Flashback: West Bank Trip

Okay! So about a week ago I did a program that took Americans and Israelis (and others) into the West Bank to meet Palestinians, and then into Israel to meet Israelis who'd been greatly involved in or affected by the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

I know a lot of people reading this have absolutely 0 idea what this conflict is about, so I'll try to summarize.  But just know this conflict is about as complicated as anything could possibly be, and that any summary I give would be sorely lacking.  Please look it up and do more reading, and when you do, please read from a variety of sources and biases, since one thing I absolutely confirmed through this trip is that truth is entirely subjective.

ALSO, if you read this entry, I ask you to read the whole thing.  The first half leans in one direction, and the second leans in another.  Reading only one half would be misrepresentative of my experience.

ALSO, I could be VERY wrong about all of these things.  These are my impressions.  I'm still a beginner at understanding this situation.

Essentially, both Israelis and Palestinians believe that the same piece of land belongs to them.  There have been several wars about this.  Currently, Israel has political and military control over the area.  They've withdrawn their forces from the Gaza Strip, although maintain border control there to an extent.  Israel has partially withdrawn from the West Bank as well.  Here's a little map:


So you can see the Gaza strip in purple on the left and the West Bank in green on the right.  By the way, it's called the West Bank because it is on the west side of the Jordan River.

The West Bank is divided into 3 areas:

Area A - Under complete control by the Palestinian Authority, Israels MAY NOT enter
Area B - Mostly under the control of the PA, with some restrictions
Area C - Mostly under Israeli control.  Palestinians may come here and live here, Israelis may also come here, anyone who wants to build here needs a permit from the Israeli government



You can see that these areas are not grouped in a way you might expect.  There are barriers and checkpoints between most areas, so travel can be very cumbersome. Area A mostly surrounds large Palestinian populations, and Area C encloses Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley, where where's a lot of Israeli military bases and operations.

The dark green is the wall that encloses the West Bank.  I'll talk more about that in a bit.

So the program I did started in Jerusalem where we had a couple hours of training.  We talked about how to behave, how to phrase questions in a non-combative way, how to participate constructively, etc. We also talked about "public" vs "private" space, which is something that has come up a lot since I've been in Israel.  In this case, private space was where we could essentially be ourselves.  But public space was where we had to refrain from speaking Hebrew and remove any outward Jewish symbols, such as a kippah (dude's head covering) or Star of David necklace.

Then we headed to Beit Jalla in the West Bank, which is in Area C.  The hotel we went to is one of the few spaces both Israelis and Palestinians can go to meet.  One of the things we talked about a lot was the rarity of Israelis and Palestinians actually interacting.  They believe they have the same homeland, but they so rarely come into contact with each other.

The first speaker we saw was Ali Abu Awwad:

He's in the orange shirt

Ali heads a peaceful activism group in Palestine. He is a former member of Fatah, which is basically a Palestinian political party slash terrorist organization. He was shot by a settler "on a rampage" and sent to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, where he heard that brother was killed in the conflict and this made him step back and wonder if violence was really the method that would lead to a solution.  He's obviously very angry about the situation, but now he spends his time speaking to militant Palestinian groups and trying to educate them about other methods of recourse.

He spent several moths in the Israeli prison system as a political prisoner, and his mother spent nearly 5 years in prison..  Prison in this case is very different form how we might imagine it in the US. Palestinians have their own committees, education systems, language classes, discussion  groups etc..  While in prison, Ali facilitated a 17 day hunger strike for better conditions, winning them, including the right to visit his mother in her prison.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from him:
"You don't throw rocks to hurt someone, you throw them to throw out your anger. Violence is the result of suffering and fear."

"After the Oslo Agreement, Palestinians should have changed their program from resistance to changing our community by service to law and democracy as citizens."

-The credibility of potential Palestinian politicians is based on their previous patriotic and violent actions.  You only have credibility if you were extremist.  Although, he pointed out, the same is basically true in Israel and military/combat service. (And I think true in America a lot as well.)

"Armed struggle will not lead to freedom."

He said he knew these things, but still didn't really want to talk to Israelis or even look at them.  This changed a little when Israeli members of PCFF (Parents Circle Family Forum) an organization of Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost children in the conflict came to the West Bank to meet with his mother.  He met these people and saw that Israelis have the "same color tears" and this really moved him.

He suggested the way for Israelis to begin to mend the situation is to "damage what is in our eyes about you, what is in our hearts about you, don't make the wall higher."  In other words, to do things like PCFF that help Palestinians see Israelis are human beings instead of further distancing them.

He said he then went to Yad Vashem (the Israeli holocaust museum) and realized for the first time that Jews are also victims. (This really bothered me, but late knowledge is certainly better than none...)

-Palestinian suffering, not hatred, is the biggest threat to Israeli security.

-He briefly told the story of a pregnant woman who was stopped at a check point on her way to the hospital and the baby died.

-"Israelis will find 1 million reasons to be right, and Palestinians will find 5 million. Who is right? I don't want to be right, I want to be successful."

-People don't reconcile because they don't know how to deal with their pain.

-Voting for Hamas (the political party/terrorist organization currently in control in Gaza) is not politically the right thing to do, but it was a revenge decision.

-Currently, any Palestinian who says that violence against Israel is a crime, period, is considered a traitor or normalizer, which is one reason it's so difficult for Palestinians to organize for non-violent action.  Ali said this is a big mistake peace activists make.  They need to explain that non-violence is a strategy for freedom, it's not siding with the enemy.

"I won't say that Israelis are nice. They are not nice. They are occupiers. But they are also human. And they are also paying a price."

His vision is a Palestinian State side by side with Israel, and he believes that ending the occupation will end Israel's security problems. He said, "Millions of people live here, they will not disappear, and it is not their destiny to keep dying."

However, he said, dialogue is not a goal, it is a tool, and currently frustrating because he goes to Tel Aviv to give talks and returns empty handed.  Talking hasn't really led to action yet.  "I didn't come to this field for hummus and hugs, my mind drove me here, not my heart."

That said, he's been embraced by even the extremists.  The head of the Al Aqsa brigade, which trains suicide bombers amongst other things, said "I am proud of you for being a Palestinian" and embraced him.

His organization faces a lot of challenges, especially lack of funding.  They don't have the money to make phone calls or attend peace conferences.  He also said sympathetic Israelis are tired of the issue and brush him off, saying they want peace but they don't want to talk about it.  He said the younger generation of Palestinians are more open but also more hungry, and 90% of them have the biggest dream of going overseas to study.  They want to get out, they don't get it.

One thing I think I have to note is that these stories were told with little context.  For example, everyone (including myself, of course) would agree that a baby dying at a checkpoint is absolutely horrifying.  That said, he didn't mention how frequently Palestinian terror organizations use Pregnant women to smuggle weapons and explosives over the border.  They use children and ambulances as well, and then Israel looks horrible when they are obligated to stop these people at the border and search them before they can continue.

Next we met with Hamed Qawasmeh, who works with the UN Office of the High Commission on Human Rights.

He's also Palestinian, although he studied in Israel

He spoke to us primarily about border issues, land allocation, etc..  Some stats from him:
West Bank is 5,600 square km and home to about 2.8 million Palestinians, and about 500,000 Israeli settlers. 95% of Palestinians live in about 40% of the land.

18% of the West Bank, mostly in the Jordan Valley are militarized zones where Palestinians cannot go.

10% are nature reserves where Palestinians cannot bring sheep.  One guy was fined 1,000 shekels (about $350) for each sheep he was caught grazing in a nature reserve.

One major issue is the way justice is carried out in the West Bank.  In Areas A and B, crimes are tried in Palestinian courts.  In area C, Israelis are tried by Israeli courts, but Palestinians, since they are considered enemy combatants, are tried in Israeli MILITARY courts, which are much more severe, as you can imagine.

Palestinians want the Jordan Valley because it is the best land for agriculture in the area.

 He was of the opinion that the wall is useless and insulting and incredibly disruptive to Palestinian life, and that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal and obstacles to peace.  He said if the Israelis really want a wall, they should put it on their own land, not many meters into Palestinian territory.

Next we went on a little bus tour...

Bethlehem

You can see the wall under the tunnel and up into the distance.  All of this land isn't settled because it's area C, where Palestinians need permits to build (And as you might guess, permits are not frequently given)

Israeli settlement

This makes the wall not look very functional....

I wasn't the only one on the trip reminded of this scene in Robin Hood, Men in Tights at 1:20

"I'm on the one side... I'm on the other side...  it's not that complicated!"

Note how the wall facing the settlement is much nicer looking than the wall facing the  Palestinians...

Next we attended a panel of Palestinians working in different areas.  Some interesting things they said...

-One guy started a youth movement to fight how much garbage and litter there is everywhere, encouraging his peers to keep better care of their country with the slogan "trash the occupation, not our land"

-One woman recalled how during the Gulf War, Israel enforced a curfew on Palestinians

-There's a camp in Maine (!) called Seeds of Peace that brings young Israelis and Palestinians together for discussion

-One women working for women's rights in Palestine said that women are mothers who build and lead men into action.

-One woman said she'd like to meet more Israeli families, she thinks this would help her understand the Israeli side of things.

-One seventeen year old reminded us that even though they leave so close to the Mediterranean, most of them have never see it.  She described the one time she did, and how she shouted, "The sea! The sea!"

-One of them claimed that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza was just a tactic to separate Gaza from the West Bank and further divide Palestinians.

This last comment really amazed me.  They'd hate Israel no matter what they did.

Then our host families showed up! The host families all lived in Bethlehem, in Area A, so only Americans could have host families.  The Israelis had to stay in a hotel in Area C.

I think this is one of the most frustrating aspects of the current situations.  I've heard lots of Palestinians claim Israelis are heartless, but they've never spoken with an Israeli.  And I've heard many Israelis claim Palestinians are lazy and unable to help themselves or take care of themselves, and would only trash further land given to them, BUT Israelis are only allowed to go to the part of the West Bank in which Palestinians cannot build anything and it looks like a wasteland! Palestinians can't meet Israelis, and Israelis can't see what parts of the West Bank that Palestinians actually care for.  Of course they won't understand each other.

Before heading home, we all did some ice breakers at the hotel. One of the most interesting was when we stood in a circle and someone read a statement, like "I like ice cream" or "I'm separated by law from people I love" and if it applies to you, you step into the circle. Everyone had been to the Dead Sea :)

Joint Discussion group at the hotel

Then I went to my homestay.  BEST THING EVER.

I was the only female on the program who was not an organizer, the rest where guys.  And I was the only female doing a homestay.  Usually Americans are paired up in a homestay, and they asked me if I still wanted to do it even though I would be alone.  I said, of course! I knew I needed to have this experience.  There is no substitute ever for actually being in someone's home and meeting them and seeing how they live, even for just a little while.

My host family was the best! They are Arab Christians living in Bethlehem.  They have a beautiful home near the main hotel that houses Christian tourists coming to see the Church of the Nativity.  In front of their home they operate two shops for tourists: a liquor store and a souvenir shop.

With my host mom, Shahar, and my host dad, Adel, and his favorite Polish vodka

Their home is modest but nice and very clean, with two floors.  It was modern of course, though they share one computer (the girls traded off on facebook).

My host sister, Agnes

Shahar and Adel

There is another girl, Mariam, and two boys, Joseph and... I can't remember the other one's name.

They have a beautiful garden where they grow limes, olives, mint, and many other things.  Adel has 85 rabbits!!!! He eats them.  But before he eats them, they run around in this enormous complex beside his house, with all of these tunnels they pop out of and places to hang out.  He also owns 10 tortoises, many pigeons, and chickens.  Shahar gave me tea with the mint from their garden, and it was the BEST TEA I HAVE EVER HAD.

We sat down, and Adel asked if I liked Polish vodka.  When I said I'd never tried it, he immediately poured a shot (he said I had to try it pure first) and a tall glass mixed with juice for me, Shahar, and himself.  I said I was short and if I drank all of that I would surely get smashed.  He said I wouldn't, not to worry.  So we drank! And I got smashed.

It was pretty good, actually. Are my eyes glazed over?

Everything's funnier when you're drunk, but he was legitimately funny.  He did all kinds of card tricks for me (he's really good at magic tricks, I'm not even kidding.  I was amazed) and then we played crazy 8s while Shahar watched Christian Arabic evening prayers on TV and he told me stories.

My favorite story was of how he and Shahar met.  Adel used to be a hair dresser.  He actually studied in Paris for a year to become one. He owned a Salon in Bethlehem.  One day, Shahar went in to get her hair done, saw him, an thought to herself "That man MUST become my husband!"

A few years later, Adel's brother was dating Shahar's sister and wanted to go to her parents to ask for her hand, but he got very ill.  Adel said he would go to the parents and ask on his brother's behalf.  When he was there, he saw a glimpse of Shahar in the hallway and immediately fell head over heals in love with her, love at first sight.  He suddenly said to her parents, "Actually, can I have both daughters?" And they were married a month later.  They had a double wedding with their siblings! There is a great picture of the four of them cutting the cake.

We looked at photo albums together of their family through the years.  Adel woke up at 5 am on his wedding day so he could do the hair of everyone in the wedding, which I thought was hilarious.  At each occasion Adel pointed out the hear styles that he did for everyone... at Easter, birthdays, etc, and how the styles had changed over the years. It was also nice to see all of the weddings and baptisms that were all held at the Church of the Nativity. 

But we did have some serious conversation, and this is, of course, where things get sad.  I loved my family, and we got along so well.  I want them to visit my family.  I want us all to be friends.  But things totally break down when you talk about fundamental political differences.  It was similar to the experience I had with my Japanese host mother... I loved her, but if we had to, we'd have armed ourselves against each other over some of the things we believed.

Adel believed that Israel controls all international media, which I of course disagreed with him about (I think international media is extremely unfairly biased against Israel!) He said that Israel created the first intifada (violent Palestinian uprising) in order to have an excuse to separate Gaza from the west bank, and he said Israel created the second one in order to have an excuse to build the wall.  He said he personally saw an Israeli soldier give an AK-47 and ammunition to a Palestinian, that Israel arms Palestinians so they'll revolt so that Israel can put them down.  I don't believe this, of course.  

Then he said something that surprised me.  I asked what his vision would be, his ideal world.  And he said one state... but under ISRAELI rule, because the Palestinian Authority is so corrupt!

Many Palestinians believe in a one state solution... except joining the two would mean Arabs are the majority and they'd boot the Jews "into the sea." So it amazed me to hear a Palestinian wanting Israeli authority.

Although since then an Israeli friend pointed out this might be such a nice situation for them, because they wouldn't have to serve in army or pay taxes, and Israel would provide them with benefits, which is the case for current Arab citizens of Israel.

Another thing that shocked me was when Mariam was off to college, and she said she had history class.  And I asked what kind, and she said Palestinian History.  And I asked if, in her 21 years, she had ever taken a history class other than Palestinian, like World History or European History, and she said no.

And I have to say, if Palestinians are brought up without knowing European History, without knowing, like Ali said, about the holocaust, without knowing the history of the Jewish people and their connection to the land of Israel, then OF COURSE they won't understand Israel or Israeli political action.  It makes my stomach turn.

Adel also said something that really impacted me:

"We're not living in a prison in the West Bank. We're living in a zoo." He said they lead their difficult lives, with no opportunity for their children, no growing fields, no jobs, and they just stay in one place, in a designated habitat.  And people come and go, Americans like me, and see how they live, and take pictures, and then leave and nothing changes.

He didn't say this in a mean way, although I did feel stupid holding my camera as he spoke.

Mariam's room, where I slept

In the morning, he made me eggs from his chickens and Shahar made more amazing tea.  So delicious. They invited me to come stay with them any time, and I know they  meant it.  I gave Agnes my parents' phone number in case she needs anything when she goes to Seeds of Peace camp in Maine next month.

The living room

I really lucked out, because my host family was so loving and talkative, and they spoke English.  Others didn't have such a great experience.

Next, the Israeli half of the experience!

First we went to a settlement at Nokdim.  When I told Rivka this is where we went, she groaned and said "Why did they take you there? Those people are the most extreme." And I have to agree with her.  I really don't feel that they were a fair representation of Israeli settlers.

Most settlers I know feel that they are entitled to live there as much as anyone is. Israel has attempted to give Palestine their land many times in exchange for a Palestinian guarantee for peace, but this is never given.  This is where there's a breakdown between the Palestinian people and Palestinian leadership.  Perhaps the Palestinian people would mostly be content if they had complete control over the West Bank.  But Palestinian leadership would not be.  They've refused land compromises and violated peace treaties continuously since the beginning of Israel as a modern state. Settlers I know feel that there's no reason to withdraw because then Palestinians will just want more land, and want Israelis to move back further and further and futher until they're, well, in the sea. That said, most settlers I know have understanding and empathy for the shitty situation the Palestinians have to deal with.

These settlers were more extreme, though.  They talked a lot about how The Judean desert (an area in the West Bank) is where most events in the Bible took place.  They talked a lot about the fulfillment of a prophesy to be there.

They did show the other side of the situation, however. They told about how many of their civilians had died on the road to Jerusalem do to Palestinian snipers. They talked about Israeli soldiers could not take pre-preemptive security measures on the road, but it was their job to follow settlers around and protect them.  So the settlers came up with the idea of one or two of them hanging out at a strategic place int he road, two of them always being there, and since the soldiers have to supervise them, that forced there always to be soldiers guarding. 

They said as settlers they were playing an important role for peace.  They said they were developing land that Israel could later use to negotiate for peace.  They expected they'd be evacuated some day to give the land to the Palestinians, and that the land is more valuable and more of a sacrifice in negotiations if it was developed and had many living there.  This idea kind of amazed me.

When pressed about her sympathies for the Palestinians, one woman spoke wistfully about a time before the second intifada, when there was an Arab grocery store nearby that allowed them to shop, and how they got along, and how the shopkeep would cover the break products during Passover so the Jewish customers would still feel welcome. And she said that "Palestinians need to be citizens of some country! They need to be able to vote. This is not a tenable or healthy situation." Which was good to hear.  Though she also said, "I've never seen an outcry among Palestinians after a terrorist attack against Jews; no remorse, no soul searching."

And I have to agree with her there.  No Palestinians I spoke with seemed to care at all about the Jewish side of the story.  

I checked out the Young Adult section of the settlement library... they have Twilight

Next we returned to Jerusalem and met with Danny Tirza, an ex Colonel in the Israeli Defense Force (army) and the man responsible for the planning and construction of the wall that blocks off the West Bank.  This was, in my opinion, the most fascinating part of the entire trip.

Danny Tirza

The perception of the Wall in the western world REALLY PISSES ME OFF.  People look at it and immediately assume they know all about it.  That it means Apartheid.  That it's the same as the Berlin wall.  That it's some totalitarian thing.  But they never try to understand why Israel did it or how and why it functions.

The wall went up in response to incredibly frequent and fatal terrorists attacks from Palestinians crossing the border from the West Bank.  Hundreds of Israeli citizens were killed.  The last straw was when a Palestinian man crossed the border, got on an Israeli bus, waited until the bus stopped at a school, and blew himself up, killing 19 children.  The army turned to Tirza and told him to make it stop.  So he built this wall.

If you look carefully, you can see where the wall stops in the upper left and turns into a fence.  The "wall" that covers the entire border is only partially concrete, and the rest sensitive fencing, which I'll talk about in a minute.

Tirza answered a lot of complaints I've heard about the wall in a very calm fashion.  Here are some of his responses:

Q: Why is the wall built within Palestinian territory and not in Israel?

A: The first thing to understand is that the dividing line between the territories is a security line, and not a border.  A border is mutually agreed upon, and as Palestine has never recognized Israel as a state, it will accept no borders.  The line was drawn up by Israel in an attempt to come up with a compromise.

The wall is built with careful sensors that alert Israeli authorities when there is a breach.  They've carefully timed how long it takes to respond to breaches at every area of the wall and put the wall as far from Israeli civilians as necessary to allow authorities to respond before a terrorist would reach the homes.  In some cases, because of terrain and other factors, this is right on the security line.  In other areas, the wall is many meters into Palestinian territory. 

Q: How functional is the wall, really?

A: Every night, Israeli authorities catch between 5 and 20 terrorists trying to breach the wall and cross into Israel.  A terrorist is defined as someone who is currently armed or was identified with a terrorist organization (this is a hazy line since most Palestinian political parties are also terror organizations). About 60% of these people are jailed and tried in military courts. These days, 100% of detected movements are caught. 

Q: Why do you need to build such an ugly wall? Why not the fences through out?
A: The walls are that height because it's too high to climb.  Walls as opposed to fences are only build in areas where there is not enough space between the security line and Israeli homes for them to respond to an alert before a terrorist reached the people.  Walls are also built where there are a lot of Palestinian civilians so that they won't set off the alert if they're just touching the fence or hanging out around it.  Israel doesn't actually want to arrest innocent people.  Walls are also build where there is a big threat of snipers.

The wall is ugly because it was build with haste and a low budget.  They're slowly trying to make it look better.

Q: Why do you allow graffiti on the wall?
A: Because Israel is a democracy that allows expression, and it's better for people to take out their anger as graffiti than as violence.

Q: Why are the terminals for people to pass through built the way they are, and security so intense?

A: Terminals are designed to protect civilians and soldiers.  16 suicide terrorists and 18 pipe bombs have been caught attempting to cross into Israel since 2012 alone. 

Q:  Why is the wall so disruptive?
A: It's actually as little disruptive as he could make it while still protecting Israeli civilians.  He spoke with the population of East Jerusalem, with church and mosque leaders, with the heads of organizations, with everyone he could in the area.  He divided areas based on if most of the people in them lived and worked in Israel or in the West Bank.  He built special gates for commuting students, for religious leaders, even a special gate for the Patriarch to past through from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christian holidays.

Q: What about the rights of the Arabs sucked into Israel when the wall went up around Jerusalem?

A: Arab committees were consulted about the drawing of the line and all wanted to remain within Israel.  They chose the status of resident as opposed to citizens.  Residents, unlike citizens, cannot vote in national elections, although they can vote in local ones.  They are also excused from many taxes, army service, and police service.  Arabs living within the wall were allowed to choose citizenship.

All in all, the wall/barrier is over 700km long, and not one Palestinian home was destroyed or evacuated in its construction.  There was even a special gate designed just for one Palestinian family that was living illegally on Israeli government land so they could keep their home and commute to school in the West Bank.

Basically, Tirza seemed really human.  He said he built the wall and that he hoped he'd be the one to tear it down, and he hoped that would be soon.  He did the best he could to protect Israelis with as little violation to Palestinians as possible.  He also said that if Palestinians would accept Israel as a state and agree upon borders and peace, Israel would withdraw it's settlements, and that Israel has shown to keep its word on this point if you look at history (Gaza, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon), etc.

Next we went to a refugee camp for settlers who were evacuated from Gush Katif, an Israeli settlement in Gaza before Israel withdrew.  It was basically really sad.  They made a tiny museum to Gush Katif with photos of it (It was a beautiful town on the ocean) and scraps of artifacts... a mosaic made from tiles from the synagogue, the main gate, etc). The town was mostly destroyed when they evacuated by the IDF.  They left the main buildings like schools and office buildings and synagogues... the Palestinians destroyed the synagogues when they moved in.

One thing I noted was a woman saying that when they were told they had to evacuate, she made a ton of food for everyone.  "If we're going to be expelled, we're going to be expelled on a full stomach.  I am a Jewish grandmother.  I feed my people before expulsion."

A former resident showing us the drainage pipe/bomb shelter of the refugee  camp.  It's in an area that gets a lot of rockets from Gaza.

The kibbutz patio

That night we stayed on a kibbutz in the south.  This kibbutz had a petting zoo with some awesome animals...

Hello

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, BUT I LOVE IT.

The Kibbutz was known for growing garlic.  We found a lot of garlic!

Next we went to Sderot, a pretty sad town which suffers intense rocket fire from Gaza.  I'd been there previously, and learned that 70% of the children in Sderot suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  

This guy collects all the rockets, you can see some of them here.

The parks need to have bomb shelters for children since you only have about 12 seconds from the alarm to find shelter. They painted this one to look like a caterpillar

Gaza border

Gaza border

 Friends at the wall

"Path to Peace" written on the Israeli side.  I pasted a little piece of the mosaic!

Jamie and me at the wall

Meir and me

Then we spoke with her friend, a Palestinian in Gaza, on the phone.  It was pretty amazing.  She said life in Gaza totally sucks, especially for women.  She said women there are under the control of their fathers, then brothers, then husbands, and have no agency and no hope.  Her wish is to get out of Gaza however she can as soon as she can... which isn't looking likely.

What do I make of this whole thing...?  Unfortunately, I think what Jabotinsky wrote in his 1923 essay the "Iron Wall" still applies...

"We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not.

There is no other morality.

All this does not mean that any kind of agreement is impossible, only a voluntary agreement is impossible. As long as there is a spark of hope that they can get rid of us, they will not sell these hopes, not for any kind of sweet words or tasty morsels, because they are not a rabble but a nation, perhaps somewhat tattered, but still living. A living people makes such enormous concessions on such fateful questions only when there is no hope left. Only when not a single breach is visible in the iron wall, only then do extreme groups lose their sway, and influence transfers to moderate groups. Only then would these moderate groups come to us with proposals for mutual concessions. And only then will moderates offer suggestions for compromise on practical questions like a guarantee against expulsion, or equality and national autonomy."

It's in the Arab world's best interest not to help the Palestinians, because as long as the Palestinians are destitute, Israel will have to deal with this very complicated and impossible situation in which any decision they make makes them look terrible to an unsympathetic and frankly anti-semitic world.

Furthermore, while I am adamant that Palestinian leadership has been consistently terrible, stubborn, short-sighted, and childish, it is not just to trap millions of people in a no-man's land because their officials are incompetent and radical. Palestinians are not going anywhere, and they absolutely need to be citizens of a country. They need complete rights all individuals should have, including freedom of travel, job opportunities, benefits, protections, the right to vote, and of course freedom from the feeling of being caged and second class.  They cannot be absorbed into Israel because then they would outnumber the Jews and Israel would not longer be Israel.  But the status quo simply cannot continue, people cannot live without rights, certainly not under the watch of a modern democracy like Israel.

Many people argue there should be a two-state solution  where Palestinians are given full control of the West Bank and Gaza with a corridor connecting them. The other hidden benefit of a two state solution is when Palestine is created, and they inevitably act violently towards Israel, Israel can strike back, which they cannot do now in the view of the world since they're seen as occupiers attacking people in their care.  I don't want it to sound like I want this to happen - I'd rather the two states coexist peacefully.  But Muslim radicals who believe Jews are pigs and want to wipe them off the face of the Earth will only be empowered by the freedom of their own state, and the violence will not stop, no matter what Ali says.

It makes me nauseous to to think about two states, but is there a moral, viable alternative?  Does anyone reading this have one?  The consequences of a two state solution for Israel are very painful for me to think about. I have so many friends who live in Judea (the west bank). Would they all have to be evacuated? Would they be allowed to live in a Palestinian state, and would they want to? Would it be safe to? Would we have to abandon all of our holy sites? In the past, Palestinians have consistently destroyed Jewish holy sites and buildings given to their care. How much land will Israel have to give away? It's beginning to look like Swiss Cheese. And then of course, there's the spiritual attachment Jews have to the land where their ancestors lived and roamed.  Is it fair that Israel houses, protects, and provides for 20% of their population, Arabs, but Jews would not be allowed to enter a Palestinian state?

In any case, it probably won't happen any time soon. Palestinian leaders refuse to negotiate, Israel will not make changes until borders are agreed upon and peace guaranteed, and if the Palestinian government is as corrupt as my host father thinks, it's doubtful any reasonable leader will come into power in the immediate future.

Through this trip I've come to accept the needs and rights of Palestinians as individual people apart from an organization that has acted poorly. I also made some great friends and had some great tea. In a way I feel more hopeless because I've had to accept more complexities to the situation.  But I also feel more hopeful because everyone loves polish vodka, card tricks, and good love stories.  And that is a good beginning.

I am certain of one thing: we need to talk more. If these potential solutions are on the table with as little interaction between Israelis and Palestinians as there is, what possibilities might arise if there was more exposure? More dialogue? More education? Is there a better way?  I hope we find out. And I don't think it's flaky or naive to say that we need to talk more to see.

Day 20 - Those Internal Wolves

My brain is melting. I know that studying 13 hours a day must get easier with practice, like running or writing or anything else. Right now though, my brain feels like... um... I can't even press my thoughts together enough to come up with a good analogy.

Today was entirely a study day, so this will be entirely a nerdy post.  I'm suppose to get my camera back next Tuesday, at which point I promise the entertaining posts will return.

`We started the day studying Mishnah and Talmud.  Extreme summary: Mishnah is a text that summarizes and comments on the laws and rules for Jews outlined in the Bible.  Talmud coments on the Bible and the comments of the Mishnah.  If that sounds like it gets ridiculous... well in my opinion, you're right.  It gets pretty absurd.  Talmud is not my favorite.

The portions we discussed related to time, specifically the times to say the shema, or the sort of one quintessential Jewish prayer. Our instructor criticized the karaites (a sect of Jews who put their stock only in the Bible and not any rabbinic commentary) for not participating in their faith.  He said that Mishnah and Talmud are our way of taking ownership and responsibility for our Judaism, of playing the game instead of just watching it.  Then I said, but putting stock in Talmud and Mishnah... isn't that just the same as expanding the game you're watching? We're not playing, we're just watching a longer more complicated game.  He said no, proper Talmud scholars add their own criticism as they study.

I guess this just breaks down for me because people in power in the Jewish world use the Talmud to make rules for other Jews.  It's not just about study - it's about enforcement and what rules you enforce.  The more you study religious texts, in my opinion, the more absurd it feels to enforce any rules.

Anyway.

After lunch we had a pretty intense discussion about American Zionism, the point of Zionism, and Israeli vs. Diaspora Jews. Things got emotional.. I was pretty calm, which is rare for me. I've done a pretty good job not taking anything personally this trip.

Another girl on the trip brought up an issue she and I had discussed earlier.  People here basically treat us like silly little girls.  We want to come here because we're ignorant. We're innocent. We don't know what we're getting into.  We have fanciful dreams of glory and hunky soldiers and don't consider Israeli realities. I guess this could be discouraging.

But one Israeli dude in the group pointed this out: "When an Israeli says to you, 'idiot American girl, what are you thinking coming here?' you have to realize that this is the question he is asking himself: 'I'm joining the army, my friends are dying, what am I doing here? Am I an idiot?'"

And that's the thing about people in general, right? Do we ever really ask people questions about themselves? Or are we asking about ourselves? When we say things about other people, aren't we commenting more on ourselves? Our fears or anxieties, our own bullshit?

I think ever since that rabbi said she thought I was a Jew and I realized it made no difference to me, that it was no consolation, my stock in the opinions of others about me has plummeted. It really doesn't make a difference if people think I'm an idealist or an idiot. I think that's why I'm so unimpacted by these kinds of discussions that would normally get me all agitated.

Here's some questions I've had for myself over the past few days:
-Should I go to law school?
-Am I German and Norwegian and Lutheran as much as I'm Jewish? What does that other part of me count for?
-Does the value of a Jewish society outweigh the value of a diverse one TO ME?
-My faith is a personal one, and my life philosophy is, too.  How does that fit into a religion that consistently demands community in order to have a relationship with God?



CLASS HIGHLIGHTS:

-"In a world where nations and peoples increasingly intermingle and intermarry at will; where cultural and national impediments to communication have all but collapsed; where more and more of us have multiple elective identities and would feel falsely constrained if we had to answer to just one of them; in such a world Israel is truly an anachronism  And not just an anachronism but a dysfunctional one." -Tony Judt, 2003

-When told by Kissinger that he was an American first, then the Secretary of State, and then a Jew, Golda Meir told him that was fine since, in Hebrew, people read from right to left.

-Meir wrote: "As for Jews being the chosen people, I never quite accepted that.  It seemed, and still seems to me, more reasonable to believe, not that God chose the Jews, but that the Jews were the first people that chose God, the first people in history to have done something truly revolutionary, and it was that choice that made them unique"

-"I am a Zionist because I share the past, present, and future of my people, the Jewish people  Our nerve endings are uniquely intertwined.  When one of us suffers, we share the pain; when many of us advance communal ideals together, we - and the world - benefit." - Gil Troy

-More Troy: "I am a Zionist because I am an idealist.  Just as a century ago, the notion of a viable, independent, sovereign Jewish state was an impossible dream - yet worth fighting for - so, too, today, the notion of a thriving, independent, sovereign Jewish state living in true peace with its neighbors appears to be an impossible dream - yet worth seeking"

-From Washington Holocaust memorial: "Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."

-"I am a Zionist.  I already laid down on my back to admire the Sistine Chapel, I bought a postcard at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and I was deeply impressed by the emerald Buddha at the king's palace in Bangkok.  Yet I still believe that Tel Aviv is more entertaining, the Red Sea is greener, and the Western Wall Tunnels provide for a much more powerful spiritual experience.  It is true that I'm not objective, but I'm also not objective in respect to my wife or children." - Yair Lapid

-"Self-deprecation is, after all, a classic form of Jewish humor."
"Not Jewish humor! No! Ghetto humor."
-Phillip Roth

-"Aliyah is not shallow submission to Zionist propaganda, but a deep compulsion, elemental, mocking death.  This the members saw again with their own eyes in ships that bore to Palestine the exiled and the slain, in camps that shelter those who ran the gauntlet." -David Ben Gurion

And this, I think, sums up the rather magical difference between European/American Jews and Israeli Jews... and also has deep significance for me personally and my experience...:

 "We would have preferred to develop our bodies rather than kill them or to have them - figuratively and actually - killed by others  We know how to make rational use of our life and appreciate its value.  If, unlike most other peoples, we do not conceive of (physical) life as our highest possession, it is nevertheless very valuable to us and thus worthy of careful treatment. During long centuries we have not been able to give it such treatment. All the elements of Aristotelian physics - light, air, water, and earth - were measured out to us very sparingly. In the narrow Jewish street our poor limbs soon forgot their gay movements; in the dimness of sunless houses our eyes began to blink shyly; the fear of constant persecution turned our powerful voices into frightened whispers, which rose in a crescendo only when our martyrs on the stakes cried out their dying prayers in the face of their executioners. But now, all coercion has become a memory of the past, and at least we are allowed space enough for our bodies to live again. Let us take up our oldest traditions; let us once again become deep-chested, sturdy, sharp-eyed men."

Aaaaaand a joke:

An Israeli, a Brit,  Russian, a Vietnamese, and an American are sitting in a restaurant. A reporter comes by and asks, "Excuse me, but can I get your opinion on the recent grain shortage in the third world?"
The Brit asks: "What's a 'shortage'?"
The Vietnamese asks: "What's 'grain'?"
The Russian asks: "What's an 'opinion'?"
The American asks: "What's the 'third world'?"
The Israeli asks: "What's 'excuse me'?"

Which makes me think of "Give me some milk, Cow!" and I laugh all over again.

Day 19 - Our Little Corner of the World

The studying continued today!  With some breaks, we study every day, 9am -10pm.  Paradise for Jewish nerds like me!

Today was a fast day... which I did not know until this morning.  I'm still a bit unclear on why we're fasting, but I think it's to commemorate the fall of the temple. Fasting was optional, and I abstained.  I'm impressed with people who made it through a day in the desert without drinking any water.

One of the things we did was get a tour of Alon, the tiny town the school is in.  There are 180 families that live here - that's it!  There is one shop that sells pizza and... champagne.  And there's a gas station. There's a synagogue, and a school.  That's literally all there is.  I was still a little puzzled that the political location of the school still wasn't really discussed.  Maybe it won't be...? That would be crazy.

The hills are SO beautiful, though.  I can't wait to get my camera back.  Here's a pic from Ro's camera of our group at the Alon lookout point:

Class Highlights
-At the beginning of David's career, he has the very modern Israeli attitude of commanders saying "I'm in front!" and we see that deteriorate as he ages and recedes into his city while his warriors fight for him.

-With complete success like David had, you often lose your sense of hunger, your instincts and ambitions

-The narrative implies some guild on David's part regarding the death of Uriah, because he wills Nathan's prophecy into being.  He sends his son into exile and provokes his revenge.  He leaves his concubines in the open for Absolam to take, to "guard the palace" which makes no sense at all unless David seriously forced his own demise to happen.

-Amnon's disgust with Tamar after he rapes her points to the hatred we have for our victims.  Instead of hating ourselves, we hate subjects of our misdeeds.
-SO the relationship between Europe and Israel is not the relationship between Europe and Israel, it is the relationship between Europe and its own past.  So much easier for Europe to hate its victims, to find constant fault in them.
-You either despise or become your victims

-The Bible always offers extreme alternatives, but never offers a moderate option.  It usually offers the path not to walk.

-Though luckily, the fact that there are multiple interpretations of the Bible makes the point that we are not doomed to react in a certain way.

-"The Bible will never answer a question you do not ask it."

-Herzel wrote, "'Jews, get out!'  Are we to get out now? And where to?"

-"The greatest happiness: to be able to be what one really is." - Herzl

-"Zionism has been the Sabbath of my life." - Herzl

-Prof Troy said: "I'd love for us to build a non-neurotic Jewish identity. That's not Holocaust based, that's not trauma based, that's not they-hate-us based... but we can't do it! Because the world won't let us.  But also, we won't let us."

Day 18 - Intellectual Fishbowl

Today was the first full day of my program at Ein Prat through the Tikvah Fellowship for Zionist Thought and Statesmanship.  This is essentially a four week extremely intensive study program for about 12 Americans and about 8 Israelis to read Torah and Zionist thinkers, meet Israeli leaders, travel to important strategic locations around Israel, and try to get a better understanding of Israel's history, its present, and its potential future.

They weren't kidding when they said it was intense!

We got up bright and early and made a few stops at lookout points around Jerusalem.  Here's the group (foolishly we're standing in front of the sun...) on Mount Scopus overlooking the Judean Desert.  You can see me top row, third from the left:

Then we headed to Ein Prat, a school in Alon.

So this is an extremely complicated location that so far hasn't been discussed, though I have little doubt it will come up extensively in the future days.  Alon is a Jewish town in the Judean Desert.  Or someone else might say it is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.  I'll talk more about the controversy in my entry on my West Bank trip (And yes, I do still plan to write that),  but essentially this is contested territory.  Entering Alon, frankly it looks pretty grim.  Watchtowers and barbed wire fences everywhere.

Inside, however, it is very beautiful.  The school is lovely and the mountains and desert hills all around are gorgeous, it's hot but it's dry and there's a strong desert wind all the time, and the lighting is perfect.  Orange and Purple and Gold. Housing is fine, I'm in a tiny dorm with four girls, two in a room.  I love the food - it's total kibbutz food, and I just gobble it up.  Shnitzel, shakshuka, hummus, pasta, cucumber salad, that kind of thing.  Maybe I'll gain back those lost 6 lbs.

I'm finding myself on the outskirts of the group a lot.  I think because I've been constantly networking for the past few weeks, now I'm ready to do more thinking and contemplating and listening, so I think I've been a little anti-social.  I don't think I really mind.

There are a bunch of Israelis here on a parallel program which makes the place really lively.  They're always running around and singing and cooking things.  Today when we were studying I looked over and two of them were doing some kind of contortionist act on the veranda.

We have classes back to back to back, and most of the classes contain this kind of study called chaveruta (sp) which means pairing up and reading/discussing a text.  It's really challenging, especially with time constraints.  Right now it feels like new ideas are just raining down on me and I'm not really processing yet, but I'm okay with that.  I think it will filter through me with time.  Dr. Goodman suggested we end the day in pairs again to discuss the day, and maybe I will eventually get to that.  But for now, my buddy is my blog.

Things are about to get really nerdy.  If you're not interested in religion/zionism you can check out now.

Okay, study partner, what did we do today?

-Dr. Goodman said that happy people are usually 1) connected to something bigger than themselves 2) surrounded by great friends.  The aim of the program is to provide both.  Sweet.

-We talked a lot about Genesis 3, with which I am very familiar.  I think it's a lesson in parenting, like most of the Torah.  Don't refuse your children knowledge, rather walk them through it.  Don't prefer one child over the other (ala Cain/Abel and also Joseph and his brothers).  Dani made a good point: Isn't God making that very mistake in "choosing" The Jewish people over all others?  And isn't the fate of the Jews very similar to the fate of Joseph as a result?  YES. Wow.

-The theory that the fruit of knowledge was only forbidden us to a point - that eventually God would have shared it with us in time, matches with the prevalent ban in Judaism against fortune tellers.  All knowledge at the proper time.  I personally find this theory to be bullshit.

-Dr. Goodman talked about Jeremiah 7 and how the Jews did not listen to Jeremiah because they believed God would protect them from the impending siege.  They believed, in a rather Pagan way, that God lived in the temple and so dwelled among them, and thus Jerusalem could not be destroyed since it was God's house. The issue, Micah argued, is that the Jews believed that history would repeat itself, that were they were protected in the past they would be again, without closely considering the reason for that protection.

Micah draws a parallel to Israel in 1973 when the Yom Kippur war broke out.  Israeli intelligence had all of the info required to see that they were about to be attacked.  They saw the tanks coming.  They saw the forces assembling.  But they assumed they were just routine training maneuvers BECAUSE they were under the assumption that the Arab powers had the motive to completely wipe out Jewish Israel, everyone always tried to completely wipe out the Jews, and it was obvious they did not have the  power to accomplish this, so they must not be planning to attack.  But Israel did not consider their motive may have been only to seize SOME Israeli land, and so the threat was very real.

Micah's point is that you cannot assume history will repeat itself.  You cannot really base your expectations for the future on events of the past, it will blind you to the details of the present situation.  He said time is like walking backwards - you can see what happened to you, but you can't see where you're going, but still basing your trajectory only on what you can see behind you is not wise at all.

He said the Jewish people are "Trapped in our own memories.  Trapped in our own biography."  Which is something that really resonated with me. "Is it possible," he asked, "to have a sovereign state not haunted by Jewish memory?  Is it possible not to be trapped by your own experience?"  He continued, "We never see what we're looking at.  We only see what we're expecting to look at."

I would add to this that you have to balance an attempt to look at the present and future with fresh eyes with a cognizance of the past.  You can't just throw out past experience, either.  In the case of the Yom Kippur war, the aggressors DID want to kill the Jews, that expectation was accurate, it was just the degree that was wrong. As for how to learn from memories without because totally consumed by them, everyone reading this knows I really wish I knew.

-Then we read and talked a lot about different roots of zionist thinking.  A lot of people complained about how Jewish identity and Zionist desires seem to be so frequently built up by antisemitism and negative Jewish experience.  Sartre wrote: "The Jew is one whom other men consider a Jew: that is the simple truth from which we must start. In this sense the democrat is right as against the anti-semite, for it is the anti-Semite who makes the Jew."

There was a bit of an outcry in the class about this.  But not from me.  It's been my repeated story this trip that until Birthright, I was a Jew in precisely this way.  It was completely my negative experience that defined me as a Jew, and that defensiveness is still an enormous, overwhelming percentage of my Jewish identity.  I have my doubts that it will ever be replaced by something else.

-I noted that Herzl's writing is not really about a "Jewish" state as much as a new state in which Jews can live.  There's hardly anything "Jewish" about his vision. In fact he frequently argues against a theocracy, and passionately supports freedom of religion and acceptance for all in this new state. Gil Troy, our professor for this session, said it was because Herzl didn't really want a Jewish state.  He just wanted to build another European state in which he could be a normal person, like everyone else.

This is a serious question that feels kind of like a cavity in me right now.  What do we want?  Or more fairly, what do I want? Do I want a Jewish state? Or do I want a state in which I feel normal? Are they the same thing?

-We ended the day with a lecture about the events leading to Ben Gurion's declaration of the State of Israel, which I was happy was mostly review.  For once I felt like I knew what was going on!  I found out some things I don't really love about Ben Gurion.  Like that he wanted to fill the makhtesh with water for storage.  OI.

Sorry as usual for how messy this is.  I really had to cram it in.  Love you all!

Day 17 - An Old Saying

Rivka found my camera! She's my guardian angel, perhaps. She's even going to drive back to the ruins next week to get it.  She's beyond a good friend.  I don't know what else to say about this except wow.

Anyway, this morning I took a bus from Rivka's to the central bus station, and then from there to Jerusalem.  Then I went to my hostel and got my bags and met the Tikvah group.  It's Sunday, so there were tons and tons of soldiers on all the buses, heading back to base.  It's fun. Is it just me, or do the girl soldiers wear really tight pants??? There's not much that's more humbling than seeing how amazing they look in drab fatigues. Israeli women are amazing.

The Tikvah group seems great so far, though it's still hard to tell.  Everybody brings something different to the table.  So far there's a lot of assumed knowledge, but I'm not going to let it bother me. I'll figure it out.

We all went to Mishkenot Shananim, which I gather was the first Jewish settlement of Jerusalem outside of the main walls.  It's totally gorgeous and fancy these days.

Wouldn't mind living here...

We sat in a little park and read and discussed a bunch of poems by Yehuda Amichai, who I gather is a rather against-the-grain poet in Israeli can(n)on. (How do you spell this word? I always get it wrong.)

This poem stuck out the most to me:

TOURISTS

Visits of condolence is all we get from them.
They squat at the Holocaust Memorial,
They put on grave faces at the Wailing Wall
And they laugh behind heavy curtains
In their hotels.
They have their pictures taken
Together with our famous dead
At Rachel's Tomb and Herzl's Tomb
And on Ammunition Hill.
They weep over our sweet boys
And lust after our tough girls
And hang up their underwear
To dry quickly
In cool, blue bathrooms.

Once I sat on the steps by agate at David's Tower,
I placed my two heavy baskets at my side. A group of tourists
was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. "You see
that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there's an arch
from the Roman period. Just right of his head." "But he's moving, he's moving!"
I said to myself: redemption will come only if their guide tells them,
"You see that arch from the Roman period? It's not important: but next to it,
left and down a bit, there sits a man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family."

***

I'm probably missing the point, I tend to miss the point of poetry, but I don't really like what he's saying about tourists.  Iv'e never hated tourists or derided them the way most people tend to.  Maybe it's because I'm so often a tourist, or because I work with tourists constantly.  Is it better to have a longer term, truer experience of a place?  Sure. But I think it's better to be a tourist than not to experience a place at all.  It's better to learn a little than to learn nothing.  It's better to go to Yad Vashem for a few hours than not to go.  Better to visit Herzl's tomb than not to.

From our discussion, I think  most of this resentment basically comes from Amichai's frustration at living in Jerusalem.  Most of the poems we read were about some sort of disconnect when it comes to modern living in Jerusalem.  Here's another one:

MAYOR
It's sad 
To be Mayor of Jerusalem.
It is terrible. 
How can any man be the mayor of a city like that? 

What can he do with her? 
He will build, and build, and build. 

And at night 
The stones of the hills round about will crawl down Towards the stone houses, 
Like wolves coming 
To howl at the dogs 
Who have become men's slaves. 

***

I think he has a hard time figuring out how to live today in a place that's so eternal and larger than life.  Can you change or impact Jerusalem? Does it matter if you live there? Tourists will just look at you as a reference point in a much older, better story than your life. Does that matter?

We went to dinner and it was AWESOME.  So much food and it just kept coming. Hummus, felafel, beats, carrots, kababs, chicken, pastries, little potato things, more and more.  I stuffed my face.

I've already lost 6 lbs since I came here! More meals like this and I will quickly undo that, however.

There are two Israeli sayings I like a lot I want to share.

The first I learned from another Tikvah student, Yedidya.  His army time was in the Israeli navy.  I asked if he enjoyed it at all, and he said:

Yom asa

Yom basa

Which is basically "One day is good, the next day is onion" onion = bad.  Which I love because I hate onions. This is a saying for me.

The next is more like a joke Eli told me the other day, which is a commentary on Israeli (lack of) politeness.

Three couples are in a cafe, one American, on British, and one Israeli.

The American man says to his wife, "Will you please pass me the honey, Honey?"

The British man says to his wife, "Will you please pass me the sugar, Sugar?"

And the Israeli man says to his wife, "Pass me the milk, Cow."

I don't know why, but I laugh just thinking about his.

Days 14, 15, 16: Time with Friends

First, a moment of silence for my camera..

...

I lost it, not sure where.  We have an idea and Rivka will call them tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.  I was pretty bummed out but I'm trying to shrug it off.  It's a thing.  The photos are things.  I'll just have to describe things that much more vividly.

Things I still need to write about:
-West Bank Trip
-Presidential Conference

But first I want to write about things that are much more important, like time with friends!!!

I will use pictures I've stolen from the internet to illustrate.

So let's see, Wednesday night I was so tired, I was ready to go to bed at like 8 pm, but while I was in the shower, Yonatan texted me and said "Be ready in 30 minutes!" so we went to a bar in the shuk and met up with some of his friends.  As usual, I was drunk pretty quickly.  They were giving out free arak shots (does everywhere do this?!?) so it was easy.

Yonatan told me lots of great stories about what he's been up to, especially his travels in Thailand.  But my favorite story was about his childhood pets.  He had two sister rabbits who were also lesbians together, and these rabbits were not afraid of anything... except for his turtle.  He found this turtle on the site of a nuclear reactor, and it was pretty messed up.  It was very aggressive and its poop glowed and it attacked the rabbits a lot.  He named the turtle "Uze," which I LOVE.  Was Yonatan joking? It's hard to say, he jokes a lot.  But I think this story was actually true.  Maybe except for the glowing poop.  And even if he just made it up, I still like it.

Since I lost my camera, here's a pic of Yonatan from last summer.  He looks basically the same now.

His friends were very nice as well.  Everyone I meet here is very interesting.  They seem totally normal, like any other twenty-something you meet, and then you find out they're secret bad asses.  This one guy was drinking with us and when he got up to get another beer Yonatan informed me that he was the number one sniper in all of Israel, and told me some stories about him in Gaza.  I mean, what?  So fascinating.  It was great to see Yonatan.  He is the smartest person I know, though perhaps you would not guess this if you overheard us talking about pokemon and game of thrones.

Dating Advice from Yonatan:
1) Do not date men who are half-nazis, half vietcong
2) Men are vampires and only operate properly at night, therefore do not go on mid-day dates
3) Improper locations for first dates include: parks, mountains, cafes
4) Do not accept athletic challenges from men
5) Do not meet men in "sketchy" areas like bars.  When I asked where would be better, he said matter-of-factly "Israel!"

The next day, after the presidential conference (which I will write about another time) I took a bus from Jerusalem to Gimzo, a little moshav (which is like a kibbutz, which is kind of a communal farm, except some parts are privatized)  between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  I was really proud of myself because I had to use my Hebrew both to buy a ticket and to figure out where the hell Gimzo was.  Israeli busses are a bit of an experience, there are so many Haredi (very observant Jews) on them.  You're not supposed to touch Haredi men if you are a woman (unless you are his wife or his daughter under the age of 12) which can frankly be a little challenging when you're jostled all around on the bus. I think they'll survive.

Rivka picked me up at the Gimzo stop and we went to her friend's house, where she was having a birthday party.  It was so nice! They had a big bonfire and a bbq and people were playing guitars and flute and harmonica and singing. It was a gorgeous night.  This time, I thought, I will not get drunk.  Perhaps it will be my first night in Israel I do not get drunk.  But then they passed around shots of cranberry vodka.  So I got drunk.

At Yaffa's (the friend whose birthday it was) house, I met her little white dog named ice.  Funniest dog I have ever met.  Ice looks like an ewok, seriously.  HUGE EYES.  Adorable.  Ice is supposed to be a guard dog because once thieves from Ramla broke in and took stuff, but I can't really see Ice functioning that way.

Then we returned to Rivka's apartment in Beer Sheva, which is adorable.  Beer Sheva is a city in the south, in the Negev Desert, which is full of students because of Ben Gurion University.  Here's a pic from google:

From israeldailypicture.com

Rivka says she lives in a slum.  If that's the case, I found it to be a really nice slum.  Rivka lives with her boyfriend of four years, Geva.  They are basically the cutest, best couple in the whole world.  Here is a pic of them from Geva's facebook:

Rivka is studying to be a nurse.  She's also a licensed tour guide.  She's also a licensed diver.  And a lifeguard.  She's a great cook.  Basically she's my idol.  I met her on birthright last summer and I hope that we are always friends.  Geva is a mechanical engineer, and he's also an amazing metal worker.  He made these incredibly beautiful pieces in their house.  Like this rack in their kitchen and a spider web.  Totally gorgeous.  He's also the sweetest, kindest, most patient person.  They are the best!  One time I went with Rivka into the house away from the fire, and he called her right away to ask where I was, he was worried. It's nice to be with people who care so much.

The next day we were joined by Rivka's older brother, Eli:

Eli is, like Yonatan and like most Israelis, an expert at bullshitting.  Rivka says Israelis try not to take their lives too seriously, and my guess is because they're lives are actually very serious, although they might deny this.  Anyway, many Israelis tend to weave elaborate sarcastic tales about things, and they can usually tell when others are doing this.  But everyone knows I am the most gullible person on the planet (Even for an American, I've explained to them, I am very very gullible) so I can rarely tell when something is not true.

For example, we piled into the car to go trekking, and for the first 45 minutes or so I believed what Eli told me, that he was afraid of flying and hated planes and so he'd never left Israel.  And that in the army he didn't do anything interesting he just typed stuff up and did office work. He said all of this with a perfectly straight face and calm demeanor so why wouldn't I have believed him?  But it turns out that he was actually in the special forces bomb squad in the army and his job now, when he's not studying marine biology, is leading treks overseas, like jeep excursions and long camping hikes, in places like Greece and Spain and Romania. I tried to think if I'd said anything completely patronizing about the beauty of travel when I'd been under the impression he'd never left Israel, but I think I was okay.

For a while I even believed him when he said when ibex get very very hungry they will eat sandshrews. It didn't help that Rivka gravely confirmed this story.  Although finally she started laughing and said no, ibex eat only grass.  Also, "shrew" is the favorite English word of my Israeli friends.  They won't stop saying it and they laugh every time.

I actually did see a shrew like this, darting among some rocks.

I could tell he was joking when he said a couple of ibex standing on a ridge were contemplating what club to go to last night.  And when he said that his life could be defined as "B.T." and "A.T." or "before taco" and "after taco" when talking about how good tacos can be.

What do you think we should do tonight? Tel Aviv?

So we drove down to the Large Makhtesh, which is kind of like the Israeli Grand Canyon.  Pro tour guide that she is, Rivka explained to me how it was formed, but it's too complicated for me to type out.  Check out some pics from google:

My pictures were better... sigh.

Then we went for a desert hike.  Now, I'm the first to admit I'm out of shape.  But it was kind of challenging!  It's so hot, and the water you carry get's hot really fast and drinking hot tea-like water does not cool you down any or even seem to quench your thirst. We decided we hadn't brought enough water so Rivka and I started out and the boys went to buy more water and catch up with us.

Rivka and I walked... maybe a mile? And waited in some shade, and then the guys came up in a jeep with some random Israelis.  Does this happen in the US? Maybe I just don't hang out in the right places.  But here I guess you can just flag by any passing jeep and jump in.  So we did!  It was bumpy but it was fun.  We went out to a desert spring called Ein Akev:

The water was cool and refreshing and perfect.  It's very deep - about 40 feet, so you can jump or dive in. We hung out there for a while and it was perfect after a hot hike/jeep ride.  Soon a very odd group of people joined us... a woman and her daughter, touring from Miami, and their bizarre tour guide in a speedo. We left to hike back.

The hike back was a little better because I was wet from the spring and there was a breeze, but it was still kind of hard.  In my head I was just like "be a sabra be a sabra be a sabra!" I'm not a sabra at all, I'm totally a girl from Boston, but I did make it!  It was one of those situations where we'd climb a little mountain and I'd think to myself "Oh, we'll see the car from the top!" And then we get to the top and all we see is another valley and more little mountains...

It was very beautiful, though.

On the way back we stopped at a Bedouin tent and just sat in the shade and talked for a few minutes.

According to Lawrence of Arabia, "No Arab loves the desert."  Not sure if that's true.

I felt really accomplished! Although later on Eli told me (not in a scolding way or anything, it was an unrelated conversation) that everyone in a combat unit in the army has to spend a while trekking over 60 km in the desert alone, finding different aforementioned locations without even a map.  He said they learn to sleep while they are walking. While carrying a 50kg pack. Okay so maybe I'm slightly less accomplished.  I managed to keep my slight panic to myself during the hike, though I think Rivka sensed it anyway, because she patted me on the shoulder and said, "The most important part of hiking is getting ice cream afterward."  And we did :).

That night Rivka hosted a bbq at her house.  She said, "Ariane we need to keep your record of being drunk every night in Israel" and gave me lemoncello.  And surprise surprise, drunk. There was a ton of good food and I met lots of her friends and they were all very nice and interesting.   Geva is really sweet and kept reminding them to speak English so I could understand what they were talking about.

I am afraid I am confirming what a lot of people have told me is the Israeli idea of Americans:
1) Drunk all the time
Okay, yes, but you keep giving me free alcohol.  What do you want from me???
2) Childlike
Part of it is that we Americans have mostly trivial concerns.  Very few of us have to deal with anything TRULY serious often in our lives.  But also, I can't always detect bullshitting so I definitely seem like a clueless kid.
3) Cheesy
Apparently we get emotional and awe-inspired a lot by things.  I am VERY "guilty" of this.

I also keep hearing Israelis call me "innocent."  Which I find kind of funny. I think in a lot of ways I am naive compared to Israelis. But I don't think I'm quite as naive as I seem. I also think they underestimate me a little bit. And I think if we were in the US, and they were visiting me, they would be the ones that seemed innocent.  We're all child-like when we're in a foreign country that is new to us.

They do deal with all kinds of crap though. Rivka asked what the marathon bombing was like, and after I told her I asked if she'd been in a situation like that.  "Not really," she said.  "Although when I was a child a suicide bomber blew himself up in the mall near my house.  For a long time I could not get the smell out of my head."  "What did it smell like?" I asked.  "Burning meat." She shrugged, and ate another bite of pasta.  "But I can even eat and talk about it at the same time now, so it's okay now."

Rivka at the pasta restaurant.  Note Haneen Zoabi behind her, who just happened to be in the same restaurant.

At the bbq, I learned more about Rivka and Geva's families.  Rivka's grandmother sounds amazing, she was forced to marry her cousin at 17 in Tunisia, but she ran off with Rivka's grandfather a year later and they went to France.  Eventually she remarried and the two went back to Tunisia, where they were forced into  ghetto for four years during WWII, and then after came to Israel. Geva's grandfather was shuffled around for 4 years from one concentration camp to another, and when it was all over he was about 5'9" and weighed only 80 lbs.  He met Geva's grandmother in a refugee camp after the war, and Geva's mother was born aboard the Exodus.  They were held in a camp in Cyprus for a while, and then made it to Israel.  Such intense, interesting stories.

Today Eli left and Geva had work to do, so Rivka and I headed out to see the small makhtesh together.

From: http://vatikim-chadashim.blogspot.co.il

It was cool because the layers were more distinct and it was more visually stunning.  On the way back, Rivka said, "We're like Thelma and Louise! Two chicks driving in the desert!"

Then we stopped at Mamshit, which is the ruins of an old city from about 300-400 AD. They were Muslims who converted to Christianity. It was really fascinating, especially with all of Rivka's knowledge.

From: http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2010/06/

It is also where I think I left my camera.  Darn giftshop. We'll see.

Then Rivka and I went to the Ben Gurion U pool to chill out.  It was so nice! We saw some of her friends there and just had a nice hangout.  A lot of people were playing this game that is something like badminton without a net.  Two paddles and a ball and you send it back and forth and try to keep it up.  Rivka wanted me to try it, so I did for a few minutes, but quickly backed out.  This is not my skill set and I was embarassed.  But she said, "Ariane, this is a uniquely Israeli game.  You cannot be Israeli if you do not play this game."  So I tried again, this time for much longer, and did a little better.

"Am I Israeli now?" I asked.

She squinted and shook her hand.  So-so.

"A a little closer?"

"A little closer," she agreed.

Tomorrow I"m meeting up with my next program!  You can learn more about it in this recent article if you're curious:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/gary-rosenblatt/mind-gap

Love you all!