Israel Spies on its Louche Youths in the Indian subcontinent

More than 40,000 Israeli tourists flock to India annually and, while fun in small numbers, they can often get aggressive in groups and intimidate the locals. The reputation is of macho Israeli boors letting out their post-Army aggro and bargaining relentlessly with very little humour or dignity. This is not the best diplomacy for Israel, officials have concluded, apparently.
Izzy Bee has learned about an Israeli spy stationed in the Indian highlands (Manali, Rishikesh, Parvati Valley and thereabouts). He spent a couple of years keeping Israeli backpackers under surveillance and reporting their doings to the government in Tel Aviv. He apparently tracked rave parties, hashish and ecstasy dealing, motorbikers stealing gasoline from village pumps and other petty crimes and nuisances. I imagine that others spies are posted in hotspots like Goa and Kashmir, too. Certainly, rabbis have been dispatched to Chabad centres in these hashish haunts in order to help curb the excesses. The upshot is that now, Israeli tourists will only be allowed to visit India for a three months in a period of three years. This is to discourage longer term stays that lead to disappearances, dropping out, or rehab

Rumours abound. Some say that a six month visa will be issued for first-time tourists, whose passports will be stamped "not to exceed 180 days", followed by a 3 year no visa period to be enforced, based on in-country behaviour. The policy also is contingent on the Israeli government's visa policies for Indians. The consequences of bad behaviour will be time out or stay out. Drug offenders will be prosecuted. Business visa-holders will be the one exception.



An Israeli government safe-haven programme which repatriates travellers in trouble recently was suspended inside India, due to abuse.

In some places inside India, according to a recent study,

"you can find Israeli enclaves where only Hebrew is spoken and Israeli music played, and restaurants with Hebrew signs serving only Israeli food.

"The Israelis are scornful of the locals, and, interestingly, in one of my studies, I found that Israelis in India compare the Indians to Arabs, using the same oriental stereotypes: both the negative ones - of dirt, primitivism and stench; and the positive ones - warmth and hospitality."

The comparison does not end there. Academics found that the backpackers tended to use military speech even in their most private diaries. Travellers write of "conquering another city and another site". Even romantic relationships had a whiff of khaki about them: one female traveller described how a male backpacker had carried her as if evacuating an injured soldier from the battlefield."

Breakdown & Rehab insurance devised for blissed-out Israeli backpackers who vanish

It's become a rite of passage. Israeli youth, who are required to serve two to three years in the army, take time off afterward to backpack around the world and just "chill". You'll easily spot these fit young Sabras unwinding-- mainly in Asia or
Latin America. Often Israelis stick together during their months-long holidays and they are apt to bargain fiercely to save the odd rupee and turn up their noses at spicy local cuisine to insist on Israeli-style snacks. Budget guest houses in Goa, India or Ko Samui, Thailand cater to them with signs and menus lettered in Hebrew. Adventures and new freedom sometimes tempt Israeli youth to go astray, by experimenting with cults or drugs, and every year thousands bliss out or simply vanish, much to their family's dismay. The backpackers compound post traumatic stress syndrome from army service with sensory overload and culture shock. Adulterated drugs, bad company, and bad judgment play a role, too.
According to journalist Conal Urquhart,

Now an Israeli insurance company is offering a unique policy to parents to cover a professional search team, repatriation and psychiatric rehabilitation for their missing children.

About 50,000 Israelis a year go trekking after their military service and before university or work. The Israeli charity War on Drugs estimates that 90 per cent take drugs at least once on their travels. Some two-thirds go to the Far East and about a third to South America. The charity estimates that each year 2,000 travellers suffer
mental illness brought on by drug abuse or spiritual confusion and between 600 and 800 are admitted to psychiatric wards.

Phoenix Insurance Israel offers a £100 policy to parents to cover most of the costs of rescue and treatment over 90 days. Repatriation alone can cost as much as £8,000...

The new policy was initiated by Hilik Magnum, who has operated a search and rescue company for 13 years. 'We started by providing search and rescue services in the Himalayas and other mountains, but what started as a pure search and rescue operation became an intelligence operation,' he said. 'Young people get involved in some kind of drug abuse in their travels and they lose contact with their parents, they contact us and we help get them back to their family.'

Magnum says deals regularly with psychotics, and returns them to Omri Frisch's therapy center for off-the-rails Israelis, located in the seaside town of Caesaria. It's called Kfar Izun, or Village Balance.
'Most of our patients are well-educated or served in high-profile units in the army such as intelligence and combat. We offer treatment instead of hospitalisation. A recent study found that 94 per cent of our patients achieve some degree of improvement,' Frisch told the London Observer.

Last December, Israel's government announced plans to open its own drug rehab centre in Goa, India, to treat youthful budget travellers. Officials estimate that 2,000 out of the 40,000 Israelis who visit India every year dabble in illegal drugs, mostly hashish, ecstasy, opium, or heroin.

Annually, some 600 Israeli backpackers return from India with physical damage caused by drugs. A Goan centre called Beit Ha Haam (the warm house) now has backing from the Israel Drug Authority. Most families prefer to have their kids repatriated back to Israel, no matter what the cost.