Israelis cannot make emotional voyage to relaxation.(Chicago Tribune)

NITZANIM BEACH, Israel_The road meandered left and right, climbed and dropped. It passed grassy sand dunes, a tree-shrouded stream and an old army base. The road straightened and there was the beach, with wind-whipped waves dancing madly in the broiling sunshine.

This is one of the places Israelis go to escape their daily woes and their nation's almost-daily conflict. But it is hardly an Eden.

Not a far drive from Tel Aviv, this beach can seem like another world thanks to its windblown isolation. Here, the only roar comes from teenagers dancing in the sand to music pounding out of speakers.

But even here, many Israelis find it hard to let go mentally. They cannot make the emotional voyage to a state of relaxation despite the cloudless sky and scintillating aroma of the barbecue in the next thatched hut. Escaping is a pleasure they find hard to embrace.

Take Isaac Alber. Sprawled in a low-slung chair under one of the huts spread along the beach, the middle-aged accountant was staring intently at the water in front of him. Next to him was his wife, Rosa. Playing soccer in the sand was his son Ariel, a student at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, home visiting for the summer with his American wife.

Gazing out at the surf, his feet stuck deep in the hot sand, Alber seemed to be lost in the place. But he said his mind was not at ease.

"We cannot escape," he said softly. He came to Israel nearly 30 years ago from Vilnius, Lithuania, and, as he modestly explained, he had made a good life for his family in Israel.