Sometimes I don't know when enough is enough and I feel the need to throw in my $.02 when I shouldn't. This may be one of those times. That said, here are my two cents - or in this case, shekels.
(This diary came out looking quite a bit more pro-Israel than I intended - unless you read all the way to the end of it. I'm not pro- or anti- one side other the other. I'm anti-war and anti-killing and pro-peace.)
I've agreed with three things that have been said on dKos lately:
Nyceve:
I'd like to believe that I can divorce myself from my historic identity--but I cannot. This is why I know that as much as I try, I must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and pray that Israel will be victorious but never cede the moral high ground. And as I write these words, I recognize just this thought alone will enrage many of you. You will likely repond, Israel ceded the moral high ground years ago with its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. All I can answer is, yes, this is true.
Markos:
And there was one clear lesson I learned -- there will never be peace unless both sides get tired of the fighting and start seeking an alternative. It's clear that in the Middle East, no one is sick of the fighting.
Arken:
I have seen countless diaries and diary posts now cheering on Israel, Hezbollah, etc. for fighting their current battle. Almost all of you make me sick.
My opinion is probably more understandable if you know where I am coming from. So here goes:
My Parents
My mother is Jewish, my father is not. My mom's grandparents came to America from various Eastern European countries. The most dramatic story is her mom's dad who escaped Russia illegally and moved from Italy, to Argentina, to New York. By the time he got here, he spoke about 5 languages.
My mom's parents were each raised in Orthodox families in New York. Mom's mom didn't learn much about the religion because women couldn't do much at the time. Mom's dad didn't really like religion much. When they raised my mother, the family thought of themselves as Jewish but they did not practice at all. Mom had her first Passover seder when she was something like 16.
In the early 50's, they moved to South Carolina for about a year. Apparently things were so bad there that they had to change their name to something that didn't sound Jewish. Then after a year they left.
All her life, Mom heard about how great it was to be Jewish, but she didn't know what it was to be Jewish since they didn't practice. In high school, her mom forced her to join a Jewish youth group (BBYO) and she met a boyfriend there. One summer, he decided to go to Israel.
My mom didn't have any particular interest in Israel but she didn't want him to go without her. So she went. Right when they got there, he dumped her. Instead of having a bad time, she had a great time. I don't know the details about getting over the guy but she was there for a few months and loved it. She loved it so much that she went back a few years later. All in all, she spent 5 months in Israel before and during college.
Dad grew up in a fairly religious Protestant household (his mother was a minister's daughter) but they were pretty mellow about it. Many members of the family married into other religions and now at family reunions we've got everything from Mormons to Buddhists. Most of the time, the diversity is not a source of bickering.
My Upbringing
Dad figured that all religions give you a moral structure, a community, and a connection to a higher power. Mom insisted she raise her children Jewish because of her love for Israel, and Dad said OK.
My family celebrated Hanukkah, Passover, and the high holidays. My brother and I went to Sunday School and Hebrew School. I had a Bat Mitzvah and he had a Bar Mitzvah.
At a young age, I realized that I didn't believe in god and never had. This epiphany came about a year after I debunked the existence of Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. I considered myself culturally Jewish.
Part of the culture was Israel. I wanted to learn Hebrew in college, and I loved Jewish food and Israeli dancing. I thought I wanted to move to Israel, even though I'd never been there. It took me until about age 18 to figure out that everything my mom said wasn't 100% right and since she loved Israel, I loved it too.
My First Trip to Israel
My opinion towards Israel changed when I went there, twice. Both times were in 1999.
Jews are better than the right wing at getting the talking points out and I'd never questioned what we learned in Sunday School about Israel. I'd read Exodus by Leon Uris several times and seen the movie. I thought I knew what there was to know.
Part of the propaganda genius of America's Jews is getting their young 'uns to go to Israel. Like my mom, many Jewish kids who go to Israel have never been out of the country before. They have an AMAZING time - but then, going ANYWHERE with a group of horny teenagers is going to be amazing (provided you are a horny teenager yourself) - and when they return they LOVE Israel.
My first trip was part of a school trip. I went to a public high school and each summer the history staff took about 30 kids overseas somewhere. In '97 I went to Italy, Turkey, and Greece. In '99 the trip was Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus. I was one of two Jews on the trip.
I was positively giddy about going. We started in Athens, where we realized that ALL of our luggage was lost. A day later, we flew to Cyprus and boarded a cruise to Israel and Egypt. Israel was up first.
When we got into Haifa, I expected something beyond amazing. Nothing could have lived up to my expectations, so it didn't. I don't know what the hell I expected. It looked like it should look.
There's nothing much else worth mentioning from that trip. We were in Israel for a day - we drove to Bethlehem and then Jerusalem, and then back to the cruise ship in Haifa (where we got our luggage back) - and then we moved on to go to Egypt. I think what's important is that my first overseas experience was NOT Israel, so I understood that Israel was wonderful because traveling abroad is wonderful in general.
My Second Trip to Israel
My overall opinion of Israel was formed from this 2-week trip along with a lot of studying for two college courses - global cities (my big mamma final paper was on Jerusalem) and cultural anthro.
We got in after 47 hours of travel, sans luggage (no it doesn't take 47 hours usually, that only happens when things get REALLY effed up, which they did). The first thing I noticed when we got in was how much America finances Israel. Not just on a national level - they've got a brilliant tourist industry built up and they can thank us for pumping the money in. You'd think that'd be an incentive right there to keep the peace.
The second thing I noticed was that Israel is a foreign country, no more or less foreign to me than any other foreign country, save Canada. I met up with an Israeli friend in Tel Aviv and hung out with her for a day. Israel gets European MTV and it doesn't feel European like France or Italy does, but I'm not sure I'd say it was purely Middle Eastern. I guess the best comparisons are Greece and Turkey.
This trip was a small group tour of several families. The tour guide (Rubin) was Jewish and I'm not sure who else was or wasn't. It wasn't a Jewish tour.
Rubin has fought in practically every war they've ever had. When we asked Rubin if he'd ever lived on a Kibbutz, he told us he started a Kibbutz. He could name every historical event, every city, every biblical place, and every plant. There was no question this guy couldn't answer.
The history of Israel was very personal to him. He didn't just take us to the battlegrounds - he'd go off to a souvenir stand and introduce us to the guy selling the souvenirs and tell us how that person was a hero in the very battle that had taken place right where we were, several decades ago. There are few people you will find in America who have this sort of tangible love for their country. Maybe it's because we don't need to defend our very right to exist and we don't remember what it was like to come over here and create a culture and a country where there was none and then fight for it.
Before I get flamed on that - I DO realize that there WAS a people, the Palestinians, in Israel before Rubin went there, just as there WERE native people in our country before we came here. I'm not justifying...I'm just describing how Rubin felt. He built that country with his hands.
Rubin's Rule #1 was "Once a holy place, always a holy place." The religion stuff in Israel is INSANE. You'll go to a spot and it's been Roman, Christian, Muslim, AND Jewish at various times. It is like dogs do - you know how one pees in a spot to mark its territory and then all of the other dogs go there and sniff it and pee there too.
My favorite was the Last Supper Room/King David's Tomb. Same building. Enter into the downstairs and it's Jewish (hats on, everybody!). It's King David's tomb. Walk up the stairs and it's Christian (hats off now, to show respect). It's the Last Supper Room. Way back when, while the Turks ruled Israel, both groups fought over it and they brought their grievances to the Turks. The Turks said: Neither of you get it, it's Muslim. So they turned it into a mosque and it still has minarets.
As for the proof that these religious places are REALLY EXACTLY where everything happened - the proof sometimes sounded very sketchy to me. Capernaum was a Christian example of that, and a few tombs were Jewish ones. I realized then that the significance is not so much that they get THE exact spot where it happened; rather, the significance is the commemoration of whatever they are commemorating, and it doesn't matter if it's the right spot so much as it matters that everyone believes it to be so. (With that in mind, I really do think they sniff around like dogs to mark their territory on top of one another's religious holy place).
Another favorite of mine was Har Megiddo - better known as Armageddon. Har means mountain, and Har Megiddo is an elevated area (I'm not sure I'd call it "mountain") overlooking the biggest crossroads of the ancient world. It was the most strategic place you could get your hands on and many civilizations rose and fell there. (Rubin's Rule #2 is "Once a military stronghold, always a military stronghold") If I were John, sitting in that cave in Patmos, I'd assume that the end of the world would happen at Har Megiddo too.
Three more memories were important. One was walking through the Muslim Quarter on Shabbat. They tell the American tourists to stay the heck out of the Muslim Quarter, so of course we went there the first chance we got. The shop keepers there speak excellent English and we got to hear a little bit about what it is like to be a Palestinian these days. Everyone we met there was friendly and chatty and there were two or three shop keepers with whom we had long conversations.
Also, the religious Jews left a lasting impression on me. You see these nuts wandering around in heavy black coats and furry black hats and you think - did they not get the memo that they live in a desert??? Turns out, there are several distinct groups of ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel (these guys aren't the norm - they're just a small group). Each one thinks it is very holy, so all of the members dress like the rabbi. The rabbi dresses like the rabbi before him, who dressed like the rabbi before him, and on and on, all the way back to Eastern Europe.
Last, when we went to the Golan, Rubin talked about the war when they took the Golan Heights. He fought in it and he knew people who died in it. Prior to the war, the Syrians were basically sitting up in the Golan with guns, taking potshots at Israeli farmers. When the Israelis made the decision to take the Golan, they did it in exchange for a great loss of life. The government encouraged Israelis to move to the Golan Heights and they did. It's a nice place to grow wine grapes as it turns out.
It's easy for us to sit here and say that they should exchange land for peace - and maybe that's the right answer - but to someone like Rubin, that means that his friends and countrymen died for nothing, those with homes there must move, and the Syrians are free (whether they would or not) to go back to picking off helpless farmers.
I will say before moving on to another topic, that I enjoyed Israel. Especially Jerusalem. The beaches in Tel Aviv had warm water and soft sand. It's a nice place to visit if there's no war going on.
Conclusions
For me, it helped to go there and see everything. Being there demystified places like Armageddon and it showed the idiocy of some of the religious nuts. Ultimately, the argument going on is strategic and economic. Religion is just a great way to rally people together and get their emotions running on overload. The people in charge know they can say "Do you really want to see the field where David and Goliath fought in the hands of the <whoever>?" to get popular support but they are also smart enough to understand the value of strategically and economically valuable places.
Someone said to me in a comment "So you went there once, that makes you an expert?" No, not in the least. But it clarified a LOT. As I said before, I've studied a bit of history and a bit of anthro, but that doesn't make me an expert either. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.
Going to Israel ended my unconditional love of Israel. It's a foreign country, not my homeland. Both sides are right and both are wrong, and there is zero black and white. I no longer know how to take sides, nor wish to.
In 1947, the world felt guilty about the Holocaust and they established Israel as a Jewish state. I tend to think it was a bad idea at the time, although I don't have a better idea for where all of the Jewish refugees in Europe should have gone. But right or wrong, they did establish Israel and it's there now.
If you don't think it has a right to exist, then where do you propose the Israelis go? Someone responded to one of my comments [something like] "So since we took over the Native Americans' land, should we pack up and leave?" Where would we go? We are Americans and the Israelis are Israelis (and the Palestinians are Palestinians). Neither we nor they have somewhere else to go.
A few years ago, I became friends with a Lebanese man. He grew up there and he would tell stories of growing up in a war. Every so often it got bad enough that they'd all get in a boat and paddle off to Cyprus and wait it out before going back. He's even been shot. He was one of the kindest people I met when I lived in DC and while I haven't been to Lebanon and I don't know much about their culture, it really gave a face to the experiences of the "other side" - the side that I didn't hear about in Sunday School.
Kos said they will fight until they are tired of fighting. That's one way to put it. I think it's dead on. I think we need to allow this situation to be as complex as it really is, and there's not much of a way to simplify it and give the right answer. The answer of course is peace and always has been, but we Kossacks alone can't make that peace - the Israelis, Palestinians, Hezbollah, and other involved parties over there need to make a commitment to peace before it can happen.