FIRST TRIP TO ISRAEL

It has been almost 50 years since our first trip to Israel in November 1968. Rose and I had just been married about 4 or 5 months. I was in my last year of a dermatology residency training. It was the year after the 6 Day War and the territory controlled by Israel now included the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Sinai Peninsula as well as pre1967 Israel. Rose was working for Northwest Orient Airline. The trip was a package by El Al Airline for employees of other airlines at an unbelievably cheap price. Each airline would offer such trips to employees of other airlines to encourage referrals. It was a concentrated trip of about 5 days. Israel was young and we were young. We still were pre-children, mortgage, and other obligations. Israel was thrust from a position of underdog independent social democracy into being an occupier and guardian of unwilling Palestinian Arabs living in that occupied land.
The trip began with a flight from Chicago to New York. After a quick subway trip into Manhattan to visit relatives, we returned to the airport to meet up with the American segment of the tour. We left late at night and during the next day we stopped in Rome where we picked up 2 segments from Germany and Italy, then on to Israel. As it turned out the 3 segments were as interesting as the trip itself.
After arrival in Israel, we went to Jerusalem where we were housed in an Arab hotel in East Jerusalem. Apparently the reason for East Jerusalem was that the Israeli government wanted to encourage the economy in the Arab sector. The next day the tour took us to King David's tomb on Mount Zion. While we were standing there outside, we saw a puff of smoke in the distance and then heard a dull boom. We asked the guide what it was, but he did not know. Later after we were done visiting the tomb, we heard that a terrorist bomb had been set off in the Machane Yehudah Market Place. Later in the evening during supper at the hotel, we heard jeeps rolling in the street. At one point we heard gun shots. The Arab waiters then began drawing the drapes in the dining room. The waiters appeared to be silently resentful. The time was also an event in the Moslem calendar. So during the night as we tried to sleep, we could hear calls from  the minarets over loud speakers alternating with the sound of jeeps. We had planned to visit relatives in Jerusalem whom we had never previously met, but next morning the time in Jerusalem was cut short, and we left early on a drive across the West Bank to a Kibbutz in the Galilee. The Italians sat in the back of the bus and serenaded us with endless Italian songs. The Germans sat quietly and seemed somewhat ill at ease. This was 23 years after the end of the Holocaust, and we were in a land of Jews many of whom were holocaust survivors. We stopped at an Arab village in the West Bank for what our guide called "coffee in and coffee out." The Italians purchased noodles there, After leaving the village, the Italians asked the guide if they might make spaghetti at the Kibbutz in the Galilee. The guide promised to inquire when we would arrive. After arrival and after negotiating with the Kibbutz kitchen people concerning the kashrut of the noodles, it was determined that the noodles were kosher and the kibbutz kitchen would supply the rest of the ingredients. At dinner we each had a choice between the regular kibbutz dinner or spaghetti. After dinner Rose asked the guide if there was anywhere in the area for dancing. The guide responded that if Ari the bus driver would be willing to drive us, there was a discotheque nearby called the Blue Beat (or maybe it was called the Blue Beach). Ari agreed, so off we all went. The discotheque was dimly lit with blue light and was overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Our group made up a significant part of the clientele that night. The rest were young Israeli men and women. Most of the men were soldiers in uniform. There were a number of single young women in our group, mostly in the German segment. The Israeli soldiers went up to the German girls and asked them to dance. It was a magical evening, the discotheque, the location, the view, the blue light. It broke the ice for the Germans. They became relaxed for the rest of the trip. After Galilee and then Haifa, we ended our trip in Tel Aviv where after sight seeing with the group, we had some free time to meet relatives.
A number of months later, after I had finished my residency training and before starting a dermatology practice, we took a trip to Europe and included a few days back to Israel to see some of the things we had missed on the first trip and to meet our Jerusalem relatives. After that trip we progressed into adult life. We have not been back to Israel, but it appears from a distant view that along with maturity, much has changed there, some for the better, some for worse. But that is another discussion.