The word “him” jumped into my eyes, and I felt emotional, while I was walking down the exit isle at Ben Gurgaon airport yesterday. It’s from one of the many pictures of hostages held in Gaza.
It’s personal.
Almost everything in Israel is personal.
My taxi driver was a terrible sales guy. He convinced me to get into his car, then he said it’s 200 shekels, it’s shabbat, it’s more expensive. Then he asked if I have cash, and I made sure I added more stress to make his driving worthwhile. When I paid him 50 euros at my hotel, he smiled like a friend.
So I told him: why don’t you have that beautiful smile at the beginning and just peacefully say it’s 200 shekels? I would give him the money without giving him the hard time.
He smiled more and we had a warm handshake goodbye.
Israelis are tough people with huge tenderness under the covers.
I have traveled to many countries around the world. The easiest way for me to start a conversation is to simply say: I love your food. You can’t believe how many wonderful conversations I have had with Thai, Japanese, Lebanese, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Mexican, and countless more.
Food makes up us. It’s almost like saying I love your people.
Over the years, I haven’t heard one thing all my Israeli coworkers agreed on uniformly, except that the Arabic makes better hummus.
I had two trips to Tel Aviv during the current war. I made my first ever trip to Israel in 2014 in the middle of the last war, knowingly.
The feel on the ground is very different than anything on TV.
I was just sitting, chatting and laughing with a group of family and friends who were evacuated in northern Israel a few months ago.
With my limitation of Hebrew and the lack of fluency of Google translate, I went on a bit of a writing play with them.
We wrote our names with meanings in Hebrew, Chinese and English.
Noam said I was cute and showed me her tattoos (not in any secret area). And I wrote her name in Chinese giving wonderful meanings.
They kept telling me one guy at the table is retarded. And I told them he seems to be the smartest person. We were all happily laughing.
The Israelis are tough people, with plenty of tenderness.
I was walking back into the hotel entrance, but the security guard stopped me. I played tough: “Of course I stayed in this hotel, where were you when I walked in and out? Were you doing your job?” He started just smiling, and we started patting each other’s shoulders. We became friends.
Is technology bringing us closer or more distanced?
Is politics solving the world’s problems or creating new ones?
What’s right and what’s wrong?
Life is simple, people are warm and we all have a tender side of a human.
