No worse than others: The Israeli tourist (Illustration)
Photo: AP
We’re no worse than others
Op-ed: Israeli tourists no worse than other nationalities; we should stop blaming ourselves
Saying that Israelis are hooligans and embarrass us overseas is too easy and too annoying.
All over the world there are people who behave like animals, cause commotions, start fires, steal hotel taps and who push hotel towels into their suitcase on their way home. We did not invent all this.
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We also did not invent the mini-bar where you are automatically charged for every can of soda you lift and every bag of peanuts you open. If tourists would not be stealing, cheating and taking items from hotels over the years, these inventions would not exist today.
There is nothing that annoys me more than the repulsive Jewish tendency to blame ourselves and whine about how terrible we are and what kind of awful tourists we are. We are all human beings; some of us leave a $10 tip to the hotel maid while others throw the towels on the carpet and then step on them. Why? Because they are crappy people, not because they are Israeli.
Anyone who arrives at a foreign land behaves a little differently. One becomes looser, louder and wilder than one would behave in his home country.
Have you ever seen tourists from Ireland? They are loud, they always have something to say about everything, they get upset quickly, and just try to ask them to be quiet at 2 am. French tourists are not exactly shy either – they must get everything here and now, and they ask for it loudly.
And we haven’t even mentioned the Brits, who fly to soccer games all around the world, get completely drunk, beat people up and run naked in the streets. Now that’s a model for refined British manners.
So indeed, some of us Israelis may misbehave abroad. On the other hand, we don’t run over girls and then shamelessly flee back home, to France.
