Back from Israel

I am back from a very pleasant week in Israel, jet-lagged after a 6 hour plane delay that kept me in the Ben Gurion Airport from 9 pm to 5:30 am, but more or less functioning.

Yoram Margalioth of the University of Tel Aviv Law School was my very gracious host, and I also enjoyed meeting other Israeli tax academics (such as Tsilley Dagan, Yitzhak Hadari, Jacob Nussim, and Avi Tabbach). On my last day there, I gave two talks, one on my tax & accounting paper that is forthcoming in the Georgetown Law Journal, and the other on the content of an as yet unwritten paper that is tentatively called "The Intellectual State of the Play in U.S. International Taxation." There was some good discussion, including from students who read the tax & accounting paper (which I presented at a tax colloquium).

But of course the best part, apart from the hospitality of Yoram and others, was touring Israel. Highlights included Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea, the ruins at Caesarea, and the Golan Heights. And of course all the hummus, pita, Jerusalem bagels, and other such delicacies that are available there. Highly recommended as a tourist site and as someplace for U.S. tax academics to visit.

On the downside, I didn't think Continental Airlines lived up to the billing that they give themselves for service in all those quite amusing TV commercials.