In Tel Aviv, life goes on
Posted: Friday, January 09, 2009 11:15 AM
Filed Under:
Tel Aviv, Israel
By Geoff Tofield, NBC News’ Deputy Director of International News
TEL AVIV, Israel – I woke up one morning this week to what sounded like a small and low-flying plane nearby. Having spent time on alert in this conflicted region before, I took a quick look out of my window and immediately spotted the culprit.
Small and low-flying: yes. Cause for alarm: not so much.
It was a powered parachute out for a gentle morning flight over the beautiful beachfront next to the Tel Aviv Marina.
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| Geoff Tofield / NBC News |
| Snapshot taken from Geoff Tofield's cell phone as a glider went by his window overlooking the Tel Aviv Marina. |
A couple of joggers and an elderly couple at an exercise station on the beach watched him for a few seconds and returned to their routines.
Driving through the city later I noted the fine weather and another view of the Mediterranean. "That’s what’s so nice about Tel Aviv," said a local Israeli along for the ride. "The war is," he said as he waved vaguely off to the distance, "… out there."
"Out there" might be Sderot, a city about an hour’s drive south of Tel Aviv bordering Gaza that has been the frequent target of Hamas militants’ rockets. A sign there welcomes visitors with a running tally of the rocket strikes – 5,726 and counting.
But at a sunny sidewalk café, a man named Avni said that when it comes to living in Tel Aviv, "You resign yourself to whatever is going to happen."
He elaborated on what my other friend said earlier, "Israel is like two countries … You have the north, south, Jerusalem is one part … and then there is Tel Aviv."
Working in Tel Aviv during a crisis elsewhere in Israel, the calm is almost disarming. For years, I covered turmoil-wracked Central America, and at the first sign of trouble, cities would virtually shut down.
Yet in Tel Aviv, strollers stroll, workers work, people sip coffee at sidewalk cafes. The radio volume might be a little higher, the debate a little more animated – but in the end it really is striking: Life just goes on.