War-weary Israelis find respite on Sinai

War-weary Israelis find respite on Sinai


By Joshua Mitnick
THE WASHINGTON TIMES



TABA, Egypt — Israeli vacationers, convinced that nothing could be
more dangerous than staying home, are flocking back to Egypt's Red Sea
resorts after a three-year absence occasioned by the Palestinian
uprising.
"It was a mistake that we didn't come for so long," said Sharon
Gal, who with her husband and two small children spent the long Yom
Kippur weekend at Sharm el Sheik on the Sinai Peninsula.
"I don't think it was so dangerous," said Mrs. Gal, who had last
visited the resort city three years ago. "Your head empties here.
There's nothing like it anywhere in the world."
Droves of Israeli tourists have come to the same conclusion,
forming long lines at the sleepy border crossing from Israel over a
recent holiday weekend.
"After the Iraq war, people decided that it can't get any worse,
so they had the guts to go," said Itzak Hay, director of the Israeli
border crossing at Taba. "People are seeing that the political
situation isn't getting better, and that there's no safe place
anywhere."
During the nine months before the outbreak of the uprising in
2000, nearly 1 million tourists used the Taba border crossing,
two-thirds of whom were Israeli. As the Arab world rallied behind the
Palestinian cause and Egypt recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv,
Israeli vacationers anticipated a hostile reception in Sinai.
Some feared a random shooting by a crazed Egyptian soldier and
worried that Sinai emergency workers' response would be inadequate.
Others simply felt betrayed by Egypt's encouragement of the
Palestinian uprising and made a point of boycotting Sinai.
"We didn't want to give them our money after all of that chaos,"
said Shuki Golan, who was back at the border crossing with his wife
this summer for the first time in three years.
When the first wave of Israelis to visit Egypt this year returned
with reports that there was nothing to fear, it opened a floodgate of
countrymen seeking a peaceful desert sanctuary from their hectic
homeland.
Resort hotels just south of the Israeli border on Sinai's east
coast were booked solid during the three-week Jewish autumn holidays.
Many other Israelis say the pent-up mistrust from the three years
of fighting runs too deep for them to consider a visit to Sinai.
"Our family was very afraid that we were coming here," said Mr.
Golan. "They said, 'You don't know what will happen there. It's not a
democratic country, and they might take you to jail.' "
The fear has been reinforced by an Israeli government warning
against travel to Egypt and other Arab countries. A Foreign Ministry
spokesman said that even though no Israelis have been harmed in Sinai
since the outbreak of the uprising, vacationers there are at risk.
"Basically, since the outburst of violence, our indication is that
there's a certain calculated danger for Israelis traveling and drawing
attention in these areas," said Jonathan Peled. "It's not necessarily
based on pinpoint information, but it's a precautionary measure."
But for tens of thousands of Israelis, Sinai's tranquillity is
simply too compelling for them to heed the official caution. The
peninsula's popularity thrives on its reputation as an inexpensive and
serene alternative to the crowded strip of high-rises at Israel's
Eilat resort.
Once over the Taba border, the vacationers follow a coastal
highway past cragged and foreboding desert mountains.
Between the road and the sea stand partially completed hotels like
huge ghost towns — remnants of a construction boom in the late 1990s
that was cut short when the Israelis stopped coming.
Nuweiba, a resort 35 miles south of Taba, has struggled to lure
vacationers from Germany and the Persian Gulf to replace the Israelis,
but apartment prices have fallen by 60 percent.
Israelis "are the main market for this area. If they come, we will
start to build again. Egypt is a developing country, and our main aim
is to promote tourism," said Shawkat Nabih, who manages the 86-room
Tropicana Hotel in Nuweiba.
"It's not a matter of money, it's a matter of principle. Why do we
have to fight? Why do we have to kill each other?"
Indeed, Israelis don't feel like foreigners here. For 15 years
before giving up Sinai as part of a peace treaty with Egypt, the
peninsula was considered part of Israel.
Despite the Egyptian stamps in their passports, Israelis think of
Sinai as an entity unto itself. Its beaches and miles of mountain
wilderness are more familiar and far less threatening than the crowds
and hubbub of Cairo, a destination that interests few.
"There's a peaceful atmosphere that we need so much. This is the
reason why people come back to Sinai," said Avi Schichrur, clad in
pink-tinted Italian sunglasses as he worked at deepening his bronzed
tan.
"We don't think about anything. We don't wear watches here, and
don't hear news. We're just with ourselves."