Somebody shared an insightful parable during my just completed nine-day trip to Israel. To paraphrase, it's something like 'Come to Israel for a week and you think you can write a book. Stay for a year and you can barely write a newspaper article'. Replace newspaper with blog and it's completely true in my case. There are eight sides to every story, historical context and location. Still, after only my first trip, I'm going to go out on a limb and share some thoughts.
First things first, yes, I'm Jewish. Well, sort of. My mom, the woman who raised me, is white/Portuguese and Jewish by birth. But she's what I refer to as a lapsed Jew and hasn't outwardly practiced or visited a synagogue in years -- not that I have either. I am not religious -- in the God-fearing sense -- but I have developed a unique cultural, social and historical affinity for (my) Judaism. This late '30s development in my life -- the first interest in Jewish-ness since childhood -- sparked a first time interest in visiting Israel. So with a trip organized by the New Israel Fund, I traveled there over the past week.
The media would have you convinced that Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are free-fire zones, where rock-throwing kids are de rigueur and suicide belts are bought in corner stores like soda. The images I had as an American were that every inch of the nation was under constant siege. Anybody who's lived there or visited will tell you otherwise. Despite the consistent and morbid televised reporting, Israel is a community where you best assume that you know very little and let the people inform you. On my week-long trip, I found beautiful, smiling Palestinian kids, and welcoming ultra-orthodox Jews. From my Arab cabbie I rode with on the way to the airport, to the 60-year-old Turkish-Israeli fisherman who had visited, of all places, Tarzana, California -- I found people eager to share their vision of the country and its ongoing attempts at grace. Throughout my trip, I met Israeli civil and human rights organizers, who, against the predominant conservative slant of the country, push forward progressive and social agendas aimed at uplifting and protecting the rights of Arab citizens. This isn't the side of society that makes for good media coverage and most Israelis are probably unaware of this burgeoning social justice ecosystem. Israelis don't speak from one playbook -- many held more progressive views than I expected to hear given the daily and all-too-realities of living in that part of the world.
I also visited disturbing areas of oppression and arguably a system akin to apartheid (Hebron, and to a lesser extent, parts of East Jerusalem). On one hand, I stand by my opinion that Israel has earned its right to statehood, but I also saw its well-documented and systematic undermining of the Palestinian communities -- in the questionable name of security. The struggle of Arabs to be considered equal citizens also highlights the inherent dilemma a Israeli democracy must answer: How does Israel have what constitutes a religious theocracy, while aiming at true democratic values? Unfortunately, I would learn, many Arabs actually sit out of elections in protest, ceding control to the large orthodoxy that leads the country.
Cultural assimilation is also hard for minorities -- a growing batch of them emigrating to fill jobs created by Israel's rapid expansion and left vacant by Arabs sequestered behind the security barrier and with limited travel rights. According to my cabbie, Arabs have also been discouraged by Israeli society's refusal to incorporate them into the fabric of the nation. Inter-faith dating is taboo, and I didn't see any evidence of it. Even my new friend Ophir in Tel Aviv told me that seeing, for example, an Arab girl with an Israeli boy would be an anomaly. Ophir, who is a music promoter, is part of the Jewish secular and much more wired crowd in the hip beachside town.
Having already visited Tel Aviv, Haifa, Hebron, Nazareth and the Dead Sea earlier in the week, it's ultimately Jerusalem that I found easily the most compelling. Jerusalem's Old City is an ancient but simmering stew, and oftentimes flashpoint, for the world's three most divisive and prominent religions. I'll take a second to remind you that this isn't a history lesson at all, but some observations and perspective. The age-old saga of Arab, Christian and Jewish residents, rulers and settlers in the 'City of Gold' is, if anything, well documented. Before the end of my trip, tensions would rise again and the city would be under heavy guard.
On Thursday night, only hours before the holiest day of the Muslim week, a 25-year-old Palestinian man walked into a yeshiva study session and opened fire on a room full of teenage students. He killed 8 before an armed student -- not uncommon in the country -- shot him twice in the head. The details I only learned later on the CNN International newscast, but all I had as we were heading out on Thursday night was a news alert on my Blackberry. Seconds later, I remotely updated my Facebook status with the comment: 'Raymond is heading out into East Jerusalem, even though there was just a shooting'. All week, the Israel crisis in Gaza -- which left about 120 Palestinians dead and a handful of Israelis, mostly IDF soldiers -- had played in the background. If I had spoken Hebrew, I'm sure I would have caught conversations on the subject, but from my limited vantage, it was business as usual outside the major hot zone on the western coast. These current affairs came into sharp relief as we checked into our Jerusalem hotel, down the street from where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was staying on her visit to calm nerves and jumpstart the peace talks. But if there's one thing you learn after visiting Israel is that peace, or even the comprehension of what it would look like, is but an illusion. And as Bob Marley said, 'to be pursued, but never attained'.
My flip but sobering Facebook post had attracted some concern from friends in several time zones and I received responses and posts appealing for my safety. But what was on my mind was not the potential street violence that could erupt tonight, over the weekend or a year from now, as vengeance for the murder of the yeshiva students. I couldn't help but think about the fortunate trip we'd had and our timing. Serendipitous might have been a better term, given that we had visited both the West Bank (Hebron) and the poorer Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem in the past few days, all of which would be either off limits or too potentially dangerous in the wake of the school shooting. Yet tonight, our itinerary had us -- a group of mostly stateside Jews and Israelis -- meeting for drinks at a Palestinian bar in East Jerusalem. No concierge would have suggested this destination tonight, but nothing in the vibe of our Arab bar hosts and the local patrons gave us cause for concern. We were all mingling, dancing to Arab and pop music, drinking and smoking a hookah. Inside our oasis -- even though it would be naïve to think the night's killings were far from the surface of our thoughts -- nothing from the day's horrible event seeped into the conversations.
Outside was a slightly different picture. I couldn't detect anything alarming, but there was no discounting the mood in the city. It was dark, quiet and there were distant flashing police lights dotting the landscape. I was told specifically, given my penchant for wandering off to take photos, to not let that temptation consume me tonight. Turns out that the shooter was from an area not too far from the bar we were at. At one point in the night, while I was outside getting some air, an undercover security officer approached me and, after questioning me quickly about my origins, asked me about a suspicious car parked in front of the bar. I had seen the guy park the car and go into the bar, so after surveying the scene, the security patrol took off. In Israel, it's routine to have a guard (not the most enviable job) posted outside of eateries and bars to wand or frisk customers, search bags and deflect any would-be suicide bombers or gunmen. Our bar had none of that, I could only assume because of its not being protected, given its Arab ownership.
Earlier that day, our group had taken a bus tour of the hillside neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. A maze of windy, narrow roads, the drive weaved in and out of Jewish settlements (called so mainly due to the international illegality of most of them, since they fall outside of the various peace borders established since 1967) and Arab enclaves. This part of Jerusalem is under tight control by the IDF, local police and private security. It's also where the security barrier (the 'wall') is most prominent. Cameras, the security wall, barbed wire and checkpoints are fairly routine sights and Palestinian/Arab Israelis need to carry the correct I.D. card to travel freely. Even with this tight control, by Friday, this area would be potentially too hot for 'sightseeing'.
Israel has a long memory. There are signs and memorials, especially in places like Hebron and presumably Gaza and the rest of the West Bank, that herald the victories and martyrdom of the past. If you ask people -- like the Bedouin woman I spoke to one afternoon -- you learn that the weight of history informs every perspective. Arguments on both sides are constantly off balance due to events that could have happened thousands of years ago, or last night. Both Israelis and Arabs simply pick the place in time that makes their argument unassailable. It's a disheartening and insurmountable debate. With all of this, and at this particular place in history, I can't think of a more incredible part of the world -- or a more amazing place to visit.
Follow Raymond Leon Roker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raymondroker
Since 1967 Israel preemptively invades their neighbors, maintained the longest military occupation in the 20th century, continually demolishes PAL homes in Gaza and the West Bank, uproots and deports millions of Palestinians, and build illegal settlements, all in direct violation of international law and fourth Geneva Convention. All Israeli's, especially the IDF terrorists, should leave the West Bank, period. The Israeli "wall" should be destroyed and moved to the 1967 border. All Israeli road blocks/check points in the West Bank should be destroyed. All Israeli settlements should be razed. All Palestinain bantustans and ghettos should be liberated and the Palestinians allowed to live freely with security, legitimized national apirations, and with out fear of Israeli terrorist attacks. Israeli victim ideology, the illegal settlements, the land grabbing, the illegal water grabbing, the oppressive, apartheid treatment, the racist treatment, stalling and failure to acknowledge a Palestinian state must end. Aid to Israel must end or they will continue to stall, give excuses, and prevaricate for "peace".
Proof:Pals. were kicked out from: Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates,Iraq.
Example: Before Desert Storm Palestinians composed Kuwait's largest foreign population, numbering perhaps 400,000. By 1992 that number had fallen to fewer than 30,000.. Many Pal. were tried and convicted for collaboration with Iraqi invaders. PLO burned yet another bridge.
Proof:Palestinians are overbreeding at an alarming rate: one of the world's highest population growth rates.
Israelis are no wall flowers, of course.
Proof:But they tried peace by inviting Arafat back when he was broke and beaten. He repaid Israelis by burrowing in like a parasite and beginning a war as soon as he was established.
He did the same in Lebanon and tried the same in Jordan. Hence was thrown out of both countries. Some Arab leaders privately warned Israelis of Arafat's typical duplicity. But to no avail.
Arafat single-handedly destroyed Israeli dove movement.
Proof:Instead of negotiating he and his cronies chose war for simple Palestinians , while Arafat and his pals. continuing to amass billions in stolen funds and sending their families to live in France.
Fact: All this because Arafat hoped he can get more concessions out of Barak by killing rather negotiating .... to his eternal damnation…
Fact: Now innocent Israelis and Palestinians are paying the price.
It is now a matter of public record that the U.S. and Israel have collaborated with certain corrupt Palestinian factions to foment a civil war and overthrow Hamas, the democratically elected leadership of Palestine. If you truly want peace, you should be encouraging Israel and the U.S. to negotiate with the opposition's elected leadership, plain and simple. Do you think Palestinians wanted to negotiate with Ariel Sharon, when the whole world knows he is a war criminal for his role in the massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon. Of course not, but they were still willing to.
And as for your constant reference to Camp David: Barak made no real, viable concessions at Camp David. Again, more rhetoric and revisionist history on your part - because you know the majority of people will not fact check. I would encourage people to do research on Camp David to see that the "offer" made to Palestinians was nothing more than subjecting them to live on bantustans, like those of South African Apartheid.
The rationalization for why the Europeans were supposedly entitled to steal the Palestinian's land has changed by the decade, going from the "land without a people' nonsense to the most recent claim that God apparently told some Jewish dude that "This land is their land." I would almost bet that the Palestinian's God said the land belonged to them. Which is why we don't settle land disputes by deciding whose God was right.
There's no question that the persecution and genocide in Europe against the Jews was horrific. But that provides no excuse for the European Jews moving to a third world country, stealing land from brown-skinned people, and using genocidal tactics against the Palestinians. Two wrongs don't make a right.
And for my money, which is a big issue, Israel's been in existence for 60 years very loudly and boldly proclaiming they will stay forever, stand against everyone, etc., etc. But I'm the one who's paying for it. And I have no interest whatsoever in the creation or maintenance of a jewish state in the middle east. I could care less. In fact, I don't think it makes any sense at all. If there was going to be a Jewish state, maybe the world should have taken some land from Poland, or Germany, or even France, and given that to the Jews. But the fact is the holocaust was a European crime, and there is no justification to make the Palestinians pay for it. And I don't want to continue to fund it.
It's been almost 60 years now. If Israel believes God declared they are to have that land, let God pay for it. Why on earth are American taxpayers forced to give 10 billion dollars/year to Israel when our own people are homeless or soon to be, have no jobs, no healthcare. There is no reason at all. The only possible explanation is that the D.C. politicians vote enormous amounts of "aid" to be sent to Israel, then Israel takes a percentage off the top, launders it back into the U.S. through various Jewish support groups, and gives it to our politicians as bribes so they will vote again next year to give billions more to Israel. It's got nothing to do with genocide or the holocaust: it's just plain and simple theft from the American public. Combined with a massive PR and advertising campaign, and high-priced mouthpieces, who attack any American who ever says we need to stop giving our money to Israel.
If Israel cannot exist without the U.S. giving them billions of dollars every year, then I would say the people of Israel need to pack their bags and move on. Either that or make peace. Because there is no justification for forcing the U.S. public to pay for health care, education, and housing for the Israelis while our own people go without.
U.S. Out of Israel.
All aid to israel must end.
The Palestinian bar doesn't have a security guard because they don't hire one, and they don't hire one because there aren't any suicide bombers attacking Arab bars in East J'lem.
The wall, for all it's problems and inequalities, has largely put a stop to suicide bar bombing of Israeli bars and nightclubs.
I was particularly interested in the right-wing religious response to the shootings at the yeshiva: comparing it not to previous massacres of the secular, but to historical attacks during the mandate. Some on the left were undoubtedly thinking something like 'well, their turn finally came. Now they know.' And yes, there is a tendency to blame the religious right and their settlements and messianic intransigence for at least part of the unrest.
We definitely need new leadership in America that will take us in a new direction, preferably where we will take a neutral stand in that conflict and force Israel to curb their aggression against the Palestinians. If we continue to show bias in favor of the Israelis, then we are going to ruin our country -- literrally drive it into a ditch -- fighting the resulting war on terrorism that arises from our immoral support of Zionism.
One important clarification -- the Orthodox in Israel constitute a relatively small percentage of the population. About 8% -- according to polls cited by Wikipedia -- define themselves as Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox; 17% just consider themselves simply Orthodox. The reason the ultra-Orthodox have such strong influence in politics is due to the nature of parliamentary democracy.
Also, Israel's political system and its laws are secular -- it is no more a "religious theocracy" than is the United States, and in many cases less so. The very strong Israeli Supreme Court has consistently upheld the secular nature of the Israeli legal system. Ehud Ohlmert, the Prime Minister, lives a very non-Orthodox lifestyle. His wife is left of center politically, he has spoken out in support of his openly lesbian daughter, and he also has a son who has been studying French literature at the Sorbonne.
The problems you describe in Israel are all true, but relate much less to the religious character of Israel than you have ascribed in this otherwise intelligent essay.
(Maybe we send everyone on both sides on a two week trip to Disney World, search the place, search every one coming back, give tham all a vote and a Bill of Rights, and force them all to just live together.)