Postcard from Turkey

So as I sit in my hotel room writing this, there's a wedding going on downstairs in the courtyard. The band is playing (and I'm not making this up) "I Will Survive" in Turkish.

I watched some of the party from my balcony. You could transport every person there to an event in Miami Beach or Aventura or Weston and they would all fit in perfectly. The women are chic in their short dresses and high heels. Not a head scarf in sight.

Not what most people would expect from a Muslim nation, albeit a secular democracy, but one whose leader has been cozying up to Iran and Syria lately, who seems bent on picking a fight with Israel, speaks admiringly of Hamas, and agitates the United States.

The fact is, much of Turkey, especially the Aegean Coast city which I am visiting -- Izmir -- feels like Europe, and in some ways, the United States. When you see Turks drinking their Starbucks iced lattes, scooters delivering Dominoes Pizza, and the Celtics and Lakers are on the big screen in the hotel bar, you realize this place doesn't seem so foreign.

But how many Americans realize that? Not many. After the flotilla incident with Israel, many of my friends thought we were crazy for not canceling our long-planned trip to visit my family here in Turkey before heading to Israel. Talk about walking into a hornet's nest!

"Don't let 'em know you're Jewish!," was the common refrain from just about everyone who knows me. But thankfully, I can say that outsider's perception of Turkey has not met reality. My family and I have had nothing short of an amazing time here in the city in which Homer was born -- and I'm talking "Odyssey," not "Doh!".

Izmir is a picturesque metropolis of about 4,000,000 people which sits on a bay surrounded by mountains. Hard to find a bad meal here, and my three kids loved touring the nearby ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus, walking the same streets on which Alexander the Great's chariots once rolled.

We spent a day in the beach resort town of Cesme, which is like the Hamptons in New York. Everyone in Izmir (not just the super-wealthy, but middle-class folks, too) pretty much has a beach house there for the summer. Girls walk around in bikinis, the shops and cafes are packed with hip-looking young people, there are surf shops and every dude is wearing flip-flops. Kinda like Fort Lauderdale beach without the pit bulls.

The strife of the Middle East seems a million miles away.

I, of course, have been concerned with how my family members here have been faring since the once-friendly relationship between Israel and Turkey started fraying. Turns out nothing has changed. My relatives tell me they feel no pressure, there have been no anti-Semitic incidents, and they feel totally comfortable.

Then again, Izmir, they say, is the most liberal city in the country. There isn't a large population here of hard-core Islamic Turks clamoring for the nation to emulate Iran and move away from the West, as there seems to be in Istanbul. In fact, in these parts, the prime minister isn't as popular as he is in the country's more rural heartland.

In my own conversations with people, I heard a lot of grumbling from Turks about the country's recent moves, especially anything that upsets the United States. There's a genuine fondness here for Americans, as many Turks remember the long history of U.S. military presence in Turkey. (My dad was stationed here, met my mom here, and that's my connection to the small Jewish community of Turkey, which has been here since fleeing the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.)

The hostility with Israel is also upsetting to some beyond the Jewish community, particularly to the tourist industry. Turkey has recently become one of the favored summer vacation destinations for Israelis. It's close, it's cheap, the people are extremely friendly, and it's a great place to visit.

Now, that business is almost completely dried up. The Turkish Airlines flights from Tel Aviv to Istanbul are pretty empty.

It's a sad situation, and one hopes the two countries will become allies once again, despite the heated rhetoric. As they say here, inshallah, or God willing, Israelis should feel free to spend their money here on vacation, Turks should continue to do business with Israel, and we Americans shouldn't be afraid to go to either place.

Next stop for the Odzer family: a week-long tour of the Holy Land. I'll try to send another post card from Israel.