TEL AVIV — The first sex festival to occur in Israel began February 5th, and reports emanating from the country indicate escalating ethnic and religious tensions aren’t the only things heating up the small, predominantly Jewish nation.According to Israel News Agency reporter Joel Leyden, scented candles and oils, live erotic shows and pocket rockets offered enlightened Israelis a welcome diversion from the other kinds of rockets and incendiary devices with which they are all too familiar.

Leyden described Israel as “a free and tolerant democracy which lives under the constant and lethal threat of more deadly shaped rockets from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria.”

Sextival is a three-day festival devoted to all things erotic. It runs through February 7th inside Tel Aviv Airport’s Hangar 11, a former customs building and warehouse that has been transformed into an exhibition hall.

Suffering bigotry at the hands of outsiders hasn’t prevented Israelis from segregating their own society along certain prejudicial lines, if Leyden’s writing can be believed. He describes the country’s citizens as having a “conservative sex demeanor rooted deeply in [Judaism]” that is split into two distinct sexual cultures: “the spoiled, cold Ashkenazi ‘Polish’ Jewish female types who walk the walk but not much more, and the Eastern Jewish men and women [who are] proud of their hot-blooded Morocc[an], Yemenite, and Egypt[ian] heritage.”

Leyden also noted there is hope among certain Israelis that the Sextival might begin to change the country’s sexual attitudes. Currently, he noted, “Israelis don’t speak much about sex. In fact, if one addresses a sexual topic too often as if he or she [were] in New York or Paris, they just might be labeled in Israel as a ‘sex maniac.’”

According to Leyden, Jewish law considers sex much as it considers hunger and thirst: None are seen as inherently sinful, although all arise from an elemental “evil impulse,” or yetzer ra.

“Jewish rabbis would say that like hunger, thirst or other basic instincts, sexual desire must be controlled and channeled, satisfied at the proper time, place and manner,” Leyden wrote. “But when sexual desire is satisfied between a husband and wife at the proper time, out of mutual love and desire, sex is a mitzvah,” or good work.

Evidently it also can be a humorous endeavor. Inside the Sextival, Durex representatives dressed in white “sperm suits” handed out free samples of the company’s condoms in the domineering presence of a giant, inflatable condom. The company’s marketing message stressed disease prevention over contraception, as traditionally sex in Jewish culture serves a primary function of procreation.

Among the world’s nations, Israel occupies solid middle ground in research statistics. Durex’s most recent Global Sexual Wellbeing survey ranked the country near the middle of the pack in terms of frequency of sexual activity. University of Chicago researchers found that Israeli women placed the highest value on sex, and the Pfizer Global Study revealed Israelis placed a high value on the frequency of sexual activity while at the same time rating their experience at the lower end of the scale in overall erotic quality and passion.

Sextival is the creation of Nitzan Kirshenboim, a 32-year-old mother of two, former model and self-professed “avid consumer of sex products and shows.” She said she based the event on the Venus show in Berlin.

“I’m actually a real nerd,” Kirshenboim told Leyden. “I’m just the neighbor’s daughter who decided to take the initiative and say, ‘Guys, we all have sex; we all enjoy it. Why not get it out in the open? … Why not take it out from behind closed doors, enable people to ask questions, and decrease the fear and darkness surrounding it?

“Erotica is an integral part of the life of an adult,” she explained. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We want to present sex to people in a way that they won’t be ashamed, and they’ll be able to freely check out what fits them best.”

To that end, Sextival was co-sponsored by companies like Playboy and Israel’s Sex Style retail store. Exhibits included not only pole dancers from an Israeli strip club and Playboy Bunnies who were overwhelmed by autograph seekers, but also sex toys, BDSM devices, candles, hand-made chocolates with an erotic twist, presentations about fetishes, edible underwear, leather clothing, Fleshlights and Hustler magazines.

Leyden reached one tongue-in-cheek conclusion that displayed a few teeth: “…[I]f Israelis had more sex, if Palestinians had more sex, and if those in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia had any procreation, the Middle East might become a more stable, calmer, and relaxing environment. Instead of sexually frustrated Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists blowing themselves up for the opportunity of meeting 72 virgins in heaven, they could actually get a chance down here on earth. Pass the Viagra and Cialis. And make sure that the Palestinian Authority and those in Gaza get their UN supply marked as “humanitarian aid.”