Searching for Middle (East) Ground: Part I

Disclaimer: This is the first in a series of posts dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obviously, this is an extremely sensitive issue for many people back home as well as every single person living in this part of the world. It is also an incredibly complex and important issue, and needs to be given the time and full discussion that it deserves. I am hoping that this will present the conflict in terms that are easy to understand, and I fully intend to approach this from an impartial and fair point of view.

Part I – “Tough Questions for Tough People”

A little while ago, OTZMA participated in the “Conflict and Hope” seminar, dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One Israeli’s response when I told him that we’d be covering the whole thing during this time: “All right, make sure you guys have a solution by the end of it!” Well, as I learned the first day, you can only start to understand the conflict when you realize that you will never understand any of it. It’s frustrating, backwards, complicated, and filled with so many twists and turns it’ll make your head spin. So if you get confused reading this series of posts… just think about how I felt during those five days.

Now, one of the best things about OTZMA is that they really strive to show you all sides of Israel, for better or for worse. Most programs would put you in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv for the whole time, and you’d never see small communities like Ofakim, Netivot, or even Yokne’am. Same goes for the educational programs. There really was no agenda here: We heard the right’s point of view, we heard the left’s case, and we were even able to speak to some Palestinians and hear what they had to say. Some people were riled up by some of the speakers, but you can’t deny that we were given a very balanced seminar by OTZMA. I’ll do my best to provide the same for you, and I suppose the best way to do that is to focus on recapping the week with my own commentary here and there.

So, let’s start at the beginning. Thursday was dedicated to giving us a solid background in the conflict. After arriving in Jerusalem, we began the seminar with a presentation by Neil Lazarus, who goes around the country and occasionally internationally to speak on the Israeli political scene. Neil had spoken to us back in September (and I also saw him on my Birthright trip back in 2006, two days after Ariel Sharon’s stroke), and just about anyone on the trip will tell you he is one of if not the best speakers we’ve had all year. He set us up pretty well, encouraging us to ask the tough questions and do our best to find the truth in what we are being told – as he put it, ask “tough questions for tough people”. He also did a fine job reminding us of one of the most crucial facts in the entire conflict – no one is innocent. There are good and bad Israeli settlers, just as there are good and bad Palestinians. You simply can’t make this a black and white issue (which, admittedly, is exactly what some of our speakers tried to do).

We then were given a history lesson by a man named Steve Israel, a Jewish historian who made aliyah almost 35 years ago. Not the most exciting part of our week, but necessary to continue. Following this, we were treated to our first up close and personal taste of the conflict, with a trip into East Jerusalem. This part of the trip was led by a man named Jared Goldfarb, who led our seminar on Israeli politics back in November. Unfortunately, we had trouble getting permits to really walk around, so we had to settle for looking out the window of our bus. We really were able to see quite a bit. The houses are more cramped, the roads aren’t big enough for multiple cars to get through (let alone a bus), and it looks like just a completely different city than West Jerusalem. Now, even though the city is in much worse shape than the western half and there are obvious deficiencies (roads, garbage collection, public transportation, etc.), it’s interesting to note that many residents are in fact proud of the way they live, feeling that they are being true to their history, and would not want to change many aspects of their lives. Now, by this time it had been a long day, and we were all ready for bed – the real fireworks would start the next day.

Due to the fact that it was Friday and we had to deal with the upcoming Shabbat, the second day of the seminar was a bit short, but it ended up being (for me at least) the most interesting day of the entire weekend. Our day started by straight away heading into the West Bank, also known as the occupied territories, also known as Judea and Samaria. A lot goes into the name of something, nowhere more than on this little piece of land. We first headed to a town called Efrat, which turned out to be a very nice and prosperous town. Following a quick drive around the settlement, we headed in to meet with a woman named Eve Harrow, an American immigrant living in Efrat whose views were, shall we say… a bit right-wing. One of the things Neil pointed out to us is that it’s important to see what map our speakers had in their heads – well, one of the first things Eve did was to pull out a map of the Kingdom of David from thousands of years ago. That give you an idea of her viewpoint? During our hour with her, Eve made some interesting points. For example, does the constant criticism of Israel simply boil down to politically correct anti-Semitism? When the left talks about their vision for peace, are they ignoring basic human behavior? Are they, as Eve described them, “messianic”? But if you want a quote that sums up Eve’s feelings towards the situation as well as many others, here’s what she said in regards to the Palestinians (and in fact the entire Arab world):

“We are dealing with people who are perfectly happy to die as long as we die too.”

Wow. Read that again. That’s a sobering thought. Now, to describe the entire Arab world like that is absolutely absurd and ridiculous. In fact, I spent most of the question-and-answer portion of her session trying to ask if she saw a difference between Islam and radical Islam, which I don’t believe she does. However, for those who would blindly accept points of view such as the highly controversial Goldstone Report and claim that Israel does not have the right to fight back against groups such as Hamas… well, look at it from her point of view, where she can tick off the many friends she has who have lost sons and daughters to terrorists. Now, while Eve did know how to present her side, she did have a tendency to try and overstate her case by bringing in examples using the United States and Europe, and she also made a bizarre misstep when she randomly claimed that Christopher Columbus was a Jew who was really trying to find a Jewish homeland. This really didn’t do her much good, as a lot of people (admittedly including me) latched onto this statement afterwards and used it as a bit of a punchline. However, there is no doubt that this was a remarkably intelligent woman who presented her case very well.

Coming up in Part II... We head to a town right on the green line to hear from a Middle East reporter as well as a top Israeli political advisor, as well as a brief discussion of the infamous Goldstone Report. If you didn't like what you read today, please hang in there... there's a long way to go!