Entries from 'Israel'

A Traveler’s Prayer from Tel Aviv

My first impression of Tel Aviv was that it looked an awful lot like Miami: long stretches of sandy white beach, high-rise condominiums and sunny weather conducive to flip-flop wearing. Yes, a lot like Miami, but with considerably less people congregating near the water. I had often heard the city described as a hedonist’s paradise,…

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Make Hummus Not Walls

On the morning we set out to cross the Israeli-Palestinian border for a day-trip to Bethlehem, we heard what sounded like a baby crying in the open foyer of an apartment building on Jaffa Street. Investigating, we discovered a tiny kitten huddled in a corner on the cold, marble floor. Her, champion of hungry and…

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“The hummus will set you free!”

“The hummus will set you free!” This was yelled at me by a very aggressive hummus vendor who then flashed a wide grin and pointed at several pots of hummus (pronounced hoo-mus) set on a counter in front of him. Her and I were deep within the Mahane Yehuda Market. We had already purchased some halva (a…

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Step-by-excruitiating-step: An Israel land-border crossing

Amazingly, entering Israel from Jordan marked the first time we made a land-border crossing on the trip. (Airfare proved relatively cheap and, as we didn’t have an unlimited amount of time at our disposal, flying often made the most sense.) Of course, we picked a doozy. Like many travelers, we were aware that many Arab/Muslim…

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Get your Indiana Jones fix here

Jordan, as framed in the neat oval of a Boeing 737 window, resembles Tatooine from the sky: a sea of rusty red sand, canyons and jagged mountains. As viewed through the windshield of a Citroën C3 sedan cruising Highway 15, the landscape is monochromatic, the sky a hazy gray. There are signs of civilization in…

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