[Note: Benjamin is the Shvitz's new Israeli-based correspondent. He'll be blogging here on a regular basis about politics and culture in the Middle East. –MW]
Living in Beersheva has its advantages and its disadvantages. Usually the latter loom larger than the former, the heat, the sandstorms, the relative distance from the all-important mercaz, the neighbors who slaughter their own Passover dinner…but I digress. One of the good things, in fact the best thing, at least from the point of view of a recent arrival (five years and counting) is the lack of a bubble mentality.
Unlike the Anglo bubble in Jerusalem, which sometimes seems obsessed with reconstructing Brooklyn in the middle of the Old City, or the Tel Aviv bubble, with its relentless cosmopolitanism and hipper-than-thou obsessions with sex, fashion and designer drugs, living in Beersheva forces you, for better or for worse, to confront the real Israel, such as it is. Which is to say, a rather dusty community of underpaid, overworked, family oriented, Hebrew (or sometimes Russian) speaking folks who find it utterly incomprehensible that you don't take sugar in your coffee. Beersheva sometimes feels like a microcosm of the under Israel, the Israel left behind by tourists, reporters and Biblical fetishists alike. This does not, however, imply that places like this are disconnected from the rest of the country.
F*ckin’ tremendous issues here. I am very satisfied to see your post. Thank you a lot and i’m looking ahead to contact you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?