I'm having issues

Actually, I've been having issues with this trip all along.

I anticipate that Israel will be a fascinating place. I expect that many areas will be highly cosmopolitan. I predict people will hold diverse points of view, some of which I may even share. I predict the food will be great and the country will be beautiful and the men will be unbelievably hot!

But...

I worry about arguing political points with other people on the tour, who will be from Mark's synagogue. I fear that debate will be more emotional than reasoned. I'm afraid of bombs, and I'm afraid of zealots who might try to stone--okay, "counter-demonstrate"--the gay pride march. I'm afraid of what my friends will think when I disclose to them that I'm taking this trip.

At the Frameline Film Festival there was a movie called Paper Dolls, by Israeli documentarian Bubot Niyar. The Paper Dolls were a small Filipina drag troupe in Tel Aviv. Filipinos come to Israel, as they do to many countries, as nurses or caregivers. In the case of the Paper Dolls, they took care of very elderly folks in an ultra-Orthodox suburb. But once a month they did a little gig at a bar, for the small Filipino community overseas.

But the Israelis don't trust foreigners. If a worker gets fired, or the employer dies, their work visa is automatically invalidated and their status becomes illegal. The police start round-ups in bars and other public places where minorities gather. Being half-Filipino myself, and since we were just in the Philippines in January, the film got me pretty riled up. Those are my peeps being thrown into jail for no crime! And the things "ordinary" Israelis said, that Filipinos are dirty, thieving, disgusting and primitive...I haven't heard such overt racism in a long time, it was ugly.

Yes, I know things are not great for immigrants anywhere. I know not all Israelis will think that way. But the message I got from this film is that many do.

So I want to go this country...why?