In any normal year, summer is the time when thousands of Jews from America and around the world flow into Israel. Bar-Mitzvah tours in the Galilee, summer courses at Hebrew University, NFTY camp, birthright israel students- everyone is here. If you were walking down the Tel Aviv beach promenade last summer, you would have heard all languages but Hebrew. 2001 is going to be one of the poorest years for tourism ever. Israel hasn't seen such a difficult period in many years. The Tel Aviv promenade is empty.

The first thing anyone would tell you about summer in Israel is that it's hot. Not hot like, “Don't forget your hat and sunscreen.” We're talking hot like walking into a pool of bubbling lava. But we Israelis are so used to it that we've learned to adjust, surviving by spending as little time as possible outside, skipping from one air-conditioned place to another and, of course, using our Jewish-born privilege to complain.