This past week I visited two bars in the Tel-Aviv area. Since I quit smoking I’ve gradually become a more fanatic non-passive passive smoker. Several weeks ago I almost came to blows at a dance bar with a particularly nasty man who not only would not put out the cigarette he was holding right next to me and was puffing near my face, but also threatened to do horrible things to my mother. The barman wasn’t really interested in saving my mother’s honor or telling the smoker to extinguish his cigarette, so, in the absence of the State and law enforcement, citizens are left to sort out their differences themselves.

This past week I went out for drinks at the Temple Bar in the Cinema City complex in Ramat Hasharon. The bar is divided into two parts, with two swing doors separating the smoking from the non-smoking sections. The problem here is that the smart owners of this particular establishment made the first section of the bar – the one with the entrance from the mall – the smoking section, and the non-smoking section further inside after the swinging doors, a walk of at least 15 meters through a thick cloud of smoke, dozens of patrons, tables and chairs and busy waitresses; and on a busy night, the 15 meters takes quite a lot longer to walk as you have to wait in line as the non-smoking patrons all line up to move through the smoking section to the non-smoking one. Next time I’m there I’ll ask the owners why they chose this configuration, but until then I’ll just assume its rank stupidity.

This weekend I went to the Shesek bar on Lillenblum street in Tel Aviv, quite a trendy and busy spot. The main bar area and lounge are now non-smoking, and just to the left of the lounge is a smaller room that has been designated as the smoking room. Two problems with this: there is no door separating the smoking from the non-smoking rooms, and the smoking room adjoins the bathrooms, so anyone needing the toilet [even if it is for taking cocaine] needs to walk through the smoking room. Needless to say, the smoking room was packed with smokers, and the smoke very quickly permeated the rest of the bar and lounge areas. Also, quite a few people with lit cigarettes moved from the bar, through the lounge, and into the smoking room, and vice versa, as to make the whole thing quite a farce.

Gradually, my throat got sore, my eyes stung and my clothes stank. Six months ago I wouldn’t have cared, but now its a huge issue. Again, the law says a designated smoking area can exist inside a public place such as a restaurant or bar, but that it has to be removed from the non-smoking section and needs to have some sort of separate ventilation.Both the Temple Bar and the Shesek fail the basic measures of the new law restricting smoking in bars.

Why didn’t I say anything to the owners? I felt that I would have been speaking to a brick wall and that the management at both bars would have just waved me off with some stupid excuses, and more probably, a promise to fix this in the future, but not tonight, look, everyone is doing it, its going to be impossible to stop tonight.