eWire
September 19, 2002
Visiting the Negev
By Tim Boxer
Ghost Town to Oasis
Mitzpe Ramon in Israel was a ghost town in recent years. It wasn’t supposed to be, of course. It was founded by Moroccans in 1956 and once nurtured ambitions as a manufacturing base.
The location is awesome. The city sits at the edge of a magnificent canyon in the middle of the Negev.
The government tried to encourage a textile industry. They built an industrial district with a string of structures that could become factories.
But nobody came.
They couldn’t entice businessmen to this part of the desert, south of Beersheba. The buildings were vacant; the streets barren. In the 1980s the city, with 1,500 people, became stagnant.
“Then the Russians came,” says Mayor Dror Dvash, “and the economy and culture picked up. Our symphony orchestra is majority Russian. We’ve been blessed by them.”
Mitzpe Ramon, reinvigorated with a population of 5,700, of which 35 percent are Russians and 10 percent Moroccans, has reinvented itself as a tourist destination.
It’s become a trendy metropolitan oasis with artists, artisans and other cultural types who transformed the empty hangars into cool lofts for living and working.
Adama, for one, is a dance studio that promotes dance as a healing process and attracts people to its physical therapy programs. The huge building contains a large dance floor, separate carpeted area for discussion, kitchen, and a dozen tents for overnight guests.
“We are planning a spa center,” says Yaacov Shavit, director of the city’s economics department. “Also a planetary observatory and an airport.
“We are getting ready for desert tourism, a new thing.”
One of the city’s empty housing blocks has been transformed into an attractive, comfortable Ramon Inn. And there are even two yeshivas!
In Paula’s Memory
At Kibbutz Sdeh Boker, I visited David Ben-Gurion’s retirement home. There is an early television set, but am told that Israel’s first prime minister never watched. Instead, he would choose from his collection of 5,000 books in nine languages.
His wife Paula would busy herself in the kitchen, cooking what she called “cuchmuch.” The concoction consisted of cheese, yogurt, apple and strawberry juice.
Ben-Gurion hated it.
Once, after his wife’s death, the old man made the same mush. His daughter was surprised.
“You never liked it!”
“In her memory, I eat it.”
Israel’s Political Dilemma
There are 16,200 students at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. Avishay Braverman, at 57 the youngest university president in the country, is apprehensive about their future. Will they stay in the country and contribute, or will they leave for greener pastures?
“They deserve better governance,” Braverman said. “Can you imagine such a small country with 40 ministers and vice ministers? We have to learn how to govern and become a mature country.
“Otherwise these young people will go elsewhere. That’s the dilemma of Israel today.”
He warns that Israel needs a wakeup call, a revolution, “to change the way the political game is played.”
What changes does he call for?
First, he says, the government should have no more than 12 ministers, not the present three dozen or so. And those ministers need to be leaders of people, not followers of polls.
“Today’s leaders get up every morning and look at the polls to see what the people want, what to do. We need leaders capable of making decisions, not follow polls. Lincoln, Truman and Ben-Gurion didn’t follow polls.”
Second, he says, the Jewish people should focus on the Negev. “We must create a metropolis here. Otherwise our people will go to Tel Aviv or the United States.”
Vanished In The Night
Like many tourists, I planted a sapling in the Jewish National Forest at Modi’in. Forest ranger William Richman helped me establish roots in the land.
Richman, a Bronx native who made aliyah in 1978, showed me his new trailer office.
His previous office, also a trailer, disappeared one night last year.
“It was apparently hauled off on a flatbed truck,” he said, “probably by a passing truck driver who took a fancy to it.”
Perks Of The Air
On my return flight to New York, former UN Ambassador Dore Gold, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesperson, settles into first class with five other star power types, while I make my way to the economy section with 238 other frugal travelers.
I don’t mind. EL AL’s new Boeing 777-200 aircraft has spacious seats, unlike the 747 that brought me here, where the seats were really cramped.
Eliezer Chebach, 55, the manager of inflight service aboard Flight 001, introduces me to his cabin crew of 14. They are mainly students, working as flight attendants for five years when “they make good money and see the world.”
There are other perks. Flight attendant Efrat Aharoni says she fell in love with a passenger and is now married two years.
Chebach shows no fear of the situation on the ground.
“During all these terrorist attacks,” he says, “we survived due to our superior security procedures.”
Contact:
Tim Boxer, editor of www.15MinutesMagazine.com
p 718-969-0404
eMail timb@15minutesmagazine.com