How did GlobalPost get a pub full of Israelis free beers?

ASHKELON, Israel — Following an American girl he'd met on his native kibbutz and the dream of an American college education, Yigal Rechtman left Israel 26 years ago at the age of 21 and settled in New York.

But when times get rough, Rechtman, a businessman long-married to that girl and the father of two young adults, follows Middle Eastern news avidly. "Ok, obsessively. But, you know, it’s not like I'm from somewhere else or anything," he says.

On July 12, he happened upon a GlobalPost article that mentioned the plight of Archie, an Ashkelon restaurant and bar that had only opened its doors on May 25, and had lost 90 percent of its business after the start of Israel's latest war with Hamas on July 8.

Ido Ozeri, one of the establishment's four owners, told GlobalPost he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to hold out. In addition to the anxiety that was keeping most of his client base holed up at home, thousands of southern Israelis had simply skipped the area and taken refuge in the north of the country.

Rechtman is a happy and hearty eater on an average day, and his heart went out to to both the Ashkelonis deprived of good food and the pub, deprived of diners. "I felt like doing something to help get things back to normal," Rechtman says. "The way terror wins is when people are too scared to walk out of their own homes for an evening."

Many Israelis remain supportive of the war, arguing that the greater number of Palestinians killed in strikes by Israel does not make the threat to Israelis any less real.

Rechtman got in touch with Ozeri, introduced himself, announced an upcoming visit to Israel and said he'd like to pick up the tab for an entire evening at Archie. "On me," he said.

Ozeri's reaction, said Rechtman, was "Yeah. Sure. Who is this weirdo?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't think this was for real," an abashed Ozeri explained.

The two men met on Monday. Rechtman managed to convince the skeptical Ozeri his intentions were genuine.

Ozeri serving shots and Rechtman at the right. (Noga Tarnopolsky/GlobalPost)

On Tuesday night, which by chance was the first evening of the ceasefire, and the first evening Israel's Home Front Command allowed for large public gatherings, Rechtman picked up the tab for anyone lucky enough to drop by Archie, which has a stunning view of the sunset on Ashkelon's Delilah Beach.

Shai Skiba, a 30-year-old from the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya and guest at the restaurant, said, "After a time of battle its pretty good to be able to go out and just have fun without worrying about anything, and then when the time comes to get the bill … you find out that someone else has picked it up for you. Amazing!"

His friend, Assaf Vardi, a Jerusalemite, who may have imbibed a bit, said, "They say you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead, we just decided to look the beer in the face … and, then drink it!"

Rechtman, who positioned himself to see all the comers and goers, appeared to delight in the entire evening. "Every person who walks in here is a personal vindication for me," he said, smiling as another couple walked in and embraced Ozeri. "I win with each one walking in here. Cuz they're not sitting at home!"

The atmosphere wasn't political, for all Rechtman's interest in boosting morale. But no doubt the scene that night at Archie's was a far cry from most any place in Gaza, where there's no Iron Dome defense system to block most of the missiles fired from the other side. This most recent iteration of the Israel-Hamas conflict, paused for the last three days by a ceasefire, has resulted in 1,878 Palestinian and 67 Israeli deaths.

Ozeri said he was "just astonished at how the world works — you move a rock in one spot on Earth and it influences the actions of someone else, on the other side of the world. Wow."