Live For Tel Aviv

Summertime is right around the corner, and we've all got Pride on the mind. As gay men, it's our duty to unearth the short-shorts on the first warm day of the season and let Manhattan know we're serious about the next four months. Years ago, the changing weather was our cue to transform the city into a gay playground-but several decades of sticky subway rides have become a sweaty reminder to book a flight and vote ourselves off the island.

We could easily hop on a plane and be in Rio or Barcelona by morning, but gaggles of gays have started packing up and are heading to Tel Aviv-a sister city to New York since the mid-'90s. Capitalizing on new gay interest in the city, legendary porn producer Michael Lucas and nightlife impresario Josh Wood have created travel groups to spread the gay wealth across "the Big Orange." Touring the scenic landscape, cruising the hottest beaches and partying at some of the sickest clubs, both tours make stops not just in the epicenter of Middle Eastern gay life, but also through the historic haunts of the Old City of Jerusalem. In a country where many view the Middle East as a war-torn religious battleground, why the hell are gay New Yorker's simply dying to get there?

Although its skyscrapers and mega clubs would argue the fact, Israel is still very much a developing nation. It's one of the oldest parts of the world, but its vibe is surprisingly unrefined and raw. In a country used to being on the brink of war, the locals live every day knowing it could be their last, and their appreciation for life is the foundation of a unified live-for-today attitude that makes each day less inhibited and more visceral-a sensual and carefree attitude that New York thrives on, but has largely lost.

Think of Tel Aviv as New York's older gay sibling (despite actually being centuries younger), its most impressive quality being the openly gay atmosphere. Pro-tolerant since its beginnings, Israel began culturally accepting its gay citizens long before the U.S., practicing non-discrimination of consensual gay sex since the '50s and enacting an extensive list of gay rights beginning in the '80s, including legally recognizing gay marriage in 2006 . Social acceptance flourishes in the streets of Tel Aviv (though not other parts of the country); it's not uncommon to see two men holding hands in public, making out in a coffee shop or enjoying a summer "fling" on a soaked beach towel.

The integration of gay lifestyles into straight culture is hard to imagine, but the straight community in Tel Aviv is entirely vested in the well-being of its homo counterpart. Going to a gay club and dancing in the middle of a horny crowd isn't an uncommon way for a straight Israeli to spend the evening-and the 'mos certainly aren't complaining. In fact, it was largely the straight community led by Israel's President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu that rallied to publicly condemn one of the first gay-related hate crimes, a fatal shooting, in Israel last summer. Yoav Schlezinger, an Israeli expat living in New York, shared frustrations with most of the population after the attack. "The whole straight community was really upset by what had happened. There was just an overall feeling of sadness amongst the people. The police force wasn't prepared for a hate crime in Tel Aviv because it was just unimaginable," he recalls. The annual Pride parade in Tel Aviv even merges with supportive straight undertones. Scott Piro, an American transplant now living in Tel Aviv, had the opportunity to volunteer at the celebration and says, "Israelis are like Italians. They're loving; they have a lot of emotions. The straight people here realize that the gays just want to have fun. We're wonderful partiers, and they know how much more boring it would be if everyone were the same."

On the flip side, gay travelers in Tel Aviv always attest to the ease of having fun in public. There is a constant military presence, but "the authorities have bigger fish to fry," says Dane Steele, CEO of Steele Luxury Travel, the agency coordinating Milk & Honey, Josh Woods' trip to Israel. Laws are very relaxed; there's no open-container policy, and you can definitely get away with things that you'd most likely be arrested for in Fire Island. It seems like the authorities are more apt to enjoy the gays than harass them. Michael Lucas recalls that Israeli customs officers were completely unfazed by a suitcase full of dildos, and even a moment when a police helicopter had hovered over Gaash Beach to watch the production of one of his movies. According to Lucas, Israel is the easiest country to have sex in. "No one cares that you are making a movie or having sex on the beach; they're more concerned with whether or not anyone is getting hurt in the process."

Aside from all of the daytime hustle and bustle, Tel Aviv has no shortcomings when it comes to nightlife. An international party boy himself, Josh Wood holds Tel Aviv's nightlife in high regard. Both Steele and Wood claim that the party scene is absolutely wild. "Every night, there is a different party at a different club," says Steele. The parties never get too tired or worn out; they're changing venues constantly and the gays just follow. Although the non-centric scene hops around nightly, the clubs in Tel Aviv are far above anything New York currently has to offer because they are inherently on a different playing field. It's impossible to conceive of any true New York club comparison because those that saw equal success had largely died out by the early to mid '90s. Patrons of the scene are decidedly not fans of the dive bar; the clubs that dot the metro area are true mega clubs, spaces and experiences Steele believes to be more comparable to the Roxy or The Tunnel. "In New York, everyone is in bed by 2am because they have to work the next morning. In Tel Aviv, 2am is when people just start going out. They're all about staying up and having a good time," he says. Schlezinger agrees, remembering a clubbing experience that is extremely European. He recounts, "Plans just create themselves. You usually have coffee around 8pm, eat dinner afterward and head out to a club after midnight."

When all is said and done, the men in Tel Aviv reign supreme as the main attraction. It's true that Israeli men have, more often than not, a stunning physique. Spending a mandatory three years in the military after high school graduation, Israeli men are toned, beautiful and mature by the time they come out to play. Home to plenty of public cruising parks and two of the hottest gay beaches in the world, the city is certainly a prime location for man hunting. "I remember going to Hilton Beach last summer," Piro tells me. "The water looked like gay soup. There were just hundreds of shirtless men bobbing in the waves."

What makes the gay soup even better is the fact that it's yearning for American ingredients. Traditionally American characteristics become "exotic" in the Middle East-Israeli men are enthralled with Americans and taking someone home from the bar isn't far fetched. No stranger to the "gay soup" phenomenon, Schlezinger confesses, "It's no secret that gay men are sluts. We all have this fantasy that an American boy is going to come to Tel Aviv and take us back to America with them." This would-be fairy tale is only made better by the city's growing ass-crack-on-display trend, and both Piro and Schlezinger explain that Tel Aviv's bottom-cleavage epidemic is the result of Israeli men being very in tune with their sexuality.

With so much freedom and sexiness in its reputation, it's no coincidence that both Michael Lucas and Josh Wood decided to organize group travel packages to Tel Aviv this summer. A good host city for the two men needed to boast plenty of hot weather, hot boys and hot nightlife. A surprising surplus of all three is what makes Tel Aviv so badass. And on top of that, the city's live-for-today mentality, accepting culture and hedonistic sexual energy is what ultimately keeps New Yorkers running back. More definitively illustrating our cultural similarities, Jayson Littman, founder of the New York's own gay Jewish organization, HeBro (HeBro.org), affirms the lack of anxiety in the city's streets. "Although there's a visible military presence, you don't feel any tension in Tel Aviv. We share a lot of the same mentalities that gay Israelis do. It's very much a part of our culture."

Most of all, New Yorkers travel to Israel-and especially to Tel Aviv-because they realize what they're missing in their hometown. With so much to offer, Tel Aviv's positive vigor makes us reminiscent of a time when New York was our own. "New York will never get [its carefree days] back," Piro says. "[It's] is a wonderful place, but it's matured too much." The natural progression of a city's life cycle means that it's hard to bring back the good times once they've been swept under the rug along with the riffraff. Our seedy city has become gentrified; our schedules have become packed. And if we can't devolve our city to its gay nightlife heyday, our trips to Tel Aviv can only be taken on a positive note, like a long-distance wake-up call from the other side of the world. We haven't lost our hot boys, riotous demeanor or our mega clubs-they've only been stifled as a result of the city's polishing. Maybe if we cleared up our schedules and lost our inhibitions, we wouldn't have to board an 11-hour flight in search of the New York we once enjoyed.