This year we planned a trip to Israel, the Promised Land, a country promised by more Governments to more people than any other country in the world. Even the Israelis love to make promises like, “Tomorrow I’ll mail you my QSL card.” But most of these cards will probably be delivered by the Messiah himself, when and if He comes.

                                            YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH ...

   When I told a few friends that we want to visit Israel, the first question was: “Are you Jewish?” Interesting, nobody asked me if I am a Moslem when I visited Mauritania or Morocco.
   For a visiting amateur, Israel has lots of attractions; it is easy to get a permit to operate portable 4X, everybody speaks English (and 2-3 other languages) and the country has so many fascinating sights that no matter how long you stay there, you’ll never finish discovering new ones.
   We decided to first visit our families in Romania (where I used to be YO2BO), and from there, TAROM the Romanian airline, took us to Lod Airport near Tel Aviv.
   At the immigration desk I asked the Israeli officer not to stamp my passport and he gave me the visa on a separate piece of paper. Some of the Middle Eastern countries won’t let you in if you have an Israeli visa on your passport. Contrary to that, the Israelis don’t seem to care about your previous travels.
   We picked up our luggage, loaded up two pushcarts and started to look for the Customs area. We followed an arrow and pushing our carts around a group of noisy people evidently in some disagreement, we found ourselves on the street. I knew that in the Middle East much of the activities are done outdoors but I doubted that the Custom Inspection was also done on the street. When we asked a taxi driver where the Customs was, he wondered if we were coming or going. I realized then that when we had avoided the group of noisy people, we also avoided the inspection.
   Later I found out that there are 2 ways to choose: one marked with a red light if have anything to declare and the other one, with a green light, if you are “clean.” Having my own standards, I always claimed to be clean and probably by my good instinct I went through the green light.
   Most of the three weeks were spent in Kiriyat Yam B. north of Haifa, but made several trips to visit amateurs or just sightseeing.

                                                 HAIFA, THE CITY ON CARMEL     

   Haifa located at Mount Carmel is indeed one of the prettiest cities on the Mediterranean coast. I was invited here by Ben, 4X4IL, and his XYL Devora 4X4NW. I met them in London, about 7 years ago, when Ben was studying at Imperial College and was active as G5AIY.
   They live up on Mount Carmel not far from the sea, so their location for antennas is excellent.
   While I was visiting Ben and Devora, they were talking on 2 meter FM with amateurs in Tel Aviv, about 60 miles (95 km) away.
   The new thing in Israel is 2 meter FM. Some people reached as far as Cyprus and many amateurs operate mobile. It is interesting to watch some of the amateurs operate on 2 meters; while on lower frequencies they behave like amateurs, on 2 meters they sound like CB-ers.
   Another amateur I visited was Yair, 4Z4JI, who lives right across the street from the beautiful Dan Carmel Hotel. Yair was blinded years ago in a car accident. Arnon 4Z4JL, taught him the Morse code and helped him prepare for the license examination. Yair is attending college, studying Arabic and English. He showed me his special device used for tuning up his transmitter and later he played the piano with great skill.
   Yair would like to get some amateur radio magazines written in Braille, perhaps some of the readers can help in this matter.
   A couple of days later, Ben 4X4IL, and Devora 4X4NW, took us to Kibbutz Sasa, a collective settlement not far from the Lebanese border. Laurie Margolis G3UML wrote up Sasa in the last month’s CQ.
   On our way there, we were in touch on 2 meters with Naftali 4X4JW, who came from Jerusalem to help the Sasa group in a contest.
   They were operating the phone portion of the CQ WW DX Contest and the club 4Z4HF had 2 rigs working. Ricky 4X4NJ and Yossele 4Z4LF manned one, Laurie G3UML and Emanuel 4X4GV operated the other one.
   Standby operators were Keith 4Z4IX, and Yossi 4Z4MD. Yossi is studying at Technion in Haifa, where he operates 4X4HF; the school’s club station. And of course Ben 4X4IL and Devora 4X4NW were there.
   There were many more people there but most of them seemed to disturb to operation with their constant yakking, then help it.
   Joe, a member of the Kibbutz and an operator of the club station, was coordinating the whole effort, checking the worked stations, repairing the antenna and especially the rotators, which kept breaking down.
   Yossele 4Z4LF, who for many years has been a member of this Kibbutz, took us around. He invited us in this house, showed us the children’s quarters, the school, even the shelter needed because of their proximity to the Lebanese border.
   Every visitor was invited for dinner in the cafeteria and on that Saturday there were more freeloaders than Kibbutzniks.
   From Haifa we took several side trips. First we went to Rosh Hanikra, right on the border of OD5, were we reached some interesting natural grottos be cablecar. On another day we visited Nahariya, a beautiful summer resort town, and Acco which is a very old Arab sector and a fortification where during the British mandate many Jewish freedom fighters were jailed; some of the executed.
   We walked through the ruins of Cesarea, the ancient Roman capital, we saw Nazareth, holy place for Christianity, and we visited Tiberias located about 700 feet below sea level, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
   We drove along Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and noticed something what is characteristic for the spirit of many Israelis: right near the lake, every 100 yards or so, there were big signs written in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “ Bathing is Prohibited.” Groups of people were having fun in the water right near those signs, not in between, but right near them. That’s what they call “dafke” what translates to “in defiance of.”
   We went inside the catacombs of Bet Shearim where I even got into a sarcophagus to check its comfort, but I can’t recommend it for any length of time.
 
                                 JERUSALEM, WHERE THE U.S. HAS 2 CONSULATES

   Jerusalem, because it is the capital of Israel has a United States Consulate. But the U.S. maintains also a second consulate in another sector of Jerusalem, which used to belong to Jordan. So even if this is a very unusual situation, don’t worry America, we are well represented in Jerusalem.
   The new city is very modern and it is beautiful. High walls having 8 gates surround the old city with a large Arab population. It is one of the most interesting places in the world with plenty to see and photograph.
   In the modern Jerusalem we visited Ben WA2BZA/4X. He shares his station with his college student son Jonathan WA2NGG/4X.
   Ben spent a big part of his life in the construction industry, teaching and writing college textbooks. Now he came to Israel to study the Talmud, the basis of the Jewish religion.
   We went on the roof of his house to see his beam antenna, his 2-meter antenna, and to film him climbing up and down his tower. What wouldn’t a man do to star in a movie? Even if it is made just with a modest Super 8 camera and the producer, director and cameraman is a one-man crew.
   I asked Ben, as I asked other Israeli amateurs, how come among approximately 1,000 4X and 4Z amateurs there is not one single Arab. From various amateurs I got various answers and explanations, but it just did not seem right that with a quite large Arab population, with many college students and technical people, no 4X amateur is called Ahmed or Mohammed. It is true that you can’t hear many Arabs from Egypt, Syria, Sudan or Iraq, but we like to think there are better conditions in Israel.
   Another of my gripes is about QSLing. It happened to me and I am sure to many other hams that after a nice QSO with a 4X station, and mailing him a QSL, despite all his promises you wait in vain for his. There are many amateurs big in empty promises and in my experience the 4Xs are leaders in this field.
   I was trying for the 4X4=16 Award, by working 16 Israeli stations on 4 bands. I contacted more than forty 4X and 4Z stations, everyone promised a QSL, but I couldn’t get the necessary cards. Why don’t they make an award: “Received 16 Israeli promises”? It would be much easier.
   Perhaps I exaggerated a little bit. If you really want an Israeli QSL for DXCC, or for any other award, don’t despair. All you have to do is to check-in on one of the Israeli nets, move off the net frequency with a friendly sounding 4X amateur, run a half hour phone patch for him and you made it; on your next vacation you can fly to Israel and pick up your card.

                                                                 TEL AVIV - YAFO

   Tel Aviv is a modern city definitely worth visiting. Yafo, a very old Arab town is rapidly disappearing to make room for the extending Tel Aviv. A small portion of Yafo was rebuilt for the sake of tourists but it is so unreal, so new and clean, that you have the impression of walking on a Hollywood movie set.
   In Tel Aviv I visited an old friend of mine; Dan 4X4JS. Dan is a Sabra (a native Israeli) who came to New York and for many years worked for the same company I work for CBS-Television. He became WA2CRD and was a famous DX chaser. Recently he returned to his homeland and became once again 4X4JS.
   The day I visited Dan, his wife gave birth to a baby-girl, but Dan didn’t seem to be half as excited as the day he worked Mongolia, the last country he needed for his “Worked All Zones” Award. Strange people these amateurs.
   In his home I met Avi 4Z4MQ, and Miron W2CFZ/X2, who was visiting from Monsey, NY.
   With Eva, WA2BAV, and our little Diane we went to see Strulik, 4Z4JT. Strulik a former member of Kibbutz Sasa, is a professional photographer. Last year we operated from Istanbul as TA1OM and TA1YL, he was very helpful making lists and fighting the pile-ups for us. It was a great pleasure to meet him personally.
   In one of the most beautiful suburbs of Tel Aviv I visited Louis 4Z4AO. I met Louis in Romania about 20 years ago when he was known as YO3GL.
   At that time I heard a story and now he’s confirmed it. One day he was operating his rig in his semi-basement shack, in Bucharest. The window was open and he was talking in English. A policeman passing-by heard him talking in a foreign language on his radio station. Convinced that he discovered a spy, he called for enforcement, surrounded the house with his group and he personally jumped through the window right on poor Louis’s back, arresting him.
   It took Louis a long time to convince the policeman and his entourage that he was a legally licensed amateur radio operator and he had the right to talk to people in foreign countries.
   Now Louis is safe in Israel but perhaps his past experience made him buy an apartment on the top floor of the building; nobody will ever jump through the window on his back anymore.
   In Tel Aviv we went to visit Jack 4X4CZ, who was that time the President of the Israel Amateur Radio Club. Later we heard with great sadness that Jack suddenly passed away just a couple of days after our visit. Before 1948, he operated in the former Palestine as ZC6AB and allegedly was a radio operator for Haganah, the underground organization of the Jewish freedom fighters. His XYL is working for the Ministry of Communications and she handles the amateur radio licenses.
   In Tel Aviv the amateurs have a nice tradition; once a month or so, they meet in a restaurant and have a good time.
   We went to such a meeting. It was the most un-meetinglike meeting I ever attended. Nobody opened the meeting and nobody closed it, nobody made a speech and nobody read the minutes. This lasted 3 hours. People just came, sat down, had their coffees and cakes, everybody talked with everybody else, mostly in the same time, and then they said “Shalom” and went home.
   There were more than 30 Israeli amateurs and a couple of foreign visitors like Ulf, SM3CZA/4X who is with the United Nations Emergency Forces in Sinai, Toby G2FLK, Myron W2CFZ/4X, and Jim W0KBG/4X.
   Among the Israeli amateurs there were Aron 4Z4AG who is active on SSTV, Yankele 4X4AH whom I met before in New York, Israel 4X4VB, father, and Dov 4Z4DX, son, both members of a Kibbutz, Ozzie 4X4CW, Haim 4X4LC, Ami 4X4DK, Tuvia 4X4GT, Uri 4X4OC, and others. Some of them came with their wives but I didn’t meet any YL operator. For a country where the women are very emancipated (many of them go to military service) there are very few YL operators.

                                                            IN CONCLUSION

   I was asked to write nice things about the Israeli amateurs. After a long search I came up with the following: not every 4X amateur when talking to the U.S. wants a phone-patch, and some of the 4X amateurs sometimes really do QSL.
   I strongly recommend a vacation in Israel; there are many fascinating places, the public transportation is good and cheap, the food is excellent, and the people are very, very nice.
   Don’t try to drive on other than the major roads because there are few road signs and those are mostly in Hebrew.
 
   1999 ADDENDUM: Not too much changed from 1975 regarding promises made in 4X4-land. Recently I gave HaGal, the official bulletin of the Israeli Amateur Radio Club, some articles to be published. As usually, I made an agreement with its editor to send 30 magazines with the published article to a radio club in the country the article describes, for free distribution to the local amateurs.  It took a long time to get it in print. First the editor said that he will translate it to Hebrew. After a couple of months he said he gave the article to a staff member to translate it. After a while he said that half of it is already translated, and later he announced that almost all is translated.
   Finally, it was published in English. One of the explanations would be that the editor translated it to Hebrew, then his staff member translated it back to English. The other explanation would be that the words of the editor of HaGal are just words.
   Furthermore, the editor never sent the agreed number of magazines to the amateurs described and portrayed in the article, and never kept his promise to return my photographs.