Streams
s
Streams
“See what happened I told you…”: you would hear that often... Indeed, many people come to Israel with a clear idea of how things should be done. Some sit in the United States or in Sweden and waste their time on newspaper websites launching their simplistic propaganda. As I read online newspapers everyday I also accidentally read the ridiculous comments of those ones.
Some have a dogmatic answer that fits the frame to everything that happens here. There are those who are Jewish or not and live abroad and will explain what Israel should do.
But when you live in Israel there is almost never one stream of thinking. You everyday in seceret question yourself on your beliefs, suddenly all seems blurry and another day everything is crystal clear. Today you can hope and tomorrow you will fear! If you are open minded enough and you like to challenge yourself intellectually you will move from one opinion to another and that’s part of the game and don’t worry because the media will also guide you into that!
Some, the close minded, will never try to question their fundamentals.
In Israel some will never change their minds nor question their beliefs. This is a very sad part of the reality. What is even worse is that you might love those friends or family members: they will always tell you the same slogans, the same racist remarks worse calls for genocides.
You have those camps in every civilization, society and community. Even at my college as the President of the Jewish club I remember talking to a Palestinian friend of mine who was open minded and we just enjoyed watching the reactions of the close minded. I remember also on the same note how Muslim friends of mine came to celebrate Chanuka with me and how some close minded tried to dissuade them from doing so...
My feeling is that what will drive you here are feelings. It is not surprising to read commentators who will start speaking of the Near East as one of the most emotional conflict in the world. Hence, current affairs here are a very personal matter and depend on many things including your personality.
What do you do from here? You sometimes feel numb facing intolerance. I remember once being revolted when a juice store owner tried to compete against his Arab competitor by telling American Jews “look at his face don’t buy from him!” I reacted and that was 5 months ago but today I know that that I would be disgusted like many people but I might continue on numbness and in a way tolerate intolerance.
Why do I say that? Certainly the truth is that sometimes you can’t fight stupidity. Like in every society we have those in the open minded camp and those in the close minded camp. We should hope for the future of the region that the open minded camps of every nation or community will be ready to ask and face tough decisions. More important: we should hope that we will not accidentaly surf on the stream of the close minded camp!
Streams
“See what happened I told you…”: you would hear that often... Indeed, many people come to Israel with a clear idea of how things should be done. Some sit in the United States or in Sweden and waste their time on newspaper websites launching their simplistic propaganda. As I read online newspapers everyday I also accidentally read the ridiculous comments of those ones.
Some have a dogmatic answer that fits the frame to everything that happens here. There are those who are Jewish or not and live abroad and will explain what Israel should do.
But when you live in Israel there is almost never one stream of thinking. You everyday in seceret question yourself on your beliefs, suddenly all seems blurry and another day everything is crystal clear. Today you can hope and tomorrow you will fear! If you are open minded enough and you like to challenge yourself intellectually you will move from one opinion to another and that’s part of the game and don’t worry because the media will also guide you into that!
Some, the close minded, will never try to question their fundamentals.
In Israel some will never change their minds nor question their beliefs. This is a very sad part of the reality. What is even worse is that you might love those friends or family members: they will always tell you the same slogans, the same racist remarks worse calls for genocides.
You have those camps in every civilization, society and community. Even at my college as the President of the Jewish club I remember talking to a Palestinian friend of mine who was open minded and we just enjoyed watching the reactions of the close minded. I remember also on the same note how Muslim friends of mine came to celebrate Chanuka with me and how some close minded tried to dissuade them from doing so...
My feeling is that what will drive you here are feelings. It is not surprising to read commentators who will start speaking of the Near East as one of the most emotional conflict in the world. Hence, current affairs here are a very personal matter and depend on many things including your personality.
What do you do from here? You sometimes feel numb facing intolerance. I remember once being revolted when a juice store owner tried to compete against his Arab competitor by telling American Jews “look at his face don’t buy from him!” I reacted and that was 5 months ago but today I know that that I would be disgusted like many people but I might continue on numbness and in a way tolerate intolerance.
Why do I say that? Certainly the truth is that sometimes you can’t fight stupidity. Like in every society we have those in the open minded camp and those in the close minded camp. We should hope for the future of the region that the open minded camps of every nation or community will be ready to ask and face tough decisions. More important: we should hope that we will not accidentaly surf on the stream of the close minded camp!
Comments
Sylvie/Raphael
Sylvie/Raphael
This is Daniel Easterman, from the IGF graduating class of February 2008, its been quite a long time so I hope you remember me!
I have seen some of your photos on facebook and it looks like you are having a great time and some great experiences.
Its amazing that some of the thoughts you described in this blog were very similar to how I also felt while in Israel. Like you I kept changing my mind, some days seeing things clearly and thinking that I had the answer, and then other days feeling confusion and sometimes numbness.
I think that by clarifying the complexity and diversity of different political views between "the open-minded" and "closed-minded" camps is an excellent way to describe the political situation in Israel, Palestine, the Middle East and indeed anywhere in the rest of the world where there are serious conflicts between peoples of different identities.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the right place, the moral place and ultimately the most just place to be is with those who are open-minded and willing to be open to finding solutions to bridge the enormous gaps which exist between the Jewish people and the people of Palestine. Others will certainly call us naïve, but then didn’t the doubters also call naive every other movement which achieved much-need, just and importantly lasting change? In my opinion we should draw inspiration and hope from the great movements for change in history. This should be a source of strength for us, when the set-backs which occur in our lives cause us to doubt ourselves.
I will be returning to Israel around the end of July, beginning of August, will your group still be around then?