Love and peace in the Middle East!
After a two-year hiatus, the World Surf League has returned to Israel, that brave middle eastern democracy with Syria right there on its eastern flank, for the Seat Pro Netanya.
I’m not a believer in cultural relativism and, therefore, throw my lot in with the brave Jew, in with the country that has produced six Nobel Prize-winning scientists since 2002, with its world-leading solar energy and space programs, cutting-edge stem-cell research, three of the most prestigious universities in the world, a country for whom equal rights between men and women is a no-brainer, where homosexuals don’t live in fear of murder or imprisonment.
Last time I was there, on the very day I arrived, a woman was stabbed to death in her home and in front of her six kids by a Palestinian terrorist. Shortly afterwards, a pregnant woman was stabbed, her life spared by a civilian with a gun.
And in the preceding six months, there had been 120 stabbings, 46 shootings, 30 car attacks and 78 fire-bombs. Twenty eight dead, nearly 300 wounded.
The Jews, so brave, so misunderstood.
Israel, Jews, the great Jewish diaspora, oh I love it all.
Read “Israel is the raddest surf trip on Earth!”, “What the Gudauskas Brothers got wrong about Israel”, “Let’s go schlepping, surfing gets into the 2021 Jewish Olympics!”, “Ozzie Wright sings King of the Jews!”, Movie: “The Hebrew Hammer!”.
Anyway, the Seat Pro Netanya has just started and Netanya, oowee, she’s a peach, a pretty beach town with soaring cliffs and eight miles of white sand beaches, just twenty miles north of Tel Aviv.
Been bombed to hell over the years, of course.
In 2002, suicide bombers from Hamas hit the Park Hotel during Passover, thirty dead, and a few months later, the local market, killing three, maiming sixty.
Interestingly, following innumerable anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims in France, its Jewry has chosen Netanya as an escape from the hate. Stroll past French synagogues, patisseries, even hairdressers who offer “Parisian coiffure.”
Who said Jews weren’t alert to biz opportunities!
Alexia Marciano, a twenty six year old who came to Netanya from Sarcelles, a mostly Muslim Paris suburb, told Jewish News, “It’s very bad. Scary. Next year we hope that the rest of the family is coming.”
Sign of the times, as they say.
Watch the Seat Pro Netanya teaser here!
And swing back to when your ol pal DR took Ozzie Wright and Otis Carey to Seat Pro Netanya.
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Fuck it. I’ll just say it. It’s an apartheid state. Sorry to be the one that has to brief it to you. Hamas or not Hamas, what they do to the Palestinian people is simple apartheid. No words around it. Call it protection if it makes you feel any better, but it’s still apartheid.
ps: how shitty is disqu? If you want to be rich, build something similar, except build a product that one can actually use.
Fuck it, I will just say it. Hamas and the Palestinians are a bunch of terrorists, and unlike many other middle eastern countries now, will not accept any kind of peace with Israel.
So I’m guessing all Palestinians are associated with Hamas. Cool take. Are all blacks criminals and all latins rapists? See what I did?
Ps: no need to answer.
Ps: I’m latin… And 1/4 black btw.
Checkin boxes Someone!
I like trannies! We’re all on the intersectional highway!
That’s some weak sauce right there. What a terrible analogy,. If the Palestinian people won’t do something about Hamas, then that’s on them. Why would I give a fuck if your ‘latin’ or ‘black’?
What’s the Orthodox Christian-Jew connection?
Every time anyone writes anything related to Israel – the discussion becomes political. Either love or hate and very skim in between.
It seems the world is obsessed with Israel.
Show me a country that doesn’t have its pros and cons.
Australia?
But aren’t there Australians in that place?
worse than brazzos
Meanwhile…..https://http://www.dispropaganda.com/singl...
I surfed Tel Aviv once. Jetty rebound type deal, chest high thousands of people out, no etiquette, clueless. Women are aggressive (check) and easy. Tense city, suffocating port authority.
Maldives boat filled with Israeli’s… began a fight with the Spaniards on another boat. Hostile crowds plural. I’m stuck in the middle trying to catch waves in the melee.
Will never go back to that once idyllic place. My two trips are diametric opposites of each other…. Heaven and Israhell. RIP Malidive.
https://beachgrit.com/2018/…
As a kid we landed at the airport the day after the Lod Massacre. Blood stained suit cases lined the bullet holed walls. We were escorted off the plane by soldiers into private customs and strip searched. Even my Great grandma. Ugliest scene I can remember. The floor was stained in lost blood.
Few days later, we were invited to a Kabutz an hour away from Tel Aviv. We passed through some gates and children pelted our buss with rocks as we sped by. Arrival at the commune was safety and there was this left right off a fence line that was better than town. They had a long board melting in the sun, but I chose to body surf it. I got into trouble because we were supposed to be humble guests and I just ran off to play on my own. The kids of the commune sat quietly near the adults and I was a wild animal by comparison.
Also surfed the breaks in front of our hotel in town and it was empty in those days. Kind of fun too, short period wedges. Rented a board and was alone for 3 days, happy as a clam.
When I went back as an adult, it was more crowded than I could imagine. Night life was off the hook, but I had to work. Their lives are hard scrabble and the edge of the military service must be hard to wipe off.
My client googled my name and a story I wrote painting the conflict in a way he didn’t appreciate. I explained that I distrusted all religions equally and that I respected judaism because it hadn’t allowed crass commercialism to overwhelm their reverent holidays unlike Christians.
At that time I wrote under my name, but almost lost the biggest gig in my life over a surf blog article. Hippy was born.
well said.
https://youtu.be/EhFCJ2W3e-E
Agreed – no idea why anyone supports Palestine, politically or culturally – repressive and backward.
Neither Hamas nor the PA have anything to offer their people other than more hatred and violence.
They are an open air prison being contracted, what would you expect on their homeland?
Indians?
The ol Mufti of Jerusalem was in a cahoots with the Nazis, like, literal Nazis, not Bill Maher, Russ Brand etc, spent WW2 in Berlin, privy to the machinations of the Final Solution. Jew-hating goes back a long way.
Whoopi gonna get ya
When is the new season of Fauda out?
Mid-year. https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I’ll stick to Silicone Valley reruns
I truly wish they had of taken the offer of a Jewish state in n/w Western Australia.
Would been fantastic for us and better for them.
Ahh but, no , better to fight and die over Christ hometown 🥲
Yeah, me too, north-west Oz would be a flower in perpetual bloom.
Thank God for religion…
She’s doing good work
That’s god to here…
A bucket list destination for those who support an apartheid state that happily shelters Russian Oligarchs responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. And no shark “problem” for the environmental ignoramuses. It’s a pity for them that the waves really suck.
Waves get surprisingly good. And bars in Tel Aviv very fun. Girls overrated.
Hmm, good compared to Germany, perhaps
You obviously have never visited the North Sea during winter.
Haha. I ‘surfed’ St Peter Ording alone this winter. On that day the charts said 2m NW @ 9secs with a switch from the typically gale force NW winds to a ‘moderate’ (i.e. still as windy as fuck in any real surf zone) NE, which maybe happens once or twice a winter. It was freezing and total dog shit! I’ve also been to Sylt a couple of times which was equally bad.
Nah you haven’t.
Yep I did. Of course it was dog shit. “Surfing in Germany” is an oxymoron!
You are an oxy moron.
Oh well at least as not as much of a moron as someone who thinks Germany has waves
I support the California-based group Jewish Voice for Peace.
Yep, there are many awesome Jews who fight to eradicate the evil perpetuated by Israel.
“ Who said Jews weren’t alert to biz opportunities! ”
Yeah nah passover this one.
The original slaves
JLM!!!
Great read,. Next to my local break in Haifa on October 2003 a female terrorist bomber blew herself up at a restaurant. When I lived in Israel we used to get our post surf food there. Twenty-one people were killed in the attack and 60 were injured. The restaurant is actually owned by Israeli Arab.
I ate at same restaurant! Hummus a little rich, for some reason. Too much oil?
mazel tov
Mick Fanning is not coming out retirement for this one.
Where are you from anyway?
Haustralia.
Really, because you sound Middle Eastern.
No no no, similar accent. Hangaroo
Does the surf term ” bomb set ” have the same meaning in jew land.