Greg Sanders

2013-03-18&19 Tel Aviv Beach and the Trip to Jaffa

Tel Aviv is a beach town, not merely temperate and on the water. It has ample sandy shores immediately adjacent to downtown. Perhaps surprisingly, the beach monuments were among most political ones I noticed during my trip.

Tel Aviv is a young city, barely a hundred years old, but that's long enough. There were monuments to the Aliyah Bet effort from 1934 to 1948 to evacuate Jews from Mediterranean countries in defiance of a British restriction on their then-colony. There was another monument to the Altalena affair, a clash shortly after the British left between the recently formed Israeli Defense Force and a Jewish paramilitary group. The rest of the beach seemed apolitical, so perhaps this was just a coincidence of my hotel placement, but the underlying reality is that shores are often borders.

The other time politics notably intruded from the landscape was a trip to the kibbutz cemetery that took us closer to the West Bank. Like Canada, Israel is a bilingual nation, so there is both Hebrew and Arabic on highway signs. That said, unlike the vehement bilingualism I remember from Quebec, in Tel Aviv I mostly saw Hebrew and English (which seems in keeping with the education system). Guy was generally less political on most matters than I am, although he made clear that he was rather frustrated with the current state of Israeli politics, particularly the current generation of leadership.

However, don't let the politics discussion deter you.  Both of my walks on the beach were lovely and the trip south to Jaffa was delightful. Surfers took advantage of the waves and trained on the beach. Small sailboats dotted the horizon. The buildings of Tel Aviv are a varied architectural backdrop from the skyscrapers of downtown to the mosque down by Jaffa. The last part of the walk was through parkland as the beach gave way to a rocky  shore.  

According to my walk book, the best time to do it would be sunset. That's probably right, but don't let that deter you if the timing doesn't work out. The journey is well worth it during the day, all the more so because it ends in Jaffa: the millennia-old sister to Tel Aviv, historical port to Jerusalem, Turkish-rebuilt hill city, and subject of my next post.

2013-03-18 Rothschild Boulevard

Guy's family were the consummate hosts. We had the chance to look through old photo albums, to swap stories, and to share a local favorite form of take out. Joachim and Priscilla had ended up staying at a different hotel because Kayak charged European users far more than American users in this instance, so we said our goodbyes. They had an early morning flight and I got to stay another day. Shai's family was so kind as to give them a ride and one of Guy's cousins was extremely gracious and offered a separate trip for me. From the family and friends I got advice for the remainder of my trip: see Jaffa, eat at Old Man and the Sea, check out Rothschild Boulevard and a few happening districts in southern Tel Aviv.

The city in the evening in March is quite inviting. Bicyclists and pedestrians travel the promenades depicted above and the weather lures you outside. The long stretched parks themselves are not the only pedestrian-safe places; sidewalks and crossing lights abound. In addition, every few blocks they offer a fancy like the pond above or art like the incomplete bridge to the left or hot drink stands. The latter was particularly notable to me, as I've always found D.C.'s mall in need of a few more tiny-scale park cafes, although food vendor trucks can help.

My jaunt on Rothschild started around the Habima Square (depicted on the right) and went down to Israel's first skyscraper: Midgal Shalom. According to the Wikipedia entry, it's also the only subway station in Israel. It was built under the tower in hopes of future connections that never came. I found out about this because I did find signs indicating a future light rail line which sounds as if it is still a few years away from completion.

I'd noticed one odd phenomenon on the walk that I'll have to ask some Tel Aviv natives about: eggplant graffiti. Various vegetable themes were actually fairly common in the city, but I think eggplants were the most prominent. Some googling found a blog post and flickr group that were similarly confused about the matter. Frankly, Guy could probably have told me more about the light rail than the graffiti. He's called Washington, D.C. his home for some time and probably would only keep up with such a phenomenon in Tel Aviv if it involved depictions of meat.

2013-03-18 Celebrating Guy Ben-Ari

Guy was buried in a kibbutz, to give his two children a place to visit. It was about a half hour from the Tel-Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. Guy's old army buddy Shai and his family gave those of us in the Washington delegation a ride, told us about the areas we were passing through, and gave us a last chance to prepare ourselves. The ceremony was informal but moving, like the person it honored. We were told that we were easily identifiable as his Washington friends, as we were the ones in suits. Afterwards, we went to his mother's house and shared stories and looked at his old photo albums. However, I don't think those stories are for this blog. Instead, I'm sharing below a note I wrote for a book we made up for Guy's children.

When I first started out, we were officemates. He outranked me - he always would - but that didn’t stop him from being great fun. He decorated our office with posters for Will Farrell movies; his spider plant added life to the office and its offspring still adds life to mine. As he moved up the ranks into his own offices the comedy got subtler. Posters were hidden behind doors and then rolled up. Instead, he had new images from his books and photos of his children on his desktop and his monitor. Guy’s maturation as a leader is not a new story, but while the veneer changed the core stayed true: a film aficionado, a fierce defender of his staff, a sometimes-glutton and yet fit biker, a loyal friend, and a treasured mentor.

Guy has many friends who can detail his good qualities, so I want to tell you instead why I think he made the choice to give us the privilege of spending those years here in Washington, D.C. My friend is one of those rare people who made a career out of his calling. His brilliance crossed disciplines: it let him understand supply, demand, and the policies that behind them together, and it led him to take on the knotty challenges of complexity. He loved the way the U.S. took on hard problems, from global positioning satellites to the internet. Living and working in our capital let him sit where diverse communities of experts gather, where big plans are undertaken, where he could meet and befriend those others only read, and where he could build his own team and gain increasing authority to pick his problems. Guy knew more than his fair share of frustrations - and believe me, we shared many a cynical conversation - but he found a way to chase his dreams.

I say all this as someone who often played skeptic to his enthusiast. However, I always respected the dedication and rigor he brought to his work and that he demanded from others. Guy took on unreasonable challenges and blazed paths for the rest of us. He was and he remains an anchor, one we will think on when we face problems that require both inspiration and perspiration, one who will remind us that even in the face of big problems we should still take care of our people. I will always be happy to share stories of Guy.

2013-03-18 Tel Aviv by day, walking to Rabin Square

Guy's funeral was in the early afternoon and after being stuck in the airport for three hours, starting at midnight, my friends and former colleagues sensibly pushed back our meeting time. Thus I had the morning to myself. I chose to retread some of the ground I walked the prior night in order to visit Rabin Square. The city was quite easy to traverse; hills are rare and mild and in March the weather draws tourists. Guy didn't talk about Tel Aviv that much, aside from mention of friends, family, or visits to his children, so I was setting my own agenda at this point. I don't know specifically what he thought of Rabin, but had mentioned before that he thought the current generation of leadership paled in comparison with the prior generation.

The square sits adjacent to the city government building, making it a common site for rallies, including the one where the Prime Minister had been shot. There was nothing going on the Sunday I visited, but even so there was a fair crowd around the memorial itself and the adjacent pond. If I read the wikipedia page correctly, the large monument is a memorial to Holocaust victims but there is a dedicated wall for Yitzhak Rabin specifically.

Afterwards I walked South by Mann Auditorium which had lovely outdoor gardens, including wisteria and cacti. The walk down King George Street was an interesting one, from street art to the regular reminder that Israel was a nation with many conscripts. I ended up at Carmel Market, where I got some terrific lemonade before heading back to the hotel.

Joachim, Priscilla, and I then met up and got lunch to reminisce. Appropriately enough the food proved to be massive; even the 'small' burger Joachim got was like an inch thick. I ordered shakshouka, a tomato egg dish recommended by my guidebook, which was fairly tasty and similarly voluminous. Fortunately, I have any number of places back home to visit for reminders of Guy that provide a reason to have a smaller dinner. So, for D.C. people, two of his favorites were Well Dressed Burrito (tasty hole in the wall) and Mehran (my work's preferred and notably affordable buffet spot).

2013-03-17 Walk to Dizengoff Fountain

After my airport misadventures, I took the train to Tel Aviv Center Station. I sat with a rather nice couple without much English and near a gentlemen who was fluent and piped in at the end. They ended up spotting me bus fare for fear that I wouldn't be able to change money in the station. There did end up being an ATM and I was able to make change easily enough, but I shall have to endeavor to return the favor for visiting tourists and work to pick up more than a smattering of Hebrew for my next visit. In a pinch, I think my initial instinct was right and I could have walked it, but it would have been a schlep with my luggage in tow. Tel Aviv doesn't have a subway or trolley system, but it's got a fair amount of bus support and is quite walkable and bikeable. I was also able to extend my international smart card collection, as both the rail service and the multiple bus companies do have a common card.

I arrived Sunday evening and after getting cleaned up and checking in with a few of Guy's friends and family, I tried to spend the evening in a manner he approved of. Namely, finding good local food (I also did some wandering around on foot; he may have preferred that I biked, but the local bikeshare didn't seem to cater to tourists). I was staying at the Mercure hotel, and the concierge recommended a lovely Italian restaurant near Dizengoff Fountain. My favorite part of the meal was an appetizer special with sardines and cheese in an oily herb sauce. From what I've heard, Tel Aviv is far too cosmopolitan to have a particular local cuisine, but there often seemed to be a local stamp on whatever I ate. Perhaps more important, outdoor seating was commonplace, taking full advantage of the local climate. I'd done café-style dining with Guy before, mostly at a Starbucks a few blocks away from the office and most recently at a po-boy joint, although on both occasions I remember being afflicted by ridiculous winds. Still worth it, but not nearly as common or appealing as in this coastal city.

The restaurant was near Dizengoff Fountain, which was in a small elevated square populated by a group of local musicians. The modernist appearance is fairly typical. As a city, Tel Aviv is not much over a century old, as compared to the multi-millennia history of Jaffa to the South. The relative newness of the city reminded me a bit of Hong Kong; perhaps the common British colonial heritage played a factor there. The rest of the night involved a leisurely, roundabout return to the hotel, uneventful aside from the surprise of seeing bats flying around a local park. I wasn't particularly bothered by insects this trip, so I may owe those flying mammals a debt of gratitude on that score.

 

2013-03-17 Arrival in Tel-Aviv and my experience with security screening

Ben Gurion Airport has a lovely, compact design: there's a central hub with a multistory fountain, an upper level for incoming flights, a lower level for departures, and a massive pair of ramps that flips incoming and outgoing as you enter/exit. Of course, depending on your demographics and/or stamps in your passport form such places as Egypt or Afghanistan, you'll probably be spending an hour waiting in a small partitioned off section of the customs area. As waiting rooms go, that area is pretty drab if not featureless: there's a television and few vending machines. As you'd probably expect, I was a standout and most of the people in that area likely had some sort of Arabic ancestry.

The security interview process for me was about what you'd expect. It took less than fifteen minutes, albeit with of a total wait of about an hour. The questions were varied but nothing that you wouldn't see on a U.S. security clearance plus a more detailed version of the usual customs question. I answered in my usual information dump style and my questioner seemed professional and made the connection to other people traveling for Guy's funeral. They also ended up not stamping my passport without my even requesting it, which will make my life easier should I travel to a few other countries in the future. A friend of mine wasn't so lucky and ended up wasting three hours, two interviews, and getting oddly insistent questions about Guy's cell phone number.

I hadn't actually discussed Israeli airport security much with Guy. That said, his general philosophy often involved using technology to mitigate the costs of conflict. I've got to imagine that were he designing the system, there would probably be some displays with estimated wait times and the like. He'd have made sure that travelers that get detained for an hour at least get accurate information on which baggage carrousel their luggage could be found at. Admittedly, the amount of time I wasted there was largely my fault; once I saw the length of the lost and found lines (picking the wrong one didn't help) I should have searched the rest of the terminal immediately. Lesson learned.

On the whole, I think the interview process does probably result in a greater marginal increase in security than much of the security theater in the U.S. Also, it makes a lot more sense as a first step than strip searches and the like. However, let's be straight for a minute. The idea that we need more selective security is typically a euphemism for just questioning Muslims in greater detail while leaving the rest of the population alone. I'm an international relations professional; if that gets me extra screening I've got no objection, but I'd feel differently if I had to wait an hour every time I traveled because of my ancestry. So while my interview experience (and not my friend's) might be a reasonable example and TSA security theater needs to be toned down, I wouldn't support moving the U.S. towards the Israeli model. That said, I have heard horror stories for foreign friends coming in through U.S. customs, so I don't consider our system an exemplar.

2013-03-17 From Frankfurt to Israel

I had a window seat for only one section of the trip, the journey from Frankfurt, Germany to Tel Aviv. The route traversed the Alps then went through southern central Europe before crossing into the Mediterranean at Greece. Supposedly I some of those pictures actually include Mount Olympus. I'd be able to describe more if I wasn't embarrassingly bad at geography for a international relations major. Next time I travel with a window seat, I think I may try for a small atlas so that I know what passes beneath me. Often on international flight there's a monitor on the seat in front to refer to, but that tends to be flights that are over water and not over land.

The arrival at Tel Aviv surprised me to an extent. I had talked to Guy about Tel Aviv before and Israel in general. However, in part because a lot of his time growing up was in Europe, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I knew Tel Aviv was an urbane modern coastal city, but I didn't have a feel for the surrounding countryside. I was surprised how green it was; perhaps that's just a legacy of my visit to Egypt and the typically sparse context of pilgrimage photographs. I shouldn't have been surprised, as the coastal plain of Israel is fertile and humid, hence "land of milk add honey." 

Victory! Maryland will be able to pay for the transportation we sorely need

It's official, the transportation funding package passed the Senate without amendment and so will go on to the governor to sign. There's no referendum process on budget bills, so the funding, absolutely essential if we're to build the Purple Line, as well as any number of other vital projects, is there.

Thank you so much to everyone that submitted petitions and emails to their legislators as well as to my relentless fellow volunteers. Virginia may have helped inspired the leadership, but we were there to follow through and let the legislators know that there are people in the state that care about our transportation problems enough to do something about it.

You (Marylanders) can help Get Maryland Moving

Our state's transportation trust fund will be bankrupt in 2017 unless more revenue comes in. As you might guess that would prevent projects like the DC Area Purple Line or Baltimore's Redline and would leave the Washington area stuck in the country's worst congestion. I won't sugar coat it, fixing this requires more revenue and the revenue on offer is a gas tax hike. Fortunately, it's a smart one, it indexes the tax to inflation and partially moves to a percentage rather than a flat basis. It's true that the gas tax is regressive, but the mass transit it funds is highly progressive. Going carless or ditching a clunker can save $7,500 a year according to AAA. Moreover, the increase needs to make up for the fact that the tax has been flat since the early nineties and on a per driven mile basis would still be notably low.

If you want to get the Purple Line, if you want to give Marylanders options other than being stuck in traffic, if you want the economic benefits from connecting our communities and the social benefits of giving people more time with their families, than please go to the Get Maryland Moving website  and email your State Senator!  We've managed to get the bill through the House, and tomorrow it goes before the Senate. If it passes unamend, than it goes straight to the governor, if there's amendments, we need extra petition signers all the more.

So please, contact your State Senator and tell them to Get Maryland Moving!

2013-03-17 Transiting through Frankfurt

Landing in a March snowstorm can always be a bit surprising if you aren't paying attention to the weather or the under plane video. I was in the aisle of the absolute last row, due to my last minute ticket purchase. This meant I actually felt a blast of fresh cold air when the flight attendant opened the back door of the plane a few times to consult with the ground crew.

I've been through Frankfurt airport once before that I remember, on a trip to or from Afghanistan for work. Its standout trait was the distance one had to travel to get from one terminal to another. That was true today as well as I schlepped from terminal Z to C which included a train ride that felt like it covered 20% of the distance at most. It feels like a more modern version of Midway's old layout, only more so. I suppose this is what comes of being a Lufthansa hub though the feeling of distance is likely magnified by similar looking corridors rather than grand halls. There's also always something dispiriting about the revelation that one will have to go through security a second time, but that's perhaps inevitable when one's final destination is Tel Aviv.

Cleverly, airport employees actually have Access to bicycles. I wonder if I'll ever see an airport with a bikeshare program or the like. Frankfurt could certainly use it. That said, endearingly T-Mobile does offer 30 minutes of free wifi, a fine trick for weaseling your way into my affections.

As I wait for my next bordering, I'm mostly left with regret that I didn't travel much with Guy. We did all go out to Monterey together, but via separate means. His expertise in Complexity and years in Europe would no doubt leave him with any number of insights into the design and function of a behemoth like Frankfurt terminal. There wasn't a single clear opportunity I missed, but I can't help but feel I've made a profound mistake somewhere in that I am only traveling to my friend's homeland after I can no longer enjoy his company on the journey.