HELICOPTER RIDE TO REALITY

Startling Revelations from on High - Ross Culiner
A helicopter flight over Israel, an increasingly popular component of the tourist experience for those who can afford it, can be a revelation. The vantage of height brings into clear focus the extreme fragility of Israel's predicament. No sooner is one airborne from Tel Aviv, when the hills of the West Bank, on the other side of the narrow waistline of the state, loom into view. A good two-thirds of Israelis live and work in a thin, 10-mile-wide sliver of land. What one sees is a lowland network of urban conglomerations locked between the sea on one side and Palestinian West Bank population centers like Tulkarm and Kalkilya on the other. (Canadian Jewish News)