DATE: Sunday, October 5, 1997               TAG: 9710030112

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E10  EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Imperfect Navigator 

SOURCE: Alexandria Berger 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

TRIP TO ISRAEL EMPHASIZES COUNTRY'S STRIFE

FROM THE country of eternal peace, I traveled to the country of eternal war. The pristine beauty and stability of Switzerland offers an indelible contrast to Israel. This is a broken country, disabling itself from within, as a disease would slowly erode healthy organs.

Prostitutes stand baking in the penetrating sun, on a sand lot adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea. Shabby low-end souvenir shops line the once charming Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv. Empty outdoor cafe chairs and tables sit askew on disrepaired sidewalks. Car theft is the highest in the world there.

Rental cars are presented to the tourist, dirty and in need of a tune-up. The seatbelts in ours had leftover food stuck on them. Towels in our exclusive hotel arrived stained. Pride is gone. Tourism has taken a back seat to terrorism.

A politician, badly burned from the ravages of war, stands on a street corner and argues vehemently with another Israeli over the state of the government. Everywhere one looks, there is internal dissent.

This is the worst kind of disability, more far reaching than a disease which affects a portion of a population. This is an epidemic. It touches every citizen, infiltrates and disarms growth. Like Hamseen (desert sand storms), which creeps slowly, then quickly mushrooms, this country has been swept by winds repeatedly stalling forward motion and clear thinking.

A democracy with no constitution, and dozens of political parties, Israel stands in the forefront of schizophrenia. A country with no agreed upon limits to judicial decisions, or standards by which to operate, it has made hypocrisy of the law.

This was not a first trip to the Middle East. Making this trip disturbingly sad, my husband and I have both lived and worked in its regions.

Within 24 hours of our arrival, the labor union, Histadrut, called a country-wide strike Garbage piled up in the streets, hospital patients lay unfed on dirty linen, airports, trains, and buses shut down services. The television and radio blasted news of the largest strike ever in Israel.

It was over in six hours.

The courts ordered the workers back to their jobs. Ignoring this, renewed widespread strikes are promised after the Jewish High Holy days. Most laughed, many out of fear. Apathy and frustration reflect powerless feelings.

Instead of the `Promised Land,' Israel looks more and more like the `Land of Continual Aggravation.'

Handicapped by constant unsolvable internal issues, the additional muscle of cheap imported labor has made the job market tight. Out-of-work Israelis sit idly, talking on cellular phones, as Filipinos, Thais and Palestinians build apartments, stock store shelves and create roads. Young men and women return from mandatory military duty facing no future.

And, then there is the internal dichotomy of religion, a rubric of hate and dissent. Judaism is a religion, not a race. Jews come from all countries. Russia to Tunisia. South America to Ethiopia. As Jews, all come under ``The Law of Return,'' instant citizenship. With them they bring their countries' culture.

The differing beliefs of Hasidic, Lubavitch, ultra-orthodox, orthodox, conservative and reform Jews makes for violent in-fighting. The majority are reform. But the orthodoxy is the state religion, with civil power and the parliamentary swing vote.

Hypocritically, this same government believes it must honor the previous government's mandate to continue building in the West Bank, jeopardizing the peace process. And teaching their young soldiers to beat, abuse and persecute the Palestinians emotionally cripples Israel's own society. The internal behavior of this country, fueled by its own factions, now shows that.

It all leaves Zvi Geller, a physicist at the renowned Weitzman Institute, shaking his head. ``We will destroy ourselves from within,'' he said. ``It's only a matter of time.'' MEMO: Write to Alexandria Berger, c/o The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W.

Brambleton Avenue, Norfolk, Va. 23510.

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