that cigar of his was holding tabbaco or something more exotic, and thinking that maybe he wasn’t following me the whole time. “What, in god’s name, do you mean?” I asked.
“Did you know that last week, on the Thai Malaysian border, 15 people were killed from a Muslim terrorist going wild near some restaurant? Many more were injured… ” he looked straight at me.
“In Thailand? are you sure? No, I didn’t. I’m sorry to hear that.”
So he explains - “Yeah, this happens every once in a while in my gorgeous beautiful tourist-heaven Thailand, but - thing is - the Thai government is keeping it quiet. It would hurt tourism too much. Your story isn’t too different from that of other nationalities that I’ve talked to, all with their independence seeking subgroups. The Russians got the Chechnians, not too long ago the Spanish had the Catalonians, the British had the Irish, the French had the Algerians, and there are a lot more examples in East Asia that no body talks about. The main difference between those countries and Israel is that, for some strange reason that I still don’t understand, Israel is always a very international topic for discussion. Everybody’s interested in your little country, and I think it’s got to do with the fact that Israeli people are very clever at making money”.
It might be bit strange but in my view Jerusalem is one of the safest big cities I know. I wouldn’t be scared walking around at night, I wouldn’t be scared of my little sister walking around at night. Compared to other big cities, even the quiet ones I lived in the US (Topeka, Kansas, don’t ask), it’s relatively safe and welcoming. True, there is an invisible border that separates the western and eastern sides of Jerusalem, and the eastern side might not be very friendly towards western “anti-Islam” people lately, but if one knows where not to go to then there’s little chance of anything happening to you. I imagine that nowadays it’s the same in other cities with a concentrated Muslim population. It’s just very sensitive.

I’ve also had a few friends from my Chinese class ask me whether I think Israel is western or maybe it is more “Middle-eastern” or maybe “Eastern”. That would puzzle me every time and I would try and understand how anybody would think Israel’s not western. Anybody spending more than a few seconds in Israel would realize that Israel is very western. Israel’s so western that it’s shocking. Israel’s got this unexplainable relationship with the American culture, this British-rule background and a very open-advanced, somewhat globalized, economy. I would soon find out that the Israel most of my friends know is that of the Palestinian territories they saw in the news. It’s an ethical issue for Israelis to try and understand how it came to be that the Palestinian territories are so different than Israel, but Palestine is still decades from Israel. The international debate over Israel and the way it is being described is very different from what life actually is over here.

With the way China and Taiwan are described in the Israeli and international media I, of all people, know that I should go over there to experience that kind of life before jumping into conclusions. Taiwan isn’t all anti-communist, cheap electronics and toys in the shadow of China. China isn’t all about evil economical promise, uncontrolled growth and masses of poor suffering. America isn’t all KFC and McDonalds, Thailand isn’t only about white sands over clear blue waters.

Even after staying in a place for a while you can never be sure you’ve fully experienced what that place is about. I am still overwhelmed by the differences between what my perception of Taiwan is and that of my friends and the people who’s blogs I read. Every place is complex and unique, every place has it’s own reality and mystery, every place has its own special people and culture.