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We had a fascinating Shabbat dinner this last week. By coincidence, one of our guests was one of the world's foremost experts on Syria (he's hard at work today!). We also had a very well-informed doctor and dentist and their four kids. When the subject of Syria came up, the oft-repeated fever dream of so many Israelis from across the political spectrum was raised. What is this dream? This highest of aspirations? No, it isn't conquest or subjugation or destruction. The most-secretly held dream of many many Israelis is just this: A European Road Trip.
Over a decade ago, Israel was a world leader in electric cars. A company called Better Place worked with Renault (and Carlos Ghosn — boy, would I love him to be the PM of Lebanon) to roll out battery-swappable electric cars in Israel. They chose Israel because range anxiety isn't really a thing here. 24.5% of new cars are electric because it is never cold and you never have to go far.
I live in Modiin. The furthest actual city from my home is Haifa, at 76 miles. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are under 22 miles away. The very furthest I could drive north is Metulla, 130 miles away. After that, I'd hit Lebanon. I could actually reach Lebanon in under 100 miles (at Shlomi). The furthest east is the Jordan River: 41 miles. The furthest west is Palmachim: 21 miles. Only south, through the largely empty desert, can I get some miles. Eilat is 211 miles away. Just to give you a sense of how critical Eilat is — I've lived here 10 years and I've never been there. I believe Israelis go there simply because they want to road trip.
Beyond that? Well, we can't exactly road trip into Lebanon, Syria or Saudi Arabia. They are all in a state of war with us and have been for decades. We technically can road trip into Egypt but driving a car with Israeli plates might not be an awesome idea (if I looked just a bit like an Arab-Israeli, it might help). Apparently they'll swap your plates for local ones in Jordan — that ought to give you a sense of safety!
So, Israeli Jews can't road trip. It isn't the world's worst curse, far from it. We aren't even the world's most constrained people (those who live on small islands and those Gazans who can't get visas to Egypt would outrank us). But it is there, and, in my experience, many Israelis somewhat secretly share a dream of a different reality. Peace with Lebanon would open things up a bit. The possibility certainly came up in conversation with the ceasefire a few weeks ago. Peace with Saudi Arabia would enable us to drive to the Gulf. (But who are we kidding? Even a Saudi Arabia at peace would be a bit freaky to travel through.) The real winner, every Israeli knows, would be peace with Syria.
With Syria at peace, we could drive all the way to Europe via beautiful Damascus (168 miles) and Istanbul (1110 miles). If Lebanon joins in, then Beirut (186 miles) could be on the itinerary.
That is the Israeli dream. It is to not feel confined by enemies, but to be able to just get in the car and go.
What would the dream require?
Peace. Actual peace.
Not domination. Not subjugation. Not destruction.
Just peace.
I for one wish for a Middle East in which Lebanese can just hop in the car to visit Jerusalem, Gazans Jericho, Syrians Eilat, Jordanians Libya, Saudis Beirut, and, yes, Israelis Istanbul, Irbil and Italy.
Sure, Italy would be a long drive, but we’d all do it just once. Just because we could.
I know it probably won't happen. The most we'll get is probably a few days without air defenses so we can knock our next round of enemies down a notch.
I can be realistic.
But for just these few days, I thought you all should know that my people are dreaming of range anxiety.
Discussion (14)
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Kind of fun to see the travel overlap with the gloriously naive rail map in When Tong and I went to the DMZ.
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I don't believe that this is true.
I think that the Israeli dream is Greater Israel, the domination of everything "from the River to the Sea." Some go even further, wanting the domination of everything from the River to the other River, i.e., from the Euphrates to the Nile.
Israelis could have been making their European road trips if they had made peace via the two-state solution, which has been the international consensus since the late 1970s. The Israeli leader most supportive of this was Rabin, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts but was then assassinated by a radical follower of Netanyahu, whose party called Rabin a traitor, a murderer, and a Nazi. Though even Rabin made it clear that he was not offering actual statehood to the Palestinians.
Israel is an apartheid state carrying out genocidal mass murder. Americans should not be misled by Israeli propaganda.
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You don't have to trust me, but consider - in what world would you actually want to rule Syrians and Egyptians for 'Greater Israel'. They can't rule themselves and it would be even worse for us. We would much prefer not to rule Gaza, which is why we left. But all we get is constant attacks because a very significant part of their population can't think of anything more productive than Jew slaughter. Some marginal idiots talk about a very very brief period of such rule over 2,500 years ago. It turn out well then either.
The Rabin peace plan died as soon as it was signed because it was followed immediately by a rise in bus bombings and other attacks. Rabin was going to hand half of Jerusalem to the terrorists. I'm glad it went nowhere.
Withdrawal has been tried. Our people don't smoke enough crack to keep pushing that button.
Oh, and there's no genocidal mass murder. Gaza's population has risen over 2% in the last year.
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So what propaganda should we believe? Hamas, Hezbollah, what? If everybody's lying to make themselves look better, should we just blow them ALL up? Do you believe the atrocities of October 7 actually happened, or were they just AI generated images by Israel? All the accounts of the survivors were just lies, paid to repeat them, to make Israel look like the victim? This tiny country is the root of all the problems in the Middle East, and it should be wiped off the map --- is that your stance? How many people are in Israel, and how many populate the countries around it, who feel threatened by so few? Why is the land, given to the Jewish people by God to be their homeland, so important for ISIS and Hezbollah militants, and their sympathizers, to occupy?
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But Israel IS a small country, which means less space to bury "retired" EV batteries, windmill blades, etc.
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