Tel Aviv’s beach is amazingly clean considering that it is right next to the city

We touch down as night falls. It is Friday, and with darkness comes Shabbat, which means many things to many people, but to me, right now, it means a double-rate taxi fare to town.

I’m just delighted to be here. There was a moment when I thought they might not let me in: at the airport I was taken to a room, questioned and searched and my DNA swabbed. This, I later learn, is not an uncommon experience of moving through Israeli customs. You are suspicious until you are definitely not.

I was, I’ll admit, a little anxious before this trip: the political, racial and religious tension of the region is well documented, and an American tourist was fatally stabbed along the beach promenade just