Rosner's Domain: Adam LeBor on the "paradox" that is the city of Tel Aviv

Adam LeBor, British author and journalist, wrote for Conde Nast Traveler about the city of Tel Aviv. "I have been visiting Tel Aviv for thirty years, since I was a teenager, and something always draws me back. Part of it is the sheer sense of wonder that this city founded on the sands in 1909, by meshuga (crazy) Zionist pioneers, not only still exists a hundred years later but crackles with energy twenty-four hours a day. In a century it's grown from nothing to a sophisticated metropolis, home to about 390,000 people. It has an internationally renowned university, a stock exchange, a vibrant media and music scene, numerous museums and art galleries, electric nightlife, and world-class restaurants. Its inhabitants are engagingly friendly and often extremely beautiful, and love to party."

I sent him a couple of questions:

1. You write that "Tel Aviv was founded by ascetic Zionist pioneers but is now one of the world's most pleasure-seeking cities." Why is this a "paradox" - your definition?

I think there is a contradiction between the first Zionists who wanted to rebuild the Jews of the shtetl as bronzed labourers in the modern Hebrew city, under the meditteranean sun, and who praised physical labour, and today's Tel Aviv, where most of the physical labour is carried out by foreign guest workers with uncertain immigration status.

2. You also write that "the relationship between Jaffa and Tel Aviv is analogous to that between Israel and Palestine: Tel Aviv was born as a suburb of Jaffa, but now Jaffa is a suburb of Tel Aviv". Interesting analogy, but somewhat problematic, isn't it? no one is seriously suggesting that Jaffa should be separated from Tel Aviv and become independent.

It is more of a historical/cultural analogy than to do with local government. Before 1948 Jaffa was the Arab cultural capital of Palestine, with numerous cinemas, theatres, newspapers, a radio station and so on. After 1948 that world completely disappeared and 90,000 Arabs were driven out or ran away, depending which history books you read. Just as Israel swallowed up much of Palestine, its first city, Tel Aviv has swallowed up the Arabs' first city Jaffa.

3. "Tel Aviv is defined by what it is not: its great rival, Jerusalem". Did you get a sense of inferiority complex from those leaving in Tel Aviv? do you think Tel Aviv is a real competition to Jerusalem?

I did not get any sense of inferiority to Jerusalem in Tel Aviv. On the contrary, I felt more of a sense of disdain for what Tel Avivians often see as a cloistered, increasingly claustrophobic city, where religious fanatics squabble over every square inch and seek to impose their lifestyle on everyone else. I don't think Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are competition to each other, they are quite different worlds.

4. You mention the different mentality of Tel Aviv's and the fact that it's almost a different country. But you do not delve into the politics of Tel Aviv. By visiting Tel Aviv, did you get an answer to the question of why the Israeli left is dead - or nearly dead?

The moribund state of the Israeli left in Tel Aviv is due to the same factors as everywhere else: a feeling of powerlessness as the settlements continue to daily swallow up more Palestinian land; the rise of Soviet-style politics as embodied by Yisrael Beitenu that sees citizens as servants of the state rather than the other way around; the refusal of Hamas to negotiate and the general sense that the Arab world is neither ready for, nor interested in, any meaningful peace with Israel. It's just that in Tel Aviv there are much better bars, cafes and restaurants to go out and forget about that stuff. The bubble is very comforting. Mostly.

5. What is:

The worst thing about the city:

The Neve Tsedek skyscraper. It is beyond belief that the municipality gave permission for this monstrosity to be built next to the historic heart of the city. Then again, maybe it's not.

The most scary:

Lots of young men and women with big guns.

The most bizarre:

A four-lane highway next to the beach. I have never seen urban planning (if that planning is the word) like it.

The funniest:

Tel-Aviv, literal meaning: Hill of Spring. What hills? What spring?

The best:

The laid-back Mediterranean atmosphere that is accepting of all visitors, wherever they come from, and whatever their faith. Quite a model for the neighboring surrounds both within Israel and beyond its borders.