The Slow Death of the Two State Solution

Recently, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "The Two State Solution has, at best, two years to live. We have to come up with a solution in that amount of time." In my classes, there is agreement between my various professors that the two state solution is dying, or may already be dead. This is coming about because of several factors. One is the slow but steady Israeli settlement and building projects in the West Bank, which no one in the international community is disinclined to stop at this time, and is slowly taking more and more of the West Bank for Israel. Israeli settlements, roads, and military bases are scattered across the West Bank, leaving the Palestinian controlled areas in the region looking like a checkerboard on the map. Another factor is the continued Palestinian fixation with demands that have very little chance of ever being granted, such as the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees and part or all of the city of Jerusalem. Israel is steadfast in its refusal to these two demands, but the Palestinian leadership still talk about them as if they are viable negotiating points. Another factor is the fact that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis know what they want in an agreement between the two sides. Israelis do not know what borders they want, preferring to be vague rather than present a specific map. The Palestinian leadership still periodically talks of taking back the entirety of Palestine, an impossible undertaking. Also, if any agreement is reached, it is likely that many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank will remain, along with, in all probability, Israeli troops, in order to handle security. The Israelis will insist on keeping the strategic Jordan Valley along the Jordan River for defense purposes, ensuring that any future Palestinian state is fully surrounded by Israeli forces. Altering perspectives for just a bit, another obstacle to reaching a solution is the fact that the Palestinians are not united. The Palestinians have two governments that distrust each other almost as much as they distrust the Israelis, one based in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank. The terrorist organization Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist, and they are opposed to any reconciliation with Israel. They are the guys you see on the news that periodically fire rockets at Israel. The Palestinian party Fatah controls the West Bank. While they are, on paper, in favor of a two state solution, their leadership is plagued by inconsistent language. In English, they talk of peace; in Arabic, they persist in telling their people that they will take back the whole of Palestine. Needless to say, the Israelis don't trust either group. The last factor I will talk about is the withdrawal of the United States from the peace process. With the Cold War won, and with it the critical need of reaching an agreement between the Palestinians and Israel, U.S. Presidents have started looking at the crisis, in the words of Thomas Friedman, "As a hobby". The importance of the conflict has receded from view as the United States focuses on other matters. Along with this, the U.S. is no longer dependent on Middle Eastern oil, robbing the Arab states of their greatest weapon to bring the United States to the table. Because of Israel's slow advance across the West Bank and little or no international incentive to stop them, experts have proclaimed that the two state solution is in critical condition. In my classes here, this turn of events has resulted in intense discussion. Various proposals have been advocated. One of them is the three state solution, with independent Palestinian states in Gaza and the West Bank, which would take care of the problem of Palestinian disunity. Another option is a bi-national state, where Palestinian and Jew live together in one state stretching from the Jordan to the sea. Israel opposes this option because that would spell the end of the Jewish state; the first election would see a Palestinian majority in the Knesset, and the first act would be changing the name of the country from Israel to Palestine. Another option that received a lot of debate and seemed to be viewed in favor by most of the students is bringing the Jordanians in and having them annex part or all the West Bank into Jordan. Because Jordan was originally part of the territory called "Palestine" until it was split off by the British in 1922, and because of the majority of Jordan's population being Palestinian, it was argued that Jordan could be the Palestinian state that is being called for. The Israelis would support such a measure, because the only country that they trust in the Middle East is Jordan. The Palestinians and the Jordanian monarchy will have no part in such a plan, however, so the debate is academic. One of my classmates jokingly suggested that we give the Palestinians Detroit, because "They can't do a worse job with it than we have, and they just might fix it." Regardless of the viewpoint, the issue of "where do we go from here" has consumed several class periods, with ideas and solutions being bounced around, defended, and critiqued. One class kept track of the ideas that were put forth, and at the end of the class 56 different options were on the board. Regardless of what you believe should be done, I think we can all agree that a finding a solution will not be easy.

Memorial Day at the Wall

Tonight, Israel's military held an official ceremony at the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem in order to mark the beginning of Israel's Memorial Day, when Israel remembers all of the soldiers who died defending their country during its countless wars of survival over the past 65 years. The service started at 8 PM, and I had class until 6, so as soon as class was over I ran out to the gate, met up with a friend, and grabbed a cab. We were dropped off at the base of the Old City's eastern walls, as the road to the Kotel (Wailing Wall) were already blocked off by police barriers, with heavily armed soldiers and policemen patrolling the streets. We walked the length of the walls to get to the Dung Gate, the quickest access to the Wall. While on the way to the Wall, I was able to get some great pictures of the Mount of Olives at sunset, situated across from us and separated from the Old City by the Kidron Valley. Once we got through the gate, went through heavy security, and emerged in the Western Wall plaza, I realized how military this ceremony was going to be. Soldiers were everywhere, some armed, some not, and all in uniform. I got some pictures with some and shook hands with others, telling them that America stood with them today to honor their sacrifice. Foreign military attaches were also present, and I saw the American, British, French, Chinese (maybe Vietnamese), and possibly German attaches, all in dress uniform. Shin Bet agents were everywhere, decked out in suits and ear-bud radios, looking just like our Secret Service. Later on, we understood the reason for their heavy presence, as Israeli President Shimon Peres appeared and was the keynote speaker for the event. He spoke of loss and sadness over the deaths of men and women who had sacrificed all for their country. He continued by stressing the need to always remember those who had died so that Israel might live, and to live every day to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain. He concluded by reassuring his audience that Israel is strong, and will continue to survive and prosper in this region. He was speaking in Hebrew, but there was a guy a short ways away giving a running translation for those of us who were foreigners. There were several speakers after him, concluded by a Rabbi, who spoke, prayed, and then sang a very stirring prayer to God that echoed throughout the plaza and could probably be heard throughout the city. Throughout the service, an honor guard of soldiers from all branches of the Israeli military stood at attention around a flame of remembrance, guarding it and honoring the memory of their comrades who had paid the ultimate sacrifice. Once the Rabbi concluded his hymn, a different singer started to sing Hatikva, Israel's national anthem. This was taken up by the soldiers and packed crowd with great enthusiasm, so that thousands of voices were lifted to the heavens in praise of Israel and in supplication to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed, and I was proud to be among the Israelis at their service of remembrance.

Holocaust Remembrance and the Nature of Evil

Today is the day when Israel remembers the Holocaust, its victims and those who risked their lives to save as many Jews as possible from death. Tonight at Yad Vashem (the national Holocaust memorial and museum), a service took place in which the Prime Minister, President of Israel, and various dignitaries and religious leaders all took part. It was held in the square commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which the Jews rebelled against their Nazi captors and fought them for a month before they were defeated and lead off to the gas chambers. The memorial is broken into two parts: the people being lead meekly to their deaths, and those who chose to resist and fight their oppressors. During the service, in front of the memorial to the resistance, 6 paratroopers stood as mute tribute to the fallen warriors and to remind the world that they were there to ensure that another Holocaust never occurs. Sadly, I was not able to go to this service because of classes, but we looked at pictures and video clips of past services. The International Date of Commemoration for the remembrance of the Holocaust is January 27th, the date Auschwitz was liberated. In Poland, the annual march of the living takes place, with survivors walking the road to Auschwitz to commemorate the walk of death, when countless Jews and other peoples were herded down that road to their deaths in the gas chambers. The walk is lead by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, to remind the world that the IDF always stands between the Jewish people and the threat of another Holocaust. There is a famous picture, that I'm sure many of you have seen, of Israeli fighter jets flying over Auschwitz, to give the world this same message. Tomorrow, the memorial continues, with a siren sounding at 10 in the morning and lasting for two minutes. During the time that the siren sounds, everything comes to a halt. People walking on the street stop and bow their heads. Cars on the roads stop and people get out. The radio and television interrupt their broadcasts. The country shuts down, and everyone pauses. I will take part in this tomorrow, as Gentile and Jew unite in mourning a barbaric act of mass murder and hatred against an innocent people. A favorite literary character of mine, Dr. Mordechai, said "The problem with you Americans is that you don't believe in evil. Your nation cannot conceive that evil men will do evil things, while my nation was born out of the ashes of the Holocaust." He is right: my country, even after all we have faced, still cannot bring itself to believe that evil is present and at work in this world. Sure, some Americans have perceived its existence: Didn't President Reagan call the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire"? And didn't President Bush say on 9/11 "Today, our nation saw evil," and then go on to brand Iraq, Iran, and North Korea the "Axis of Evil"? But by and large, we just can't seem to make ourselves believe that there is an unseen force on this earth that makes men do the unspeakable. We hide from it by branding these dictators, tyrants, and others who do such despicable things as "unstable", "unhinged", "psychotic", and other academic terms, and no doubt those who commit such acts are all of these things. But there is more to it than that, something beneath the surface, that makes these people go beyond the usual acts of madness. I believe that evil exists, and is alive and well in our world today. What was Newtown, if not an incredible act of evil? What about Aurora? 9/11? Columbine? The list goes on and on, and yet we will still not face the truth. Remember that iconic scene in the Dark Knight when a disbelieving mob boss says to the Joker "You're crazy!" The Joker looks back and states quite calmly "I'm not. No, I'm not." And he was right; he wasn't. Something else drove him. As Michael Caine wisely said "Some men just want to watch the world burn." The Jewish people acknowledge the existence of evil; they've had to live through more evil dictators and evil acts of attempted genocide than any other people in recorded history. This country was founded out of the ashes of the most evil event in history. We all know the famous Edmund Burke quote: "All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." We've all stood together at Holocaust memorials and shouted passionately "Never Again!" When the chips are down though, and when the next Holocaust looms on the horizon, as it does now, will we keep our word? Will we stand with the Jews this time? Or will we cower, and attempt to "Appease" evil, as Chamberlain tried to do at Munich? I do not know what the future holds, but I do know this: the lessons of history are brutally clear. Appeasement has been tried, and we all know of its result. Just imagine what might have happened if Chamberlain had said "No" at Munich? How different history might have been! I don't have all the answers, and I don't know what tomorrow will bring. What I do know is this: evil exists, it is real, and it has left a trail of blood across the pages of history. Joel Rosenberg said "To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it." On this day, the memorial to the most evil act in history, let us acknowledge evil's existence, and resolve to fight rather than appease it.

Living in Disputed Territory

As all of you know, I live in the city of Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. This city has a very detailed and complicated history, going back almost to the beginning of time. In the last century alone, it has gone from being the center of Ottoman influence in the Palestine region, to the capital of the British Mandate, to divided between the new states of Jordan and Israel, to united under Israeli rule in 1967. Despite its unification, the city is still fought over to this day. The Palestinians claim, at minimum, East Jerusalem for the capital of their future state. The Israelis have said that they will never divide Jerusalem. This city has become one of the huge sticking points between the Israelis and Palestinians and a comprehensive peace treaty. To make matters even more complicated, East Jerusalem is also the site of the Old City and the Holy Sites of the three major religions: the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock for the Muslims, the Wailing Wall for the Jews, and the Holy Sepulcher and Garden Tomb for the Christians. Some peace plans have called for the splitting of Jerusalem between the two sides, some call for the internationalization of Jerusalem, some call for the splitting of the city while internationalizing the Old City and the Holy Sites. Needless to say, its a mess. Living in East Jerusalem, or as some would call it, disputed territory, has given me a front row seat to all the conflicts and dysfunction. In the Old City alone, 50,000 people are crammed into an area comprising 0.35 square miles (I don't really know what that is in terms of easily understood distances, but just to put it in perspective, my hometown of Apple Valley has roughly the same amount of residents, and they're spread over miles of land). In the Old City and throughout East Jerusalem, Muslims, Christians, and Jews live side by side and rub shoulders on a daily basis. Sure, there is conflict between them, and nobody is going to volunteer to watch the neighbor's cat when they go on vacation, but they make it work. Each group has its own quarter in the Old City, which helps ease tensions, but it is impossible to navigate the eastern half of the city without running into people of all three faiths. And if you're thinking that it's the Christians and Jews vs. the Muslims here, just remember that the Jews were actually treated worse under Christian rule during the Diaspora (the scattering of the Jewish people all over the planet after the failure of several rebellions against Rome) than under Muslim rule. Every day, I walk through disputed territory, and I get to see the front lines of the conflict firsthand. I spend the vast majority of my time in East Jerusalem. Soldiers are everywhere, checkpoints can go up at a moment's notice and it's not uncommon for a police officer or soldier to ask to see identification. I've seen several peaceful protests against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, all of which have been closely watched by Israeli soldiers and security officers. I've been allowed through checkpoints without a second glance only to turn around and see the Muslim woman behind me subjected to extra searches. I've learned to avoid certain areas and I never go out at night if I can help it. This is the reality of living in East Jerusalem. It's incredibly safe, but it's also incredibly tense. I wouldn't want to be living anywhere else.

The Palestinian Situation

Hello friends. I realize that over the past few months, I have given you the Israeli side of things in the majority of my blog posts. I will not apologize for this, because the pro-Israel point of view is becoming incredibly rare, almost extinct, in day-to-day conversations and media reports. However, I realize that an imbalance exists, and that I have devoted little time and attention to articulating the Palestinian situation. I will attempt to do so now. The Palestinians are currently going through an incredible amount of pain and suffering that is almost unimaginable to an American audience. When talking about the Palestinians, it is necessary to break up the discussion into three categories: the Palestinians living in Gaza, the Palestinians living in the West Bank, and the Palestinians living in refugee camps in other Arab countries. The Palestinians in Gaza are subjugated to some of the worst living conditions on earth. Many of them are unemployed, and families have to get by on an average of $1230 a year. Most of the Palestinians in Gaza are forced to live in cramped, overcrowded refugee camps. They are ruled by the terrorist organization Hamas, a tyrannical government with a law system similar to the one the Taliban once used in Afghanistan. To make matters even worse, Gaza is under a military blockade by the Israelis due to Hamas's habit of launching missiles at Israeli civilian centers. This makes food and other necessary items almost impossible to obtain for rank and file Palestinians. The situation is indescribable, and I pray for a solution that can bring some kind of peace so that the civilians caught between the Hamas terrorists and the Israeli military can be assured of life with dignity. The Palestinians in the West Bank are somewhat better off than their brothers and sisters in Gaza. They are under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, a "democratic" form of government run by President Abbas, Yasser Arafat's successor. While this government "rules" the West Bank, in reality it lives and breaths at the pleasure of the Israeli Army. The Israeli Defense Forces currently occupy much of the West Bank in the name of national security, and Israeli settlements are slowly taking more and more of the territory for Israelis and leaving the Palestinians living there with less and less of the pie. Israeli roads, checkpoints, military bases, and settlements divide up the West Bank from north to south and east to west, giving the Palestinians very little land for them to actually "rule". There is no question that some Israeli soldiers stationed in the West Bank occasionally abuse their authority and make the lives of the Palestinians living there extremely difficult. The Palestinians of the West Bank, however, are more upset with their impotent government at the moment. Some of them have just received their "December salaries" when we are currently in April. The government takes the lion-share of foreign aid for itself, creating 28 ministries when 18 would do and giving President Abbas a 15 car convoy to travel two miles, all of them brand new Mercedes. Corruption is rampant. Low-level government employees are forced to beg on the streets because their salaries haven't been paid in months. My Palestinian history professor often talks about this corruption and lack of leadership coming from the Palestinian Authority. Elections have not been held in years, and he calls for Abbas to have the guts to actually let the people decide on a course of action and choose their own rulers. Lastly, the Palestinians in the refugee camps scattered throughout the Arab countries surrounding Israel also live unenviable existences. There is massive unemployment, very little money, and very little hope of life getting better any time soon. Their "Arab Brothers", who encouraged them to revolt and promised a massive Arab victory in 1948, turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the horrible life these people are living and their pleas for help. The grand majority of them look down on the Palestinians with disgust, viewing them as, at best, second class citizens. Only in Jordan have the refugees been somewhat accepted with open arms. Palestinians there have received Jordanian citizenship, and Palestinians make up a majority of the country's citizens. Across all three areas, the current Palestinian existence can generally be described as grim. These are people, just like you and me, hoping for a better tomorrow and a better life for their children. Sure, there are radicals who preach terrorism, but we must not paint a people with a rich history with such a broad brush. Saying every Palestinian is a terrorist is like saying every American wears a cowboy hat everyday and drives a hummer. It's silly, ridiculous, and fundamentally untrue. What we have to remember at the end of the day is that these are people just like you and me, people whom God calls us to love and care for. Do I have a solution to the problem? No of course not. Is there a perfect solution? Probably not. What I have written here barely scratches the surface on Palestinian life here in the Middle East, and I encourage you to read up on it and educate yourselves more thoroughly before making a judgement. At the end of the day, however, something positive has to be done, because these people can't live like this forever.

The Halfway Point

Well, I've reached the top. It's all downhill from here. I have officially reached the halfway point of my stay here in Israel. I've been here for two and a half months, with two and a half months to go. I am currently wrapping up my spring break, with classes resuming on Sunday. These last few months have been a whirlwind for me, and it still kind of feels like we just got off the plane a week or two ago. I've been given a crash course in Hebrew, been introduced to Israeli culture, toured throughout the country, and have gotten used to living in the holiest, and most coveted, city on earth. I've learned the lay of the land, where to go and where not to go, gotten used to trying to live around each faith's holy day, and how to navigate both the Old City and the greater city's light-rail. I've been to the four major holy sites, and can now say that I've spent Good Friday and Easter in the City of David. I'm in the midst of some amazing classes, taught by awesome professors. My Palestinian History course is fascinating, and I always seem to lose track of time as I listen to Professor Nazzal give passionate speeches about the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and the need for Israelis and Palestinians to work together. My Israeli Foreign Policy class is one of the best classes I've ever taken, taught by a guy who looks just like Michael Caine. His stories of the War of Independence and the aftermath are incredible. My Modern Israel History class is also great, learning about the founders of Zionism and what each of them wanted the future Jewish state to look like. My Cultural History of Jerusalem class is a treat because we actually get to go on field trips in Jerusalem so that our professor can show us the actual sites that she's lecturing on. Finally, my Political Theory of the Welfare State is just a fun time, as I have a blast being the only Conservative, small-government American in a class full of Israelis. I've made some amazing friends along the way as well. We've hiked the northern mountains of Israel together, descended into the half-lit alleys of the Muslim Quarter together, prayed together, broken bread together, and worshiped together. They all like to joke about how I love America more than anyone they've ever met before. We're in the midst of the Old Testament right now, reading about Joshua and Israel's return to the land of their forefathers. The Bible Studies I've become a part of have been fantastic, and have really helped me understand the Old Testament and the foundations of my faith better. The discussions are informative, challenging, and intelligent, with the focus being on building knowledge over a part of the Bible that few Christians ever take the time to study. All in all, these past few months have been an incredible, being able to live in the City of God and in the country of His people. Of course I've felt homesick from time to time, and I look forward to going back at the end of my time here, but for now I am trying to live the Israeli life to the fullest (without going Kosher) and take advantage of each and every opportunity that is presented to me. I am so thankful for the opportunity to study here, and I can't wait to see what the next two and a half months have in store!