welcome to israel.....

i thought that the security in jfk airport would pretty much be at the top level. i mena that is where new york had the big twin tower episodes. the security we went through to get to new york pales in comparisin to that of tel aviv.

when we arrived at the airport in london they had this whole section of the check in sealed off patrolled by men with guns. then we had to line up and indiviualy go to a person standing behind a pulpit thing ( like a music stand for music paper) and they asked me a series of questions...

"when do you decide to come to israel."

"who are you seeing in israel"

"are you jewish"

"are any family memebrs of your jewish"

"are you christian"

"why are you coming to israel"

"what is your mothers maiden name"

"where will you be staying"

"do you speak hebrew"

"where do you work"

"have you ever been to any other countries in this regoin"

"where did you met your friend that you will be starying with"

"can we have his contact details"

"how did you buy your ticket"

"what will you be doing in israel"

"how old are you"

i think you guys get the idea.

i did get a bit annoyed with the girl who was asking me these questions when she frowned down upon me for being athiest, but ither than that they were polite.

then we get escorted over away from everybody else.

then they take all our bags off us.

then we have to be asked all these questions again.

then i had to be taken aside and patted down.

take my belt and shoes off.

they basicaly put there hands inside of my underwear and did everything but a complete strip search.

then we had to wait in an another area away from everyone else for the plane.

then we had to get searched again.

then they returned our bags which had been opened and everything moved and searched.( they neatly repacked it though so that was o.k)

after we finshed the INTENSE security checks, i did feel abit sorry for one other guy who got interigated slightly more than us and he was a palestinian.

Having said that, everysingle security officer that dealt with us was 100 times more polite and curtoues than ANY airpot staff member i encounterd in new york.

the trip home had the security check even worse because by then they were in the middle of a full blown war.

i had to watch them go through all my stuff and got interviewed for 45min. i had to show photos of where i'd been, give them alijah and eyals telephone numbers, show them reciets. they kept asking the same questions again and tried to trip me up so i'd make a mistake. like ask me a completly irrelvant question like " what did you have for breakfast this morning?"

it was intense but after being there i can understand the need.

i will just put one more picture up before i run off to work.

this is a photo of the war planes that were on the tarmac as we left tel aviv on our return to london. our plane had to sit and wiat while one of them took off.

xO