A Spring Visit to Israel
A journalist friend tells me I am wrong to talk of “a Tel Aviv bubble,” a common expression that refers to the quite distinctive café society of Israel’s megalopolis and also implies, dismissively, that Tel Aviv separates itself from the Israeli hinterland, is more open, more casual, sexier, more — well, more Mediterranean. But my friend observes, correctly, I believe, that with regard to “the situation” — that is, of course, the festering conflict — all Israel’s a bubble. The news broadcasts and the television talk shows deal with the big questions incessantly, but in daily life and conversation, except for some startling event — say the murder of a family in Itamar — there is simply no indication that people feel they are living on a knife’s edge. None. Such indifference to reality may be thought adaptive; it may also be thought escapist.
I ask two brothers, relatives, what is to be done. One says the only answer is hasbarah. Hasbarah is a difficult word to translate. Technically, it means “explanation,” but in the Israeli context, it means something like a propaganda campaign. I ask him what in the world he wants to explain, what new alibis and excuses there are for the government’s obduracy, why he supposes that a world long since grown weary of Israel’s self-justifications will be swayed by Israel’s successes in high tech, in scientific research, in economic growth. His brother offers a somewhat more sophisticated analysis. He is a man of the moderate right, and he has much to say — some good, some not good at all — about Prime Minister Netanyahu. But soon enough he gets to the standard cop-out: There’s no one to talk to, no partner for peace. “They” are “primitive,” they have a “different mentality.”
That is a view I have heard from a disconcertingly large number of people. My standard response is that if the current situation is intolerable and there really is no partner, then you have to ask whether there is anything you can do to encourage your adversary to partner-like behavior. But every time I say it, I remember that my premise is that they, too, see the current situation as intolerable. And the blunt truth is that Israelis don’t. Indeed, a Gallup poll ranks Israel as the seventh “happiest” country of the 124 it surveyed, right up there with Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Venezuela, Finland and New Zealand.
I ask an old friend, a Christian Arab educator in Nazareth, what is to be done. Her answer: The story of how she successfully organized a group of women in an Arab village to demand that one road in the village be paved. “Incrementalism,” some might say — but not those women. For them, it is huge.
I have tried to stay away from big issues — just to collect stories, vignettes, stray observations from this visit to Israel — and I have not exactly kept that promise. So here is my belated effort. Everyone knows that in Israel, it does not rain after Pesach, right? Wrong: Last night, an unprecedented lightning storm over the Mediterranean, the night sky lit for well over an hour — and soon thereafter, thunder and torrential rains. Earlier in the week, at an open-air concert in the Jezreel Valley, the temperature hovered around 40 degrees. People came wearing parkas. All week long, drizzles and downpours.
But today, spring. In a couple of hours, the sun will be swallowed by the Mediterranean. And tomorrow, Jerusalem. I am happy; go figure.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.