I entered Israel with high expectations. I am happy to say that I left more impressed, more confused, and more interested than I thought I would be. If you try to figure everything out here, this place will blow your mind. It would definitely take a lifetime. Everything you see can be viewed from so many different perspectives (religious, political, economic, sociology, etc.), and depending on who is doing the viewing, an infinite number of opinions and conclusions.

As the Holy Land for millions and as a place of tremendous religious significance for millions more, you can’t help but to be awe struck by proximity of so much religious history in such a relatively small space. One minute you are walking in the footsteps of Jesus and another you are standing next to the stone that is believed to be the foundation of the world. Churches were once Synagogues and Mosques were once Churches. Sites of religious significance are everywhere, and sometimes the same site is significant to more than one religion. As the saying goes, herein lies the rub.

Almost everyone is somewhat aware of the political issues that Israel and its neighbors face. An occupation zone to one is a defensive position to another. One mans security fence put in place to save lives is a land grabbing, wall that constitutes apartheid to another. However it is the both the tremendous level of success as well as the sad failures of Israel to integrate people within its borders that surprised me the most.

Step back for a minute and remember that Israel is a very young country MOSTLY made up of immigrants. Jewish families from all over the world (Ethiopia, USA, Russia, India, etc.) make their Allayah (word of the day look it up as it is a whole topic in itself) to Israel each and every year. This makes Israel for more ethnically diverse than I ever imagined. Part of the government’s responsibility is to turn these immigrants into productive Israeli citizens. A couple of years ago I read an article that highlighted many of Israel’s successful policies in achieving this objective. Upon visiting Israel, you could definitely see the effects of the education programs highlighted in the article, but I also saw huge amounts of separation within society and in the case of Israeli Arabs a separation that bordered, if not flat out crossed, into segregation.

When I visited malls, walked the streets, visited various towns, etc. I often noticed that each ethnic group (former countrymen) or Jewish religious subset was very distinguishably separate from one another. The Orthodox Jewish Israeli did not seem to interact with the Secular Jewish Israeli. The world of the French Jewish Israeli was light years different (better) than the Jewish Israeli from a former Soviet Republic. Hebrew was not spoken unless someone from outside the group crossed their path.

Now I used the word “segregation” earlier, and given my respect for Israel, it was a tough word for me to use so here is my explanation. We’ve all heard of Nazareth. It is a town of Biblical significance and well within any recognized Israeli borders. However, unless you are in Israel you probably have never heard of Nazareth Illict. Modern day Nazareth is a town of about 70,000 ISRAELI CITIZENS the majority of which are of Arab decent with about 35% being Christian and the remaining being Muslim. Nazareth Illict, on the other hand, has about 44,000 ISRAELI CITIZENS and about 100% of them are Jewish. With town side by side but separated by a name this means separate schools, separate busses, and limited to no commercial (business) interaction. I never would have noticed this separation had a bus not dropped me off on the outskirts of town as opposed to the central station. I then began to notice that when I went to non Jewish towns, I had to use another bus line which of course was not nearly as efficient (too much to explain for such a small point) as the normal line. I also started noticing road-signs with towns that included the added word “Illict” in its name. Creating separate Jewish only towns seemed to be the norm.

According to an article that I read in the Jerusalem Post, about ONE in SIX Israeli’s are of Arab decent. That’s about one million people out of the six million or so people in Israel. Showing my bias towards Israel, I believe that many of Israel’s external policies are justified due to the policies of its neighborhood. However I equally believe that the policy of separation within its own borders is one that can’t be maintained. Instead of reading articles in the J-Post about government studies about birthrate analysis of Arabs and Jews within Israel, I should be reading about integration policies of getting children and business interacting with one another. Just as the State of Israel is rightfully here to stay, the Arab Israelis have an equal right to not only exist but thrive in the state of their choosing, Israel. I am sure that there are security concerns, and there may also be programs already in place. My only point is that this is an issue within Israel’s own backyard. No outside government is around to interfere and given the birthrate studies, it is an issue that is not going to go away.

As usual, I got on my soap box. I leave you with this. I loved the place and can’t wait to go back. However if the sight of guns scares you then you will be petrified in Israel, but remember this. In Israel the IDF soldiers carrying the guns are well trained and well paid. Let’s just say that I have seen many an automatic weapons in my travels and Israel was the first time that seeing a person with an automatic weapon was sight of complete comfort.