Israel, Hummus & Krav Maga
Israel, Hummus & Krav Maga
Some brief & (relatively) unbiased thoughts from a quick visit to Israel in mid-2023, before it all kicked off 💥✡️
10 minute read - Give us a like if you make it to the end 💘
🇮🇱 Tel Aviv, Israel, circa mid-2023 (yes, before everything went batshit crazy). If you’re already triggered by the fact I even went there given the current situation, then please do us both a favor, stop reading, save your own time & f**k off 😊.
A few thoughts on the situation briefly at the end, although I am absolutely not qualified to (not Jewish/Arabic)… 😳 But for anyone even vaguely interested, I would highly recommend reading this post by Gurwinder. It is somewhat dated now (October 2023) but it echos 90% of my thoughts on the issue, in a far better-articulated way than I could manage (plus who cares what I think).
1 - Bali to Israel, July 2023 ✈️
2 - Tel Aviv 🕍
3 - Krav Maga 👊
4 - Wrap Up 🏁
5 - Thoughts on the current situation 😶
Bali 🌴 > Israel ✡️
For the remaining non-virtue signalers (🐻👈👀) After dropping my Geology career in Australia and lounging around in Bali for almost two months, the tiny Middle Eastern country was the first port of call en-route to a four-ish month ‘European’ summer adventure.
Although the paper wealth in my brokerage account was well into the green, the goal was (is) to be as frugal as possible for a long as possible for the following 12 to 24 months, letting the investment theses in the portfolio play out while I spent small amounts of cash.
Basically, spend small amounts of money while the uranium and offshore O&G bull markets do the heavy-lifting, even as I spend money, travel, and plan the next stage of life (how not to go back to work) 😏 el plan anyway.
The caveat was that, as a rather introverted bloke in his mid-30s, avoiding hostels and dorms at ALL costs is a priority. After having spent a significant portion of my 20s staying in hostel-style dorms throughout Europe & S.E Asia, I had now arrived at the ripe old age of 33 and could rarely tolerate a 15-second conversation with the typical early 20s ‘find yourself’ backpacker. Might sound elitist, but I like to keep to myself 80% of the time, and have reached the grumpy old man stage of my life somewhat early!
Where to stay if I didn’t want to socialise with smelly backpackers but not fork out $200+ per night for an Airbnb? The best I found was a capsule-style hotel (The O-Pod Hotel), right on the beachfront, and close to the old city of Jaffa, within Tel Aviv (Jaffa is an ancient port town, and is the port that was used to connect ancient Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and the ancient world).
Tel Aviv
With all this in mind, Israel was NOT a good choice of country to come as a penny-pincher. At the time, Tel Aviv was known as one of the most expensive cities in the world. Indeed, spending shekels (Israeli currency) is painful. I can’t remember the cost of a typical meal now (writing this ten months after I was there..), but suffice to say, I basically lived off hummus for the entire trip. Not only was hummus the cheapest and most delicious option, but Israeli hummus is arguably the best in the world, at least equal with the Lebanese.
Those who have visited Tel Aviv will know that, maybe short of Montreal, New York or San Francisco, the former Israeli capital is one of the most progressive, left-leaning and tolerant cities in the world. This is incredibly ironic given the current situation, and some of the slogans pedalled by the useful idiots on Instagram & Western university campuses... During my time there the entire city was painted in rainbow flags for pride month, all mixed in with mosques, churches and synagogues. How many other Middle Eastern countries can celebrate Pride Month🏳️🌈?
Another thing that surprised me about Israel (I was a naive blank slate, knowing almost nothing about the country before I visited) was the demographic breakdown of the population. Again keeping in mind what is currently being pushed by left-of-centre media about the country;
The population by ethnicity in May 2024 was 73.2% Jewish, and 21.1% Arabic, while the remainder is made up of non-Arab Christians, Baha’i, Samaritans, Karaite Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, Messianic Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
In 2022, the population by religion was 73.3% Jewish, 18.1% Muslim, 1.9% Christian & 1.6% Druze.
One-fifth of the population of Israel is Arabic, and almost all of them are practising Muslims. I spoke about this at length with the Krav Maga instructors during my stay. Muslims have coexisted peacefully within the country since its inception in 1948, and indeed you do see mosques dotting Tel Aviv. The country was founded as a secular nation. Some may read that and say, yeah no shit Tom, but I found it fascinating given what most of the world media espouses. Food for thought.
Krav Maga
Backing up a bit, why come here then if so expensive? I’d been looking for an excuse to visit the Middle East on the way to Eastern Europe, and was tossing up between Egypt, Jordan & Israel. Petra, Cairo and the Red Sea are still firmly on the bucket list, but I had to pick one.
The past four-ish years, I’d trained Krav Maga off and on in Perth, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So I decided to see ancient Judea while brushing up on some Krav Maga. The course blended training with tourism, with different days spent training in different parts of the country (i.e Jerusalem, Netanya etc.).
I’d always regretted not properly getting into a martial art as a teenager. Starting to learn Krav later in life (late 20s) is great due to its practicality. The whole system is designed around taking the most practical parts of all martial art systems, and putting them together for maximum practicality. I hope to start training Krav Maga properly again in the next few years, once I’ve more of a base (potentially in Mexico City..).
The course was a 7-day intensive Krav Maga immersion camp, run by Ron Engelman, an Aussie-Israeli gentleman that is somewhat well known in the Krav space (through the international Krav Maga courses he runs).
Would highly recommend this type of trip to anyone out there who is into fitness, isn’t strapped for cash (it wasn’t super cheap) and wants to blend travelling with fitness and self-defence. They also have a Krav Instructor Course if you have been training for 5ish+ years.
Training in Tel Aviv
Training in the Ben Shemen Forest
Spent a day training in the Ben Shemen Forest, a woodland in central Israel known for its scenic trails, and rich history, including the site of a number of ancient battles.
Training in Jerusalem
Probably the highlight - the morning spent drilling beneath the ancient city walls of Jerusalem, followed by a city tour and then a visit to the holocaust museum.
The history of Jerusalem is pretty insane. I find the Roman occupation era the most interesting. There is a great podcast on King Herod the Great by Short History Of (an epic podcast would recommend to anyone vaguely interested in history) which is a great starting point (not chronologically) of the history of Judea.
Training Grappling at the IDF Academy
BJJ is something I hope to get into more as I get older (need to slow down with travelling first) as grappling fundamentals are critical for anyone to learn. Having trained BJJ for a few months in Bondi, Sydney before leaving Australia, it is interesting how Krav (again from a point of practicality) encourages eye-gouging, elbows to the face and of course, groin punches while on the ground - BJJ purists would decry such actions, but if you are in a real-world altercation on the ground, anything goes..
Training in Netanya - Final Day Bootcamp
The last day was pretty epic (and hard). After getting up at sparrow-fart we drove to the outskirts of Netanya, a city in the northern area of the country, and a spot that the IDF uses for much of is army training.
Basically they set up a course where we had to disarm our way up a steep dune, run for about a kilometre and then repeat until we couldn’t move.
The day was finished with multiple beach beers and a dip in the Med.
Wrap Up
Would highly recommend this type of trip to anyone who is even vaguely interested in fitness, MMA, Krav Maga, or history and wants to do a trip to the Middle East with a twist. I typically detest group tour-type trips (again, very introverted), but this one was great.
I hope that by the second half of 2024 the current situation has recovered enough that tourists can return to this part of the Middle East.
Again a link to the company here (not affiliated).
Thoughts on the current situation.
Thought it best to leave this at the end 😅 Please don’t kill me… 😩
Firstly and obviously, it is all incredibly sad, and probably not a great time to visit the country (not sure if you even can). It seems like there is still no end in sight, with Hamas at the time of writing still refusing to release hostages, the IDF will not stop their occupation. It should be blindingly clear to anybody that Gaza can not be governed by Hamas.
Again if you don’t have a strong dog in the fight, have a read of Gurwinders Piece here, it does a far better job of shining a light on the lies pedaled by the Western-left about Israel (although it is outdated now).
When I was a naïve young leftist I too believed Israel was a tyrannical regime, because that’s what everyone around me was saying, and my empty mind was a vacuum that sucked it all up. Once I escaped my echo-chamber, and began to objectively assess the facts, I realized just how unfairly Israel has been demeaned — not just among leftists and Muslims, but also in media, academia, and on Wikipedia. - Gurwinder.
The ‘left’ won the ‘culture war’ in the last decade (that’s another post 😅) and you see (if you can think for yourself) the effects of that now from the actions of (particularly) gen-Z types waving their flags. Konstantin Kisin (another Substack you should be subscribed to) filmed a great video of protesters in London a few months ago - highly recommend giving that one a watch too.
The real overall tragedy here is the failure of Palestinian leaders and the leaders of other Arabic nations to concede any of the multiple peace deals offered by Israel over the decades, even after they (Arab leaders) were the ones that initiated the violence.
Objectively, the Palestinian Arabs were absolutely denied a state of their own, and are forced to endure sanctions and bombings from a far superior military, while trapped under the tyranny of an Islamist death-cult (who initiated the conflict) that steals global aid money to purchase weapons, suppresses rights, uses civilians as human shields and whose leaders are billionaires living in Qatar.
Another objective truth is that the Jews have been persecuted throughout their entire history, since ancient times, and asked for a single place in which they could finally be safe, just one tiny Jewish state (their actual ancestral homeland), that was relentlessly attacked from its inception.
Summarising some of the above linked article
Palestine was never a state. Judea is the ancient ancestral home of the Jews, well before even the Ancient Romans or Ancient Egyptians invaded the region.
Overall the history shows a persistent trend: Israel and the international community repeatedly offered compromises to the Arabs in exchange for peace, and the Arabs repeatedly rejected them. So the common narrative, that the conflict was a result of stereotypical “Jewish greed,” is false. It was more a result of Arab intransigence. - Gurwinder.
Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire, and never a state.
This province was the site of the ancestral Kingdom of Israel, as told by the Torah.
The British drove out the Ottomans in WW1, and promised the region to both the Jews and the Arabs already living in the region.
In 1936, the British offered to divide the land between Arabs and Jews, with the Arabs receiving 80% and the Jews 20%. The Jews accepted, but the Arabs refused.
In 1947 the UN voted to divide Palestine into two states; one Jewish, one Arab. This time slightly more land was offered to the Jews than the Arabs, but this was because much of the Jewish area was sterile wasteland in the Negev Desert. Again, the Arabs rejected the plan and a civil war broke out.
After the UN-backed formation of Israel in 1948, Israel was attacked by five Arabic nations, and won the ensuring war. Jordan captured what is now the West Bank.
In 1967, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria launched another war against Israel, which Israel won in six days, capturing Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The Arabic nations vowed for “No peace with Israel”.
In 1973 the Arab coalition launched yet another attack against Israel, and once again were defeated. During the subsequent peace talks, the Arabs again rejected all Israeli offers. A prominent Israeli diplomat famously quipped, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
In 1978 Israel proposed to return The Sinai to Egypt if Egypt agreed to peace, a deal Egypt finally accepted. In 1994 Jordan also accepted a peace deal with Israel. Several times, Israel offered to return the Golan Heights to Syria if Syria agreed to peace, but this offer was rejected. Most of the other Arab states also refused to make peace with Israel.
During the 1990’s the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat refused every offer proposed to him, and in 2000 all negotiations collapsed, sparking the Second Intifada.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, relinquishing control of the region to the Palestinians, who elected Hamas, a genocidal ultranationalist jihadist group that had sworn in it’s charter to destroy Israel. With that, there would be no more opportunities for peace.
Israel has its extremes — its bombs hit civilians, its settlement-building is out of control, and its Supreme Court is under attack by its own government.
But Israel’s excesses are Hamas’ norms. The jihadis have sworn to keep killing civilians as long as Israel still stands. - Gurwinder.
El Fin
If you made it this far, chuck us a like 💖
Writing a post currently on My Investment Philosophy - at the time of writing on the 12th of May, I’m about to go on a high altitude hike with my best mate in the Peruvian Andes, so hopefully I’ll get it out soon.
Cheers
Tom - Van Diemen
Another nice article mate, you got me with the story about the hostels. I feel exactly the same way, can't stand these shallow people.
With regards to Israel (I understand your excitement talking politics publicly - I'm writing on a spicy topic at the moment as well), it's fairly balanced and I agree for the most part. It's good you show the Israeli society in its plurality. Many people forget this aspect.
And whether one agrees with Israel's recent actions in Gaza or not - you'll find many supporters for both positions within the Israeli society. And Bibi isn't that popular anymore either. If I would be Israeli, I now would be fearful for the survival of Israel for the first time in decades. Most of that fear results in Natanyahu's actions - he overplayed his hand thinking it's 1997 and the Israeli society already pays a high price for that. And the Arabs more so.
The point that anti-Israeli/Jewish sentiment is now made so popular and acceptable in the West appears to me as organic as BLM or the climate stickers - is someone being set up here as a scapegoat? I have a baaad feeling.
Well, long response none has asked for. :D
Have fun hiking with Jordan! Cheers!