Apr 15 2009
Why Israelis are paranoid
“So do you want me to stamp on your passport?” asked the attractive female officer behind the counter at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
“No thanks.”
I could be too sensitive, but – after my rejection – she looked crossed, shaking he head slightly and dimming her eyes.
She made the entry stamp on my flight ticket instead.
Cathy, another Singaporean in my group, was not so lucky. She forgot to tell the officer not to stamp on her passport, and got an Israeli Star of David imprint on her passport instead.
On the way to collect our bags, Cathy groaned, saying she would have to get a new passport if she wanted to continue visiting certain Southeast Asian countries.
Passports bearing Israeli stamps have been rumoured to attract questions in countries hostile to the small Jewish state and could result in lengthy interviews by authorities, explained Ismail, another member of our group.
In some cases, he added, people have been turned back.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I have heard this rumour several times.
But how do we confirm this is true? I made a mental note to remember to ask Cathy another time if she has problems entering those countries with her passport.
I was in the Middle East to cover Mercy Relief’s handover of donated items to families in Gaza, and at Ben Gurion Airport, the questions were reciprocated, this time to Ismail.
Because of his Muslim-sounding name – and because he was carrying a passport bearing stamps from Islamic countries like Yemen and Egypt due to his work for a humanitarian agency – Ismail was kept in an interview room for more than two hours. Two other Muslim members of our group were also interviewed.
The trio were asked strange questions, including their fathers’ and grandfathers’ names. Despite the seemingly irrelevant questions, the three Singaporeans took their interviews good naturedly and we proceeded on our trip.
The Israelis have good reason to be paranoid.
For decades, they have been targeted – by terrorism at worst, and anti-Semitic vitriol at best.
It is no wonder why the Israeli government take pains to protect their citizens worldwide.
Before my flight to Tel Aviv, the screening started thousands of miles away at Bangkok airport, where our El-Al jet (the Israeli flag carrier) took off.
All non-Israeli passengers were grilled by Israeli embassy staff about their purpose of visit, if they had packed their own bags or whether their luggage could contain anything that could be an explosive device - questions that were asked to unsettle terrorists and expose them. As a precaution, some of our bags were also checked in a holding room one last time before flight.
The checks are neccessary.
El-Al ticket counters in Europe have been attacked by terrorists before, and in 2002, there was an attempted hijacking by an Israeli-Arab on flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul.
The 12-hour flight to Israel was uncomfortable in my economy class seat that didn’t have a personal entertainment system. But I was very sure of one thing. The plane wasn’t going to blow up in mid air because of some security lapse. I felt safe.
2 responses so far
Israel is an interesting country in an interesting neighbourhood and you have to admire the way that Israel and the Israeli’s have managed to survive and even thrive despite the hostility of its neighbourhood.
However, one has to ask if this constant portrayal of Israeli and even Jewish “Victim hood” has been of benefit to Israel and the Jewish people. Yes, the Jews were victims of a terrible crime during World War II but that cannot the only lenses which the rest of us see the Israel’s role in the Middle East.
For example, the International News media constantly portrays Israel as the victim of constant bombardment of rockets by Hamas. However, very few reports point to the fact that most rockets are ineffectual – prior to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza strip in December 2008, Hamas’s rocket attacks killed a grand total of less than 15 in 6-years. By contrast Israel’s assault on the Gaza strip killed over a thousand people in a matter of weeks.
However, we don’t want to be anti-semitic (Incidentally the Palestinians are ethnic Semites) here and we officially can’t support an organisation that has been called terrorist by Western and Western allied governments (though democratically elected by the Palestinian people – but who really cares about what they think) – So Israel’s obviously disproportionate response is called “Retaliation against terrorist.”
Too bad Palestinians don’t understand that their democratic representatives brought this “Israeli Anger” upon them – they’re merely upset with the people who made sure that their combat aircraft covered the entire area of the Gaza strip and dropped bombs on them (too bad the Hamas people didn’t sit there and wait for the bombs to fall on them).
I suppose it would be highly anti-semitic of anyone to tell Israel that her actions are only fulling hate and the cycle of violence.
Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel famously remarked, “Only the Paranoid Survive.” Israel is an example of how having a culture of paranoia has helped create a successful society. However, keeping the neighbourhood hostile has come at a price.
I could be simply an”anti-Semite” but I cannot recall a moment when an Israeli Prime Minister has taken the initiative to offer the Arabs a viable peace. The crossest they’ve come was Camp David and that was because US President Clinton insisted Ehud Barak meet with Yassir Arafat. By contrast the Arabs have offered two peace treaties on their own initiative – namely the ones offered by King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia in 2002 and 2006 (Israel to return land it took by force in return for diplomatic recognition by 22 Arab League Members).
Call me “Anti-Jewish.” Call me “Naive.” ISD can place me under surveillance, but that won’t stop the ground reality – namely the fact that while Israel is under allot of threats, it has a hand in creating and sustaining them too. Not voicing concern about some policies perpetuated by Israel is ultimately not good for Jewish people, Israel and the rest of the world.
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