Day 4: The People Who Have Shaped Modern Israel

So we woke up pretty early this morning and had our last breakfast in the Ohalo Manor. It was our last breakfast here and I will miss this place. We moved our stuff into the bus and then drove towards Tel Aviv. Many people were listening to music on the bus, talking, reading, and some were sleeping. A few devoted photographers were taking pictures of the scenery as well. The “bkak” morning traffic towards Tel Aviv made the drive a bit longer than it was supposed to be. Arriving in Tel Aviv, we looked out the windows and saw the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. We arrived near the Old City of Jaffa--excitement was flowing through the air as we began to walk around Jaffa. The distinguishing characteristic about this unique city is its location--it is conveniently located along the path between three continents. From Jaffa, we had an amazing view overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the city of Tel Aviv.
After our tour through the old city, we walked around further and shopped for gifts. A few people purchased lunch in Jaffa while others waited for us to head into Tel Aviv for their meals. Tel Aviv gave us the “New York”-version feel of Israel. It was an experience with cars buzzing around, lots of restaurants, and open park-like areas (the latter being somewhat more extensive in Tel Aviv than in NYC).
After lunch we met up at Yitzhak Rabin’s Square where we learned about his assassination. We broke into groups and randomly interviewed people walking around the area, asking them questions like “How did you react to his death?” and “Do you think his death affected the Israeli-Palestinian conflict/peace process for Israel?” We got together as a group and sat down in a grassy area in the middle of Tel Aviv to have a discussion about our findings. We discussed Rabin’s killer and the poll results. Will there ever be peace after this tragic event? Are there too many differing opinions in Israel for everyone to be fully satisfied with Israeli politics? The poll results indicated a consensus that his death was very tragic and that people were in shock and disbelief when they found out so many years ago. Everyone remembered exactly where they were when it happened. Many people compared it to the Kennedy assassination and said Prime Minister security was significantly improved thereafter. Israelis also said it was possible that such a tragic event could happen again because there are always people who disagree with government leaders and officials. It was a very interesting discussion, especially talking about the killer, who recently got married and had a child (while in jail). He is in jail for life because Israel does not have the death penalty.
After the discussion we drove towards the Independence Museum and sat outside to wait for our tour. The Israeli soldiers on our trip discussed their customs and traditions involved with celebrating the Israeli Independence Day. All of them were in different cities this year, so their experiences varied. Streets in Israel are closed, trees are covered in lights, cars all have Israeli flags on them, parties are everywhere, celebratory music is playing, there are musical perfomances, fireworks, barbeques, and everyone is drinking. One of the soldiers was working on his army base and said they hold open exhibitions which are essentially “open houses” for the army bases where citizens can see weaponry and vehicles in the IDF.
Afterward, we went inside Independence Hall and were welcomed by a tour guide who gave us presentation about Ben-Gurion’s life accomplishments. One interesting fact that he mentioned (off-topic) was that Tel Aviv is one of the most flourishing/influential economies per capita in the world. We watched a movie on the independence and then we listened to him speak of the history a little bit more. Tired from an extremely long day, we finally headed to the new place we were staying, a hotel in Tel Aviv, and settled in. We all got together and ate dinner (which was once again delicious). After dinner, we walked along the beach and walked by Ben-Gurion’s house (for a lot of his life). We all headed to bars, shopped, and then headed back to the hotel where we had an extremely amazing after-party on the rooftop. We met another birthright trip called IsraelExperts and had many interesting conversations about Israel and our experiences thus far. The view was amazing overlooking all of Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea. We were all very tired and many of us got to bed late. We were told to wake up and be ready for breakfast by 7.