Whooo. What a story. I read in a magazine after 9/11 (don't remember which; just one of those you pick up in the waiting room) about how well the Israelis train their people. If someone comes in to Israel for some kind of art study, for instance, they'll be interviewed by someone with that expertise. They just don't slack off. But they have to do it for their own survival, and I think we should as well.
A couple of points here:
First. . . There are apparently only a limited number of "legitimate" reasons to visit Israel these days.
For business purposes -- and you better have an itinerary and you better be expected in the office you say you're going to be in. Because they will check you out.
As a tourist as part of a large group. There still are such tours going to Israel, but they're a fraction of what they used to be. All the places I went -- Jerusalem, Masada, Tiberius, Nazareth, Galilee -- were virtually deserted.
As a visitor with friends and/or family in Israel. Again, they will ask for names and addresses and check this out as well.
Anyone like me, traveling alone, as a tourist, not knowing a soul in the country, who just wanted to see Israel because I was over there and figured now was as good a time as any = terrorist. And that's the sad truth.
The second point is they did exactly what you described in your response -- sent in an interrogator (I like to call them what they are) to grill me on where I had been.
I was continuing a personal vacation that had begun in Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day. I mentioned that I was a second generation U.S. paratrooper and my father landed in Normandy on the morning of D-Day.
Sure enough, I got to talk to a veteran of the Israeli airborne forces -- or so he said he was -- who just wanted to talk to me because he was interested in such things. Here's how it went:
Did I visit the first town liberated by U.S. paratroopers in Normandy, Carentan? (Wrong. The first town secured that morning was Ste. Mere-Eglise.)
Did I get to see the bridge at Arnhem that was captured by the 82nd Airborne after a daylight river crossing? (Wrong again. That happened at Nijmengen.)
And did I get to visit the airborne museum at St. Vith celebrating the successful defense of the town while surrounded by the Germans in Belgium? (Every U.S. paratrooper knows that was Bastogne.)
Now the fact that I knew my history free me from suspicion or scrutiny. Maybe it established a little bit of credibility on my part. But it did go to show the lengths they will go to check somebody out.
It did get depressing in Israel itself. That place has a bunker mentality, and with good reason. While nothing happened during the week I was there, the mood was very somber and very subdued. It's like they're waiting for the other shoe to drop.