I am writing this from Thailand. It is summer vacation, and I am here with my family, thousands of kilometers away from Israel and the Netherlands. Yet somehow, Israel seems to follow me everywhere.

When we arrived in Bangkok, one of the first things that struck me was the extraordinary mixture of people. Thailand attracts visitors from across the world, and Bangkok in particular feels like an international crossroads.

Among the crowds were many Arab and Muslim families. Some women were completely covered in clothing similar to the burqas associated with Afghanistan, accompanied by men in traditional or conservative dress. I caught myself looking at some of those men through the lens of my own experiences and assumptions. In my preoccupied mind, shaped by years of following terrorism, radical Islam and the Middle East, some immediately looked threatening.

But appearances are not evidence. A man does not become a terrorist because of his beard, his clothes, his nationality or the way his wife dresses. If I demand that people stop judging Israelis and Jews according to stereotypes, then intellectual consistency requires me to recognize my own assumptions as well.

And then there were the Israelis.

You do not even have to see them to know they are there.

Children shouting across hotel lobbies. Parents discussing where to eat. Families negotiating with each other at a volume that makes private conversation seem like an entirely foreign concept. Hebrew suddenly appears everywhere, from restaurants and shopping centers to beaches, airports and hotel........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)