On Israelis

On our six weeks that we’ve had through South America, Chris and I have had the opportunity to speak with English, Australian, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, French, German, Swedish, Finnish, American, Canadian, Scottish, Irish, Japanese, South African, and Israeli people who are also traveling… well, there are more, but those are the ones that speak English. And out of all of those different groups of people, I’d say the largest collection of people I’ve seen are from Israel. They’re bonkers for Argentina and Chile.

If you’re from Israel, you are required to spend two years in the military. Everyone has to do this; men and women. So you graduate from the Israeli equivalent of high school, and you go into the Army. When you’re done, you then pick college, a career, or for a lot of them, you take some time to travel.

When young people choose their long backpacker trips, they usually go for the cheap places and the last main, big cheap places are Southeast Asia and South and Central America. In Southeast Asia there are several Muslim majority countries that won’t let Israelis in, countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. They took the same route as pretty much every other country in the Middle East and won’t let ‘em in. When I went to Dubai a few years ago, I was told that if I had a stamp in my passport indicating I had visited Israel, I would not be allowed in the country. An obvious Goya girl like me, and even I wouldn’t be let in.

But here in South America, they’re all about the Jews (well, at least the ones that didn’t flee to here from Germany after some unsavory incidents 50+ years ago). And the Israelis are all about Patagonia. Our buses and hostel and trails and campsites have been overrun. There are restaurants and laundry mats in small towns that have no English signs or menus but do have them written in Israeli (it took me about a week to realize it wasn’t just a bunch of random squiggles and lines). Everyone I’ve chatted with so far is lovely, and the only thing I don’t understand is their affinity towards wearing Tevas and socks.

So, I guess I came to South America for the time being, to learn about Israelis. I still don’t know much, but I did hear a story about one that was held up at knife point in Buenos Aires. He too had a knife and pulled it on the would-be assailant. Both guys stared each other down for awhile, and the Argentine finally bolted. According to the guy that told me the story, “who really wants to mess with an Israeli, fresh out of the military, with a knife?” I guess the Argentine didn’t.